Community Supported Agriculture

Lately CSA has been coming up in conversation; you know, where you buy in for a share and every week for a set number of weeks get a bunch of produce, whether you'll eat it or not.

I know a few people who are doing this and there's a huge variety of options out there; some farms have vegetables only, others have fruit and veg. Still others have flowers, honey, meat, eggs or cheese available. Sometimes it's included as part of the farm share, in other cases it's a separate option.

In any case, most of these farms (at least the ones whose information I reviewed) are organic. I'm not so worried about that but think this is a worthwhile idea. There are so many different farms in my area that I'm a bit concerned with being able to make a decision. Some farms have more than one volume available and most seem to suggest the number of people that can be fed on their share.

Because of the variety, the trick seems to be willing to eat anything. For this to be a viable option for me, I first must have one or two others with whom to split the share, then find a share providing food we're all willing to eat. I'm not so excited about that idea, but it would provide an incentive to learn new recipes, in order to use the food.

One vegetable I've only encountered on a few occasions is Eggplant. When I visited a "fast food" place in Eastern Europe that was incredibly slow, they had a terrible time understanding that I wanted my burger without the sauce, which was spicy and was made in part of eggplant. I don't know what else was in it, but I didn't want any part of it. My next encounter was much better; grilled eggplant slices served chilled with vinaigrette. I'm sure there are plenty of other options out there.


I don't know if I'll end up with a farm share next year or not. Too many choices right now.

Snacks

Last year I worked on a project with this guy who would come up, sign in to his computer and immediately go out for coffee and a muffin or doughnut. He bought lunch every day and would go out for more coffee and a snack later. We did the math one day and figured he was spending at least $20/per day! Just on lunch and snacks. Granted, he took the bus so didn't have the big parking payments, but still!

That was a firm with a wonderful environment. On our first day, we were given a tour of the firm and they provided internal maps so we knew where people sat! They provided coffee, tea, cocoa and lemonade/iced tea packets. I understand that people have preferences for coffee, but in a place that provides good coffee? Not the place to go out.

Generally I'm trying to eat better and made a huge pasta salad this week; I cheat and just use Italian salad dressing to mix with my veggies and pasta. I also have a sandwich and some fruit.

I try to keep snacks with me so I don't go to the vending machines. They're on all the floors here so it's easy. And they just got new ones so have a whole different mix of sodas, which I don't drink anyway; however, they have this new siamese-twin machine with juice, water and iced tea products on one side and snacks on the other. A whole machine full of beverages but the iced tea is diet. My preferred snacks are gone, so less temptation there for me!

I brought almonds and dried cherries in a bid to have something healthier for me. And try to bring a lot of fruit. Which doesn't always rule out the vending machines. Sometimes you've got to be bad.