Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Box Full of Vegetables: CSA Week 1!

I signed up for a CSA, which is a concept that seems to be a lot better recognized in Montana than in Texas. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The idea is that you buy in to a local or regional farm, and then you share in both the risk and rewards. The reward is generally food grown close to home: in-season vegetables and herbs that change each week based on what is growing well. Is there is a flood or a drought, you might get less or nothing at all (although I hear this is pretty uncommon to most CSAs). But the reward in the risk is that you may make it possible, through your finanacial support "rain or shine" for a local farm to push through a rough time then can pick back up again.

I love knowing where my food comes from, and I love when it does not have to travel hundreds (or thousands) of miles to get to me. Since I can't grow everything myself, a CSA is the best way for me.

I got the smallest share and I am signed up to get a box weekly from JBG Organic (https://www.jbgorganic.com/). I picked up the box at the Whole Foods near my house. Everything is organic and super fresh.

My week one share consisted of:

- 3 heads of red leaf lettuce
- 1 bunch of green onions
- 15-ish radishes (I think there were 15... I started eating them before I counted)
- 6 beautiful carrots
- 1 bunch chard
- 5-ish cups broccoli? They weren't whole heads so I'm not sure how much there was.
- 1 bunch of spinach