My CSA is extra special because it’s the only one in the city that delivers. Every week Blitzkrieg turns inside out with excitement when our delivery comes to the door. Here his is with our first delivery. Being such a good dog, he excitedly sniffed around the crate but didn’t attempt to help himself to a few samples. Blitzkrieg was rewarded handsomely for his good behavior.
It’s like Christmas every week!
It’s the laziest way to eat seasonally and buy fresh vegetables. I always have the best of intentions of buying all of our summer produce from the farm market but summer activities and life usually gets in the way. I end up buying it at the regular grocery store.
Does buying a CSA share save me money on fresh fruits and vegetables? Well, no. It’s a luxury, especially with my CSA because I pay extra the delivery service.
Look at all of this gorgeous farm fresh produce!
I like that our CSA share is making us eat outside of our comfort zone. We tried kohlrabi for the first time and loved it raw, dipped in hummus, and stir fried. I made kale chips, borscht, and Tadzhik sauce for the first time too. I developed a great orange summer squash bread to deal with the summer squash. Husband successfully prepared okra that was not breaded or fried or slimy mush like we find in frozen okra. I made my first batch refrigerator pickles with the cucumbers and banana peppers.
We still swimming in banana peppers. If you have any ideas for them, I'm open to any and all suggestions!
We have not had any food waste, which was a concern. To make sure that doesn’t happen, I freeze the previous week’s delivery if we haven’t eaten it or have plans for it when our new delivery arrives. I hope that this will even the cost out a bit since I’m stretching our summer vegetable delivery past summer
Another benefit is that it’s cut down on the number of grocery shopping trips I do each month. We do a smallish grocery store trip once a month for staple items with milk runs in between. This is a nice time saver because you never know what fun activity is going to come up on grocery shopping day.
The biggest benefit is how it reduced my household trash and recycling. I saved up all of my plastic trash for a week and only had four items!
A fruit sticker, cheese wrapper, and bottle of Tahiti.
My Plastic Free Life would be proud!
Will we keep our CSA next year? I don’t know. It is a lot of food for two vegetable loving people. But it forces to eat seasonally, and try new things which we both like. Fortunately, we have a whole year to decide if we want to give it go again next summer.
What about you? Have you ever bought a CSA share? What was your experience?
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Thanks for the profile of your CSA! I love CSAs for all the reasons you mention.
ReplyDeleteYou could look for a CSA with smaller shares next year and get a different variety with a different farm too.
I canned one batch of banana pepper rings and would love to can more. Don't suppose you want to share across town?
I am very interested in CSA's but have not signed up for one because of the initial costs and lack of pick up locations near me- I mean why sign up if you burn a lot of gas just getting your produce... Seems to defeat the purpose!
ReplyDeleteLuckily Burien has a new store, Eat Local, That is the drop off for not one but two CSA farms. THe neat thing is I could ride my back there to pick up!
Yum, all those vegies look great. I love my garden and all the bounty from it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting me over at Pittypat Paperie and leaving a nice comment.
I might be completely oblivious, but I have no idea where to buy a CSA share. I would love to, especially since the farmer's markets are all at least 30 minutes drive away, and yet still in the same city.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your awesome bounty!
Check Local Harvest to find a CSA near you http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
ReplyDeleteRe: banana peppers! My friend always had a bountiful pepper harvest, and would slice her peppers, banana or otherwise, and dry them in the food dehydrator. Then she would keep them in a jar to add to things like chilis, soups, stews, or whatever! That jar always smelled SO good!
ReplyDeleteWe bought a CSA share this year and I loved it, not so much for what was in it (though you can't beat freshness!) but because it forced me to cook. I felt too guilty wasting it :).
ReplyDeleteI love how our CSA is forcing me to cook in new and different ways. I never realized how freaking easy tazaki sauce and refrigerator dill pickles were until now.
ReplyDeleteI made stuffed banana peppers to deal with the peppers. As a foodie I feel stupid that I didn't know you could stuff a banana pepper until now. And they are sweet when you bake them!
I've never heard of a CSA share before. I shop at our farmers market though. :) I'm going to check out that link you posted and see if there is one near me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Melissa
We are CSA rookies too this year. Love it for all the same reasons you suggested. We saved money by picking up our share, but mainly because I wanted to take the kids out to the farm so they could see where it is coming from. When I did the math, it only came out to $22 per week, which is what I would spend at the farm stand each week any way.
ReplyDeleteFor the banana peppers, we love to use them in stir fries and curries, right out of the freezer, all winter long. You could also continue to pickle them and give them as gifts with other homemade things from your CSA produce.
Never done this, but it does look like it'd be fun and delicious! Thanks for the insight, great post.
ReplyDeletegreat blog!! nice to see another green blogger :)
ReplyDelete