I joined a CSA!

Hey everyone!  I joined a CSA!  I’m really excited to share this adventure with you all. I have always wanted to try out a CSA, and this year I finally did.  What is a CSA?  Glad you asked!  It stands for Community Supporting Agriculture.

How a CSA works:

1. You purchase a share from a farmer.  Essential you pay the local farmer in advance for the food he/she will grow.
   1. Shares can usually be purchased as whole or half depending on how much produce you want to receive.
2. You pick up your produce weekly.  Whatever the farmer has that is ready to be harvested will be divided up among share members.

 (3.) It’s that simple! That’s why I joined a CSA!

Why I joined a CSA:

1. I try to eat local foods as much as I can.  The CSA is a cost effective way to get produce.
2. I like to try new foods, and the CSA is exposing me to foods grown locally that I have never had!
3. I love to garden, however, I am moving this summer!!  Very excited for the new place, but I won’t be growing very many of my own veggies this year.  The CSA is the perfect option if you don’t like to garden as well.

In my CSA share this week I received chard, asian mustard greens (frill), green cabbage, onion, and garlic.  As the season moves along I will share with you all the goodies that I get and how I will use them.  My CSA lasts through October.  As the season changes, so will the produce.  I have been receiving some things that I don’t cook with often, or have never cooked with!  It is fun for me to experiment in the kitchen with these ingredients and develop recipes to share!  It can also be problematic because you never know what you will get each week.  The planner in me is going crazy (and having fun!) trying to plan recipes with ingredients I’ve never used before, and trying to use up all the food before the next week comes around.  

Recipes for my CSA produce:

I plan on using my chard in this One pot pasta with chard and mushrooms from How Sweet Eats.

I have already used my green cabbage in my Black Bean Tacos with Garlic Cabbage Slaw recipe. Yum!

The mustard frill was the hardest ingredient for me to find a way to use.  The bitter flavor pairs well with sweet flavors, and I developed a rice bowl with a maple dressing that my family really enjoyed.  Check back on the blog for the recipe post, and to see more about how I use my CSA produce!