Thursday, June 03, 2010

anatomy of a csa share

Bounty from summer's first CSA pick-up


I picked up the season's first CSA share yesterday. This year, I decided on a half-share from a local organic farm, via Farm to City, a Philadelphia-based organization whose goal is to unite communities, families and farmers via locally grown food. This time, I received a huge crown of butter lettuce, broccoli, a pint of sugar snap peas, two fat bunches of scallions [my favorite!] collards and cauliflower. It's so much fun – getting a gorgeous package of lush vegetables each time, and knowing they are not laden with chemicals.

As you can see from the photo, CSA produce tends to be more vibrant and in my farm's case, tastier than most of the stuff you buy at the market. [I suspect our small farm's employees do some quality control before packing up the shares!] You can almost feel Mama Earth giving you a hug, thanking you for buying locally, for not polluting the earth, and for nurturing your body with good, living food.

I'll try to show you over some of my posts how I use up the contents of my CSA shares. I had grand plans for the sugar snaps, but I must confess, I've already eaten 3/4 of the pint of snap peas raw. They are so sweet, it's almost as if they've been dipped in agave nectar.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

apparently, agave nectar is just as processed as high fructose corn syrup.......... SUGAR snap peas!!

Eric said...

Ohh I'm a bit jealous of some of the goods in your CSA, those sugar snap peas sounds delish!

Babette said...

Your vegetables look fabulous! I also recently started to get vegetable baskets from my farmer, and I am enjoying every moment of it. I'm really looking forward to the garlic tops/scapes we are supposed to get next week.

Mihl said...

Yay for CSA! Those greens look wonderful. Can't wait to see what you do with them.

Tami said...

Such beautiful vegetables! Enjoy them!

dreaminitvegan said...

CSA's are wonderful! The last time I picked up snap peas from the farmers market, my mother-in-law ate them up that day. They were so good!

buffalodick said...

Another blogger I visit is doing this too, and she raves about the freshness..

Melisser said...

Oooh, yum yum yum!