It's called CSA--Community Supported Agriculture. You can find a summary of it on "my" farm's website, here.
I'm so pumped, because I'll be getting fresh veggies all summer. (Have I mentioned that?) You may remember that I tried out gardening for the first time last summer. I grew tomatoes, lavender, and various herbs. It was great! My basil plant grew more leaves than I ever could have used. However, I didn't get that many tomatoes, my lavender never actually bloomed (although the leaves smelled amazing), and everything died over the winter. Oh, how I tried to save my plants. But there just wasn't enough sunlight. Oh, yeah, and I had a baby and forgot to water them for like a month.... I finally gave up and just took them out onto the back porch last week. No amount of watering or repositioning in front of the windows was doing any good, and I was getting dried leaves all over my floor, so they were relegated to the back porch, where the threat of cold weather looms, even in April. Here is what they look like now (go on and laugh; it's okay):
Now, I am sure that I will still want to grow some things this summer, but I would like a little more variety and quality (and quantity!) than I am able to produce myself. I had heard about buying CSA shares before, but I had forgotten about them. A friend mentioned that she was going to do it, so I asked her for the info and found a farm that delivers right to Harvard Square once a week! You get whatever is in season, which I think is fun, because I am sure I'll get things I would never think to buy in the grocery store, along with some unusual varieties to try. I am sure that I'll be wishing for watermelon before it's ready or that one week I'll get way too much dill or something, but that's half the fun. Plus, I love that all the produce is local. There are a lot of small farms in the Boston area that do this. "My" farm's name is Stone Soup Farm. I guess it's named after the children's book. Do y'all remember that book?
Anyway, I'm enthusiastic about my CSA share. If you're interested in doing it yourself, you can find a farm near you at www.localharvest.org.
6 comments:
I wonder if the Schrute Family Farm is organic...I've heard they have fantastic beets.
Lauren and I actually stayed at their farmhouse B&B for our anniversary. It was quite... memorable, and they serve a delicious beet salad!
I've been thinking about getting a share from a CSA here in town. If that pot on the far left is your tomato, I can tell you what went wrong. Tomatoes need very large containers. Their roots like to spread & go deep. They also won't last through the fall. Once they've produced fruit, they're done. Unless someone's not telling me something, I've never known anyone to keep a tomato year round.
which room did y'all stay in, America, Irrigation, or Nighttime?
World Hunger Relief in Waco (the farm where I learned to chase & catch chickens, full time) has a great CSA... and the stuff they produced was AMAZING... I recommend the cookbook "Simply in Season" to help you think of things to cook when you get 3 pounds of kale. The cookbook is a means by which one can learn to cook seasonally... saving money... and eating the freshest, best produce that your region has to offer. :)
I need to check into somethign like this here. I was part of a coop for a while but I wasn't too impressed. Looks like a neat deal you got going . Enjoy! :)
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