The Jury is In

...on the old CSA.

Today is the first Monday since June 9 that we didn't stop by the garden that Jill built for our weekly box of vegetables.

OK. That's not entirely true. There was the Monday we went to New Hampshire and couldn't make the pick-up. And then there was the Monday that I had the Go-to Gals and the Paper Crafts team over for dinner (the night before our editorial board meeting) and Mark was out-of-town. Simply couldn't be helped.

But other than these two times, we've faithfully picked up our box o' veggies. Sometimes we even got a big ol' sack o' fruit.

And while I got a kick out of having carrots with tops:

...and I became engaged in an intense love affair with arugula; unearthed the mystery of mustard greens, turnip greens, and Swiss chard; learned how to cook and enjoy beets; and tasted the best potatoes I am likely to ever have; our thumbs are turned way down for CSAs.

The biggest issue for us? Quantity. We just couldn't get through the vast variety of vegetables they sent our way. And don't get me wrong. We love our veggies. We eat a lot of them. More than most families, I would guess. But not enough to eat nothing but veggies three meals a day. Because that's what it might have taken to get through them all before they went south.

On top of all that, our daughter, Nicole, brought over produce from her own garden to use. A friend at work did the same. It was a bounty with which it was difficult to reckon.

We got a real appreciation for eating in season, though. The root vegetables, in particular, seem to me better suited for late fall and winter. And yet, we were receiving them in mid-summer. I had a hard time bending my mind to the idea of eating a potato or a turnip in July. This may sound strange to you, but I don't eat many potatoes to begin with, and if I do, it's for Thanksgiving and maybe a Sunday dinner in January with a pot roast.

I could do without the turnips altogether.

In many ways, rather than reinforcing the idea of eating local and in season, the CSA emphasized how much my diet revolves around the fruits and vegetables I can purchase in my grocery store and how unwilling I am to change that. I enjoyed the fresh lettuce we received for about 6 weeks this past summer, but I wasn't and am not willing to take lettuce off the menu for the rest of the year. We were never offered bell peppers from the CSA, so in season or not, I bought them from the grocery store because they are a main staple in our diet.

Don't get me wrong, I do have limits on how far away the fruits or vegetables can travel to reach my plate, ever mindful of all the resources it takes to ship the things that nourish my body. I usually try to stick to no farther than California or the Pacific Northwest, occasionally Mexico. But I won't buy an orange that comes from Australia. I haven't bought a banana in a few months, and I haven't bought a fresh pineapple in over a year.

Another drawback? We didn't attend our local Farmer's Market because we were having difficulty keeping up with all the produce we received at the CSA. We missed the fun of seeing the vendors, taking in the crowds, and buying the delicious fruits, veggies, and homemade breads that we knew we would actually eat.

Which brings up another key point. I'm glad I tried new things like broccoli rabe, turnips, kohlrabi, and beets, but they aren't things that I would like to eat on a regular basis, let alone 6 weeks in a row. I guess I'd rather have a little more choice and flexibility. I'm used to it and I know it's available to me. These are very powerful forces in my world.

To be honest, I'm a little disappointed that it didn't work out better for us than it did. I love the idea of eating locally and in season. I wish that I could have adapted better than I did. But in spite of our best efforts, some of the produce went bad before we could get to it, and I felt forced to plan meals that I normally wouldn't have planned, and that jammed me up in ways that didn't make me happy.

I suppose I could have given more of the food away. But if I don't want to eat beets in the middle of the summer, I assumed that no one else would want to eat them then either. (With the exception of you, Jason. But then to get them to you there would be all that fossil fuel involved and that didn't seem sustainable, either.)

So, next year, we're thinking about putting in our own little garden and filling it with the vegetables that we love best. We'll supplement that with trips to our local Farmer's Market and will continue to by organic, local produce as much as we can from our grocery store.

We're still committed to buying local and in-season when we can. But we're realizing that we're modern folks who appreciate a good salad year-round. So, like I said, the jury is in. We're not suited for a CSA, and that's a good thing to know. We'll try another approach next year and evaluate the impact it has on our lives, trying to find the fit that's right for us.

And that's what becoming green is all about. It's a journey, one step leading to the next. Slowly but surely, we're getting there.

Comments

[Vanessa Menhorn]

Ha ha, I do understand so well! We started with a weekly delivery of a box full of organic vegetables from a local farm - one day I had about 4,5 lbs of carrots in my fridge, because the box always contained carrots in addition to vegetables I never heard of before or never would have bought... I had the same problem, some things went bad before I was able to use them. Now we started planting our own vegetables in the garden - but some things just don`t work so well! The tomatoes got ill just when they started turning red - but we had a lot of zucchini. TONS of zucchini. About 3-4 zucchini a day!! Although we are vegetarians and we do eat a lot of vegetables, eating zucchini all day long is not funny. There`s still a lot to learn. I`ll definitely try pumpkins next year!

[Nicole]

Mom, if you want some help in your garden, I have learned a few ticks I can share! My garden was EXTREMELY successful, as you know, and the way we set it up it wasn't even that difficult to maintain. (It's all about your expectations, right?) I'd be happy to help. Maybe you could come to the Wasatch Community Gardens plant sale with me. I owe most of my success to them and their beautiful heirloom veggie-starts!

For Vanessa - pumpkins are really fun and I highly recommend them. I'm sure you know this already, but you need plenty of space. I am thinking of digging up a new part of the yard only for pumpkins. They took over everything! And make sure you have lots and lots of pollinators in the area you plant them - we had many flowers, but only 3 grew to maturity.

[Andree']

Could you do a half share at the CSA? We belong to a co-op and run into that problem every once in a while too, but I usually try to chop everything up and freeze it before it goes bad for use in winter soups, etc. Joe teases me because I'm always saying we'll just freeze it!
We also have the same problem with the farmers market. Between a garden and the Co-op there isn't much more needed. Except maybe some cheese and bread or just a fun stroll!
Take Nicole up on her offer to help garden, she knows her stuff!

[Becky Olsen]

I am so grateful that you shared your experience with this. I was intrigued and tempted to do something similar when you talked about it this spring, but couldn't afford it at the time so didn't. We always have a garden with herbs, one zucchini plant, peas, green beans, peppers and cukes. Those are our staples, learned from many years of experience. We just want more variety. But not as much as what you experienced, LOL!
And salad is an everyday for us as well, so it sounds like the super and farmer's markets are a good way to go.

B-

[KNelson]

useful insights!