One of my favorite things my wife and I have done in recent years is to join a
CSA. CSA stands for
Community Supported Agriculture and is basically a group of people who buy into a local farm, or in our case, a group of farms. Katie and I had wanted to join one for some time, but it wasn’t until we met
R.J. Caulder at the
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival that we had an opportunity. In addition to making all-natural,
hand-crafted soaps and
body products, R.J. and her family run the
Breezy Willow CSA and Katie and I have been members for a few years now. We commit to a subscription fee and every week we get to go to the farm and pick up a supply of fruits, vegetables, and occasionally dairy products. All of it is grown locally using organic and/or sustainable farming methods.
The season begins in May/June (depending on the weather) with asparagus, strawberries, and other early harvest vegetables and ends around late October with squash, apples, pears, etc. We get 24 weeks of locally grown produce filling our kitchen and it's awesome. It's basically a surprise each week when we go to the farm and an unexpected benefit is that it is forcing us to cook many things we may never have bought on our own. The first year we joined was my first time to have ever eaten beets, turnips, parsnips, and a few others that I can't remember.
Here's a picture of one week's pick-up. I don’t have a date on this photo, but I know it was a pick-up from late fall.
From left to right: fresh milled bread, tomatoes, beets, brussels sprouts, broccoli, pears, red apples, green apples,
Romanesco broccoli, carrots, turnips, and red cabbage. (the onions and butternut squash are left over from a previous week)
This is typical of the amount of food we get each week, and we're pretty good about using it all just in time for the next week's pick-up. The items change each week based on what’s being harvested at the time. I'm very excited that Tiffany and Donna have worked to bring this opportunity to our school community. I'm proud to support local, independent farmers and I love eating healthy foods grown in a responsible, natural way.
* Parts taken from an earlier blog post
