We are sharing a share of the Clemson Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) co-op this summer with our friends Kerri and Mark. Each Wednesday afternoon we pick up our allotment of farm produce at the "upside down barn" over at the school's farm. Kale has featured largely, but we have also gotten eggs, basil, bluberries, peaches, squash, potatoes, other kinds of lettuce and herbs, radishes, and sunflowers. It's not really enough to be worth what we paid, the share was $300 for the whole summer, so each of us paid $150. It is purported to provide vegetables for up to a family of four for a week, but that's a stretch... However, we are supporting the school's agriculture department and local organic farming, so it's also a good cause. It hasn't really replaced what we buy in produce at the grocery store each week (except for a portion of eggs), but it supplements it nicely.
I don't know if we'll do it again next year, it will depend on whether Kerri wants to do it again. We definitely wouldn't want the whole share ourselves... we can't eat that much kale!
Net Zero
1 day ago
3 comments:
Thanks for blogging about that, I was really curious about how it works. Over here, I think they must have similar schemes, but a bit more common are "veg box" schemes, which you can decide what kind of box you want weekly and add other stuff to your order.
We use the scheme Riverford Farm runs http://www.riverford.co.uk/ - it's based in Devon, and they avoid air freight so it's about buying organic and reducing food miles/carbon, rather than supporting an agricultural program. I think yours is a better "cause" - I'd rather have a scheme that was like that, but I don't think there are any near us. And they do sometimes fill out the boxes with produce from some other places, from Europe, mostly.
Actually the thing I like more than the whole organic thing (although I think we can actually taste the difference often) is that since we started getting the box regularly, I've been cooking more, and it is a good way of being "forced" to try new recipes or eat things that we like but haven't had in a while. Like when we had spinach in the box and it was a good opportunity to have the feta-mushroom-bean-spinach wraps that we like but always forget to make. And we tried kohl rabi for the first time. But we also have time for trying new things - I think I wouldn't do it if, say, we both worked full time, had a three year old and another one on the way!
Yea, I've slipped back into relying on box mixes (just add chicken!) and pizza...
I always forget that life is a constant process...
That's right - it's all about phases...
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