Farm share, week 1

[magid]

Yay! It's farm share time again! It was hard to stay at work, knowing veggies were on the way (made even more difficult because the people on my friends list who got shares in Parker Farm started last week, and their pickup is Tuesdays; I've been tantalized for too long!).

For the record, the share is from Red Fire Farm, out in Granby, MA (exit 6 off the Pike).

The loot not surprisingly focused on the green:

• a bunch of purple kale
  
• a head of lettuce (many kinds; I chose red leaf, and it's huge)
  
• a bunch of hakurei turnips with greens
  
• a pound of spinach
  
• a half pound of salad greens (I focused on arugula and mesclun; there was escarole and something else, too.)
  
• a bunch of scallions (lots of the thinnest ones I've seen in ages)
  
• a bunch of cilantro or a bunch of radishes (I don't eat cilantro, and the radishes were gone by the time I showed up, so one of the distribution ladies told me to take some extra spinach instead)

Had I a fruit share this year, there were sugar snap peas and strawberries. I think I can get strawberries as part of my regular share if I go out to the farm. *ponder*
As a comparison, 2006's first week, and 2005's (my other years with this farm).

For the record, I volunteered for a One Local Summer challenge (through Pocket Farm) of having one meal per week wholly local. It's not trivial; though I get lots of veggies, and fruits aren't hard to come by, proteins are more of a challenge for the kosher consumer. I can get tofu, and eggs, but cheese and meat are trickier. None of that lovely farmer's market stuff for me, alas. I'm hoping to find a reliable source of local fish (Does Haymarket offer fish? Any other suggestions?), at least. And then there's the question of things like grains: is bread I make using King Arthur flour sufficiently local? What about other things that are made locally but probably have non-local ingredients? (Taza Chocolate comes to mind.) I'm not sure how strict I'll be about this, given the limited amount of time I'm willing to devote to further research.

And the ever-faithful Boston organics box, this time a small box, one third fruit.

• a big bunch of broccoli
  
• a head of cauliflower
  
• five smallish summer squashes
  
• three largish Yukon Gold potatoes
  
• a bag (half a pound?) of Crimini mushrooms (I win!)
  
• three large Roma tomatoes
  
• three limes
  
• three small red plums
  
• three nectarines
  
• two peaches
  
• two Valencia Oranges
  
• six mandarins

They've started having local things on the list, but I nixed greens from them, knowing I'd be getting a lot from the farm.

Comments

Somerville

[theora.livejournal.com]

We had collard greens instead of kale, and no cilantro option (I would've gone for the radishes anyway). And one of the salad greens was tatsoi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatsoi), I think.

Re: Somerville

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I much prefer collards to most kinds of kale (except lacinato, which is my favorite). I didn't see any tatsoi; I totally would've grabbed some of it.

How was your pickup? Cambridge was totally mobbed; I think there has to be a better setup than the one they chose this week, for better people flow. Though perhaps having all those inefficiencies is sort of in their plan to have their CSA people interact more ;-).

Re: Somerville

[theora.livejournal.com]

I went early, around 3pm. It wasn't mobbed, but there was a steady flow of people. It was a bit hard to get at the greens to bag them, and with only one scale, there was some competition. I assume you went later in the afternoon? I wonder if they'd do better to be around from, say, 4-8pm, since that would give more space after normal working hours.


I need a farm icon.

Re: Somerville

[magid.livejournal.com]

I was there closer to 5:30, prime after-work time. I'm thinking next week I'll try to get there half an hour earlier, for comparison purposes. There were two scales, though there was still a lot of waiting, even so.

4-8 would be great, but I suspect they've got other factors to consider as well.

icon

[magid.livejournal.com]

Picture of a share, maybe, once it's not exclusively green? Or photo of a laden tomato plant? Tractor in the field?

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

yum!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Not nearly as many greens as you...

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Haymarket fish is mostly local; the vendors usually hit the Fish Pier early in the AM, then head for Haymarket. (A place I had a summer job one year used to have a booth at Haymarket as a side business, since they had a buyer at the Fish Pier every day anyway for the restaurant).

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I still have never made it to Haymarket, so this will provide extra impetus, perhaps next Friday. (Saturdays = Shabbat => not so much with the buying stuff)