Eat All the Veg! About CSA...

I'm pretty gung-ho about the CSA thing, since last year was such a big success for my family. It's getting to be the end of the sign-up period in a lot of places, since most start in May, so if you're on the fence about getting a CSA share, read on.

Why am I writing this on a Friday when Shabbos is pretty much unmade? I'm a masochist, clearly. Rega, must run and put pita dough in the bread machine.

For the untutored, getting a CSA share means that you pay a farm a chunk of money to give you a box of food every week. Depending on the place, the amount and variety of fruit and veg can vary, as can the price and whether or not the contents are organic.

Mine comes from Alstede Farms in Chester, NJ, and it's pretty fabulous. They started a payment plan this year so I wouldn't have to pay the whole price up front, and I got an early bird special for signing up in December too. You can see last year's weekly share lists online, which gives you an idea of what to expect over the course of the season. It goes from May to November, which means for half of the year, my Shabbos menus are half-planned for me.


What really sweetens the deal is that Alstede Farms has pick-your-own, a petting zoo, a corn maze, and several other fun activities for kids in addition to the farm store. CSA members get passes to these, which means free entertainment all season long for the little dudes in your life. QE LOVES the pony rides! We also got a jar of raw local honey one week, several pots of fresh herbs, and the occasional jug of fresh apple cider. Boo yah.

Not every CSA is this thorough: my grandmother gets only vegetables in hers, but has the option of buying winter shares of frozen veg. If you're interested in a program that doesn't have this much info online, go ahead and bombard them with questions over the phone. They should be able to tell you about how much stuff you get, and what they plant over the course of the season.

Yes, most CSAs send you All The Leafy Greens with a side of asparagus for the first month or so. That's how things grow in the US. But once the weather warms up, most of my shares consisted of items like zucchini, tomatoes, and peaches, none of which need to be checked for bugs (and hokey smokes were they delicious). I've spoken to other people who get the Alstede Farms CSA, and we all agreed that upon checking, the bug problem was actually less terrifying than we expected: things were more likely to have a lot of dirt on them than insects. Yes, stuff was sometimes infested, but most was not. Our stuff wasn't all organic (some is "sustainably grown" instead) which probably helped.

I'll post separately about ways to deal with the bug problem: gotta talk to my rabbi first. But don't let it scare you off before you've spoken with someone about how big a proportion over your overall share consists of problematic stuff. Here's why:

1. We ate WAY more vegetables overall, because we had already paid and they were already in the house. Bal tashchis!
   
2. We tried so many new things. QE is weird in that she doesn't like normal foods like peaches, but will happily snarf beet chips and kale chips and pretty much anything in chip form.
   
3. My cooking repertoire expanded with a lot of fun new recipes, some of which became staples in our house.
   
4. Like I said before, Shabbos was half-planned for me, based on what we received each week. The first time I had to go buy all of our week's produce in the supermarket was a huge let-down.
   
5. I got totally Ma Ingalls and preserved things (in the freezer). It was like a gift that kept on giving - and saved me money in the winter when I was able to pull out a container of frozen squash puree for soup or kugel instead of buying one.
   
6. By buying local, we reduced our carbon footprint and got fresher, healthier stuff. My husband didn't have a lot of experience with farm fresh produce until now, and he was rather surprised to see how big of a difference there was in taste and quality for many/most items.
   

Be forewarned, I probably won't shut up about this til next November.