Yesterday was Thursday. Just a regular day of the week for most people! For us Thursday for much of the year represents the day that we pick up or organic produce. This post is inside scoop on buying organic produce at the best price - if you are not growing your own. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and if you Google the term CSA, you will be able to find farmers in your community that you can support. This is the best way that I know of short of growing your own fruits and vegetables to save money on organic produce. Typically how it works is that you, the consumer, purchases either a full share, a small share, or an individual share of the farmers produce for the season. You pay XX dollars for this portion and then you get a share in the results that the farmer produces. We have a family of five and have a full share all year round. Our farm, Native Offerings, has different seasons that you can purchase: Winter, Summer, and Fruit.
You get different vegetables during the different seasons. In the winter we receive mostly root vegetables. In the summer we receive greens, lettuce, zucchini, leeks, scallions, peppers, cabbage, beans, carrots, herbs, spinach, tomatoes, etc. So each Thursday, we go about 2 miles from our house to a pick up point where our farmer drops off produce to be picked up. My children groan - and I do mean groan - on Thursdays. Not because they don't like the fresh produce, but because they don't like the produce prep that follows the pick up. And, yes I do make them help! I am trying to raise thoughtful children who are not waited on hand and foot so they help in the kitchen whether they like it or not.
This picture is the vegetable and fruit share for one week with Native Offerings. Pictured below are peaches, apples, plums, red peppers, scallions, green beans, spinach, carrots, and kale.
The Bounty: The fruit and vegetable share from our Native Offerings Coop
We have washed our organic produce many different ways over the last six or so years that we have had a share. We used to wash the greens and lettuce outside in tubs with a filter on the hose. That was expedient and we did that for a long time. Now we have been using a combination of large bowls filled with filtered water and the clean (operative word is CLEAN) kitchen sink filled with filtered water. Below spinach is pictured soaking in the sink.
Organic Spinach in the Sink for washing
If you wash any produce in your kitchen skin be sure to wipe it down with something so that the dirt does not go down your drain! You can see from the above picture that spinach will generate a good amount of dirt! This is the dirt on the first wash. We wash spinach two or three times - generally until you can feel that it is super clean with no grains of dirt or sand. The thing that can be a shock with organic produce is that you will find bugs, slugs and other living bugs in and on the produce. Below is a little minature lady bug that I found in the spinach. Actually two of these. When I first found a slug years ago I was repulsed. This is the thought process that we must alter. You want to be eating fruits and vegetables that are organic. Organic produce will often have little bugs and such because no pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals have been used! Bring on the bugs!
Yes, we took the two little bugs outside and gave them a new outdoor home!
One of the benefits of the cooperative share is that we get a variety of foods and even a variety of one plant species. Take kale for example. Pictured below is one variety of kale. But we have gotten purple kale and other kale species from our farmer. If the picture below does not fit your picture of kale - don't worry. You are not alone. Who knew that there were so many varieties of kale!!
One type of organic kale - there are many varieties of kale!!!
Our typical pattern for processing our share of produce is to determine what we will eat in the coming week. If we think we will not eat all of a particular food, say for example the greens, spinach or kale, then we will chop and freeze that vegetable. Below is kale chopped up in the food processor. The greens including spinach and kale will freeze well chopped up like this. They can then be used in veggie burgers, soups, stews, sprinkled on pizza, etc.
Fresh Organic Kale - chopped and ready for use or freezing!
We bag up chopped kale, spinach and greens for use during the winter or for when they are out of season!
Washed and chopped kale goes into the freezer for another day!
Is it all worth it? You bet you! Does it seem like a lot of work? In the beginning, it certainly seemed different and a bit overwhelming. If you are on a budget, this is the thing to consider for sure! Growing your own organic food is the ideal, but it is not an option for everyone because of space and other issues. The better quality food that you put into your body - the better it is for your overall health!! What do you love or dislike about your CSA coop? What aspects of this did I miss covering? Enjoy and eat in good health!
Love,
Lisa
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