Monday, July 30, 2012

Crop Share Saturdays

One cool thing Jim and I have been doing since we have moved to Portsmouth is join a crop share program with a local farm. It's called CSA - community supported agriculture, and there are lots of benefits for the farmer and for us, the consumer. Most CSAs are yearly, but since we moved in the middle of the season, we found a month-by-month plan to do for now.

Here's how it works: we pay monthly for a "share" and once a week, we go to the farmer's market and pick up a box of fresh, locally grown produce. It's fun to see what kinds of fruits and veggies we get, and come up with ways to cook and eat the things we may not be super familiar with. Most offer a "full share" or "half share" program, to meet the needs of different families. Jim and I are big fruit & veggie eaters, so we go with the full share, but I think it's usually recommended for families of 4+.

Our share this week, yum!
Even though I love to cook, I found myself getting the same veggies at the grocery store a lot of times, because I knew easy ways to incorporate them into recipes and dinners, but that starts to get pretty boring. Having all this produce also opens lots of opportunities to make homemade things that I would usually just buy at the store. For example, Jim doesn't like tomoatoes, and I only eat them with a few things. When we got 6 tomatoes in our box, I thought we'd never eat that many in a week. Now I've learned how to make my own tomato sauce for pasta & pizzas and have made fresh salsa (using all fresh veggies from our share!) that we both can enjoy. Because most CSAs are yearly, the farmer can count on having enough money from sales to plant, fertilize, etc. the crops for the season. It's a win-win for everyone! We now always have a stocked produce drawer and fruit bowl, so it's easy to eat healthy!

Just as an example, here is what we got in our box this week:

peaches
yellow squash
zucchini
green peppers
jalapeno peppers
some mystery yellow hot peppers (I don't know what kind they are, but they are good in the salsa!)
a canteloupe
tomatoes
cherries
red potatoes


See how many fun possibilities! If you're interested in finding a CSA in your area, here is the website we used:
Local Harvest CSA

I definitely recommend it!

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