Week 1 of our CSA!

Eating locally this summer is going to be made much easier by our subscription to a local CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  This type of program has really been expanding over the past decade or so, all across the country.  As a member of a CSA you pay an upfront fee and every week you’re provided with a box of fresh produce!  CSAs come in all different shapes and sizes, so let me tell you a little more about ours.

We did some research and looked at a number of different local farms and talked with some of our friends who have done CSAs in the past.  We ended up selecting Willie Green’s Organic Farm in Monroe, WA, which is less than 30 miles from Bellevue, where both Pam and I live.  Not only is it super close by (at some point we’re going to go visit!), but they fill their CSA boxes with only local produce.  Some other CSAs like to supplement their local produce with things from elsewhere, like California, or even overseas, sometimes without really even telling their customers.  All of Willie Green’s produce is either grown on their farm or occasionally comes from one of their local partners, all of which are within Washington.  The produce is all grown organically and picked no earlier than the day before it is delivered, which minimizes the nutrients lost before consumption.

So, we decided to sign up for a small share, which we will receive every week all the way into October.  This will be fun because it’ll introduce us to all sorts of new things that we haven’t tried and force us to learn how to cook with them!  We’ll be receiving our first share this Friday, and we found out a couple days ago what’s going to be in it:

• Salad Mix ½ lb;
• Spinach ½ lb;
• Rapini 1 bunch;
• Carrots 1 bunch;
• Turnips 1 bunch;
• Baby Head Lettuce 4 each;
• Bok Choy 1 bunch

When I look at this, my first reaction was, “What the heck is rapini?”  Turns out it’s kind of like little broccoli heads with some leaves.  Cool.  Now just need to figure out what to do with it!  And the turnips too!  We’ll see what we can come up with!  For all of this we paid the equivalent of roughly $19.44 (we bought 16 weeks of boxes!!), and if we were to get this from one of their stands at a farmers market, we would pay $28.50!  Boo-yah!

Needless to say we’re very excited for this first installment, and we’ll keep you updated on what it looks like and what we end up making out of it!

 

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Friday, June 17, 2011 – UPDATE

I just picked up our first Willie Green’s CSA Box!!  Yay!!  Here’s what it looks like, lots of yummy greens:

I got it home and went through everything, excited to see just what all we had.  And I couldn’t resist, I had to make something real quick to put it to good use, so I made a salad using some of the salad mix as well as some spinach, topped with chopped carrots plus some green onions I still had.  Then I made a little vinaigrette with blackberry juice (from frozen blackberries that were picked last year at my parent’s house), a little bit of olive oil, and some fresh thyme.  It was delicious!  The first of many fun dishes to come this summer!

The Challenge: From Pam's Perspective

Totally excited for this challenge! When Mike suggested to me that this was something we should do this summer I jumped up and said immediately that I thought it was a great idea. Later on, I started thinking about what ‘eating local’ really meant. Every time I went to the grocery store I would analyze the food that I was buying, hoping that some of my favorite guilty pleasures were at least made in Washington. No such luck of course! This was going to be a tough one, but rewarding in so many ways.

Eating more fresh and local food is something that I have always thought about doing, but never pushed myself to try. Part of my interest in the idea began with my obsession with Top Chef and other food shows on television. In the recent past, these shows have become more and more focused on sustainable, local and in season products and produce to include in their meal preparation. Some of the challenges that they were presented with were based solely around those ideas. This got me thinking; I bet I could do that too!

I love to cook! Part of the joy of living on my own is getting to experiment with new and different foods that I was not introduced to during my childhood, or that my ridiculously limited pallet made me refuse to try. With a limited food budget, it made me really push the items that I bought to new levels, creating new dishes and flavors that I would not have created otherwise. Hearing names of products that I have never even tasted just increased my interest in broadening my food knowledge.
For me, the big fun part of this challenge will be the extreme expansion of my food knowledge and cooking skills. We will be receiving a box of vegetables every week and I will not only be able to taste and learn about the new produce, but also figure out how to incorporate it into my meals for the week. Sometimes, this will mean throwing a random mix of things into a skillet or a pot and seeing what results.
I feel the largest challenge will be baking. Using substitutions for things like sugar that are near impossible to find from Washington. I plan to learn all about how to use things like honey (which is very easily found at Farmers Markets all over Washington) in place of sweeteners and the local flour that I have been lucky enough to find. However, we will see what I can do with a lack of chocolate other than a few companies who produce it locally in candy bar form. Don’t worry though, I have found amazing local ice cream for a treat those hot summer days!

Local economy is important to me as well. I understand the need for us to support our local farms and businesses in order to be provided with the services and foods we have all grown to know and love in the future. As someone who has looked into growing my own personal business, I feel a pull toward being mindful of ‘keeping it in the family’ so to speak. What I have read about how far some of our food travels before it reaches us really makes me feel uneasy about what processes it has been through and where it really came from. To support small and local farms can only help toward a more sustainable future for us all, and I am glad to be a part of that for the summer.
Thankfully, I have a weak spot for spending the day wandering around the Farmers Markets enjoying not only the food, but the atmosphere of being out and about with local farmers and artisans. I plan to frequent the markets in my area many times a week to do my shopping and browsing, looking for what new produce has become available that week and what other local companies I can try products from.

One of the easier challenges to take on, because it isn’t really that much of a challenge, will be what to drink. Local beers and wines in Washington are easy to come by and something that I already enjoy supporting. Continuing to support local breweries and wineries will be my pleasure!

So, what will come of this for me? Well, in the week leading up to and start of this challenge, I have begun to figure out ways to use local products and home cooking to create some of my favorite foods and recipes. Some of these things I am already experimenting with are my beloved Sweet Potato Chips and the Cupcakes that I always make for events. I will be posting my findings about creating these favorites, along with my many other recipe findings, as we head forward through the summer.

Enjoy! I know we will!

Eat locally all summer? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! :-)