Farm share week 9

[magid]

Another very full box this week:

• a pint of cherry tomatoes
  
• an heirboom tomato
  
• two 'modern' tomatoes
  
• a bunch of red radishes with greens
  
• a bunch of cilantro
  
• a bunch of arugula
  
• a bunch of mizuna
  
• one pound of carrots
  
• a cucumber
  
• a small cantaloupe
  
• a head of green leaf lettuce
  
• a bunch of regular (green) Swiss chard
  
• two summer squash, one of them pattypan

(Yes, this all fit into one box.)
The pick-your-own this week is dill, flowers, and some varieties of basil (purple, Thai, cinnamon, and lemon).

I found myself slightly squicked at the supermarket afterward: Stonyfield Farm now lists insulin as an ingredient in all the yogurts I looked at. And that was before seeing all the strangely colored and flavored pistachios (garlic-lemon, etc.).

Comments

CSA

[magid.livejournal.com]

I bought a share (for the third year, I think) in a farm in Waltham, as part of a CSA (which stands for Community Supported Agriculture).

Basically, I pay up front (usually during a time of year that's more snowy than sunny) for a number of weeks of produce, come harvest time (locally, 20 weeks seems standard. I've heard tales of CSAs in CA that are year round...). They get the benefit of the money in advance, guaranteed. I get the benefit of locally grown organic produce, harvested the day I get it (though I don't know in advance exactly what I'll be getting). I pay a bit extra to have pickup be local, rather than at the farm.

In this case, the farm does the CSA to support their main goal, which is getting good produce to places like food pantries and soup kitchens.