Eight Great Things About CSA

1. Washing off the dirt.  There is something imminently satisfying about scrubbing the dirt from just-dug potatoes, and knowing that said dirt came from just up the road.
2. Knowing that someone can grow food. With a full-time job and a backyard roughly equivalent in square footage to a king-size bed, I can’t grow much.  A few hardy herbs in clay pots is usually all I can manage (my thyme, chives, mint and rosemary come back every year!).  Supporting someone with the gift of bringing forth bounty from the land may sound corny, but think about it: what if no one had that gift?
3. Supporting the local economy.  This is always a great thing about CSA, but it seems a little more meaningful in the midst of a recession.  Farmers, many of whom have nearly all of their assets invested in land and equipment, are at the mercy of not only the low-cost supermarket imports... they also have to worry about the weather.
4. The mystery.  I love the challenge of opening the box, then figuring out how to use all of those veggies to make great meals.  Sometimes, when there’s more than my family can eat in a week, learning how to freeze the produce is also an adventure. 
5. Eating with the seasons.  I have to admit: before CSA, I usually had no idea what was in season in Maryland.  The supermarket offers the same produce year-round, and even the organic food markets truck in imports from South America during the winter.  Of course I knew that berries are a summer food, but I learned that growing up.  How many adults really know where their food comes from, and when it is supposed to grow?
6. Rebelling against the agro-industrial complex.  OK, so alone as one CSA member, maybe I don’t make that big a difference.  But the popularity of CSA seems to be growing, and even the White House has an organic garden now.  While I alone can’t send a powerful message, together we are voting with our dollars for a more sustainable way of life.
7. The leap of faith.  We can barely predict the weather sometimes, much less control it.  CSA is something bigger than each of us.  And it’s a bit daunting—especially the first year—to pay hundreds of dollars up-front to a farmer you’ve met once, not knowing what to expect.  To me, it’s symbolic.  We’re all in this together.  If there’s a hailstorm, no one will have local Asian pears this year.  But that’s OK—we are moving back toward respecting the land that sustains us, and the limitations faced by those who tend it.
8. Taste.  There is no comparison between a potato fresh from the ground and a supermarket potato (which, remarkably, looks exactly the same as all of its perfectly symmetrical potato friends).  And berries picked fresh, at the peak of ripeness?  Heaven.  CSA makes it easier to cook simple food because the flavors are much more pronounced in fresh, local produce.  Anemic refrigerated (the horror!) tomatoes from the supermarket pale in comparison next to local heirloom tomatoes, which beg to be eaten raw, with just a hint of salt and maybe a bit of olive oil. 

All CSAers have our reasons, but I think we just might all agree on this:  CSA is how food should  taste.

In this week's CSA (#5 for Summer Creek Farm CSAers), we got new potatoes, baby carrots (they're so cute!), chard, snow peas and a fresh garlic bulb.  More soon on this week's veggies...

Comments

[Heather Lalley]

What a wonderful post! I love each of your points.

Thanks for joining "Cooking Away My CSA!"

Happy cooking,
Heather

[Laurie Ashton Farook]

I love your post! Excellent points, all of them.

I think the one that grabs me the most today is the whole reconnecting back to Mother Earth idea. You're right a lot of people in Westernized nations have no real idea where their food comes from or what it takes to grow it. Getting back in touch with that is important. It's grounding. Or something. :)

[Nanette]

I completely agree! I always say that although I try to be healthy in other ways, being in a CSA is by far the best thing I do for my health. I'm sure CSA members eat far more fruits and veggies that the average American.

Also, I like that it forces me to try to learn to love previously unloved veggies because I can't stand to throw anything out.

[April F.]

Thanks for the great feedback. Nanette, excellent points. I like the "previously unloved" veggies. Just tonight I made chard soup, which is not something I would have tried before CSA!