Sunday, October 23, 2016

CSA Closing Thoughts

I will be picking up my last csa box later this week. It's been quite a long time since my last post, and that summer busyness is precisely one of things I wanted to track through this series. I've *mostly* kept up with my box goodies, but I did lose nearly everything in a week's box back in July. Only a few items went into the weekend's potluck, so after the packed weekend I had most items still sitting in my fridge plus the leftover veggies from the weekend veggie tray. Then I got sick for most of the week, picked up my next box on Thursday, then left Friday morning for a camping trip. Hardly anything from that second box was used quickly, so those items joined what was still unspoiled from the previous week. Between the two weeks, I certainly did not make the best use of what I received.
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One of the troubles I have with a csa is in the very nature of the program. I've purchased a weekly assortment of produce, whether I want them that particular week or not. If my week turns south (illness or injury) or is overly crowded, or I simply need a particular number and type of produce that the box cannot provide, I've spent more on produce than I would have otherwise.
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If I were to purchase a csa again in the future, I would definitely consider buying again the particular program I'm enrolled in now. They gather items from several different farms, so each box has a far wider variety than I would receive in a program from a single farm. They have gone out of their way to provide a single unusual or less desirable item in each week's box, so there's not an overwhelming number of eggplant, or radishes, or arugula. The items which are generally more popular, the carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and salad greens, do appear much more often. I can see in my weekly box the effort they make to filling each week's allotment with mostly traditional, familiar, highly desirable items, with one or two unusual vegetables to broaden our horizons, and including a portion of fruit when the fruit is available.
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The selection hasn't been entirely perfect. We have received several jalapeno peppers, poblano peppers, many green and baby colored bell peppers and even less common havasu and cayenne peppers. We aren't a family that generally eats a lot of peppers....None of us seek out spicy food, so I have had to freeze salsa and chopped peppers to stretch the heat, giving us peppers for our winter eggs and meatloaves rather than a whole mouthful of spice. Each medium or hot pepper needs to be spread out over several meals or my kids will rebel against eating any of that meal. Nor did the peppers appear with enough tomatoes to balance them out so we had to buy more at the grocery store to make that salsa. We even gave away a few peppers, a couple spoiled before I found time to preserve them, and we have an entire year's worth or more now in our freezer. The peppers would not have been too much if we liked spicy Thai or Mexican food, but, well, we don't.
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I love that this program sends me an email a day or two before pick-up with a head's up on what is going to be in my box. This helps a TON in meal planning and identifying what else needs to be purchased to round things out for our dinners.
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How many people purchasing a csa are feeding 7 people? The program is, of course, designed to be used by one or two adults, so I need to buy more of certain items to make it a full dish. I'm glad not to receive more than one eggplant a week (two total) but we could eat the carrots of 10 boxes in one meal, so I still have to buy many more from the store to make a dish large enough to feed my whole family a full portion.
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We have received some very commonplace vegetables, even if not the same variety as we would find in the grocery store, which brings down the value somewhat for me. I just don't have the time to play to the specialty types of potatoes, or onions, So the garlic, for instance, has a tiny bit of value in that I know it's not grown in faraway China and potentially contaminated with whoknowswhat chemicals. But I can't really showcase the distinction in flavor of fresh garlic over dried. So that specialty garlic which probably sells in a farmer's market for $2/head, or (considerably?) more, isn't really improving our meal any more than the cheapo bulk package garlic that I normally buy.
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I learned how to use fresh herbs in a way that fits my cooking style (compound butter), so I will grow and make better use of more herbs in my garden next summer. I have really loved the availability of that butter to add flavor to steaks, pork chops, roasts, and chicken thighs.
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We discovered a couple vegetables that we enjoy enough to add to our garden next summer: bok choy and kale. My husband is hoping for a bumper crop of kale so I can make him lots more kale chips.
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We found some vegetables that we would buy and enjoy if they are on sale at the local grocery store, will seek out at farmer's markets next summer, and will consider growing in our garden in future years: fennel, kohlrabi, okra.
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I explored new ways of preparing vegetables we had not enjoyed in the past and was successful with the eggplant and the turnips (at least the Hakurei turnips). I did not find success with the radishes, the arugula, the carrot tops, or the cilantro.
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By enjoying produce as fresh as possible without actually growing all of it myself, I feel more inspired to try buying more of our groceries next summer at a farmer's market. Of course, I can say that easily enough in October; we'll see what actually happens next June when the local markets reopen. I noticed that one difficulty I faced with the weekly csa basket was its size relative to my family's appetite. We received one "sunspot squash" which is way too tiny to actually feed my family more than a couple bites apiece, so I need to hunt down at least four more similar squashes before I can use it. At a farmer's market I would be able to buy the quantities needed to feed the whole family. Then I would be able to buy, for example, just 3 peppers to a whole basket of tomatoes to make the salsa mild enough for my family's taste. I would be much more inclined to make a bunch of kale chips at once rather than a tiny portion of 4 leaves.
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At this point we are not planning to buy a csa again next year, yet I consider this year's to have been a worthwhile investment. We will add new vegetables and herbs to our garden next year, we will keep our eyes open for other vegetables to include in our diet more often, and I have more recipes I am confident in to make use of vegetables, purchased or grown, to serve to my family more regularly. My children have been exposed to new foods they had never tried before, will be very willing to try some of them again, and have even had their opinions changed on the eggplant they objected to in ratatouille but devoured in one meal when breaded and fried. While we won't be purchasing another csa in 2017, I did find enough benefit in the personal challenges to eat new vegetables that I might consider challenging myself in this way again in another 10 years or so.

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