WEG and I joined a CSA program this year- Gruber Farms CSA, to be exact. For those of you who do not know what CSA stands for, it is Community Supported Agriculture. There are several programs like this in our area. It works a little something like this. A farm grows a variety of fruits and vegetables throughout the year. People sign up for a share of these products. For instance, we signed up for the "small share" which is perfect for 2 people. We receive a box each week from April through July and the total cost is $250. The farm drops off the boxes at the YMCA and, since WEG works out there, it's easy for him to pick it up.
This was the first week we received the box, and inside we found collard greens, mustard greens, broccoli, green onions, sugar peas, beets, and strawberries.
So far we have sauteed the mustard greens on Monday night, cooked the collards in the crockpot for Tuesday night, made strawberry milkshakes with half the strawberries, and are having the sugar peas tonight and the broccoli tomorrow night. We did give away the beets because neither of us likes those and I'm currently looking for something to make with the green onions.
It's been really nice to have fresh vegetables to eat this week without having to a) buy them at the grocery store and wonder if they're local or b) grow them ourselves. I'm looking forward to this for the next couple of months, and if all goes well, we will sign up again for August-November.
If you have a CSA farm in your area and love fresh fruits and vegetables without doing the work, check one out!
I've heard of these but never joined. Mainly because the ones over here in New Zealand cost more than if I just go to the local fruit + veggie market on my own. Are the boxes dropped off on a weekend? The ones that I've seen over here are mainly mid-week or start-of-week drop offs, which makes menu planning a bit tricky!
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