My first CSA experience

For those of you that don't know,as I didn't just last week, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It's where those that do not have a garden can buy organic fruit and vegetables, picked the same day, from a local farm on a weekly basis. In turn our local farmers get supported and a network of community members become more self sufficient. The vendor we are trying out, FA Farms, offers two ways to shop his garden. You can pay for the 20 week season and each week get a box of assorted foods that are available that week or you can buy farm bucks that you can spend on specific foods. Of course everything is dependent on mother nature and the various things that can go right or wrong when farming.

Even though FA Farms is about half way through their season and even though Garin has started a small garden of our own, we decided to sign up and see how it goes.....

• see if it ends up spoiling in the back of the fridge, or if we actually eat what we get

• see if we are stuck with things we don't know what to do with, or if we rise to the challenge of getting familiar with new foods

• see if we feel we are getting our moneys worth

Well, we went to the new Ferndale Farmers Market to meet Walter and Toni, our local farmers, and were able to pick up our first box of veggies. What you see in the picture is what was included minus some snap peas that were eaten on the way home and a bag of salad greens not shown in the picture. I feel we got way more organic produce than what the same $20 would have bought us at the grocery store. So far it's being consumed at a good pace although I did blanch and freeze the different varieties of string beans for later use. I'm also happy to say that putting out a little dip will get the kids to go crazy with whatever veggie they can use to consume it.

The way I see it this is a win win situation. I love knowing the food is pesticide free, fresh and that I'm able to meet the person who grew it. My next adventure is, once school starts up again, to ask how I can work to pay for some of my food in an effort to offset the cost of trying to eat healthier. I'll keep you posted.....