Community Supported Agriculture

The Box
(So excited, it felt like Christmas morning)

The beautiful produce
I already tasted the strawberries - they're delicious!

I am so excited about my first box of vegetables and fruit!! This month we signed up for a share of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). What does this mean? Each week, I get a box of fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits straight from the farmer. The box usually consists of 6-7 different types of vegetables and fruits and has 3-4 servings of each item. This week we received zucchini, squash, new potatoes, bulb onions, snap beans, lettuce and strawberries. What we'll receive in the box is totally dependent on what is in season. This is different from the supermarket mentality where everything is always in season, but is actually a very healthy way to eat.

Most people realize that I am not a fan of how food in the US gets from the farmer to the table. It's mass produced, they've (the powers that control the majority of the food in the grocery store) seriously limit the varieties of vegetables and fruits available, most food has traveled 1500 miles to get to you, and they use all sorts of bio-engineered/unnatural seed, pesticides, gases, etc. to ripen and grow the vegetable. I don't want to eat a science experiment. I want a naturally grown vegetable and fruit.

Plus, it'll give me opportunity to try different varieties of vegetables. There are so many varieties of vegetables that you never see in the grocery store. I can think of so many different types of squash that I have seen at the farmers market each summer. I'm so looking forward to cooking with different types of foods. It's going to be fun!

We made grilled veggies for dinner and had strawberries for dessert - mmm, good! :)