Sippel CSA report 5/30/09

Todd and I decided to do a CSA this year and actually got signed up for one. We talked about it last year but just never got around to it. For anyone who might not know, a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is where you basically buy a small share of a farm. You pay up front and then get veggies every week during the growing season. You theoretically are also assuming some of the risk that the farmers bear but can also reap the rewards. www.localharvest.org is a great web site to read more about them and find one near you.

I decided to start showing off our weekly haul on here. I know when we were trying to decide whether or not to do one, we really wanted to know more about what we'd actually get.

We decided to go with the Sippel Family Farm for our CSA. So far, I love it!

Week one was 5/23/09, and I didn't take a picture. They said it was a light week since it was the very beginning of the season. We got:
1 giant head of lettuce (I mean GIANT)
1 bag of spinach leaves
1 bag of mixed salad greens
1 large bunch of mint

This fit fully into a grocery sack. I used some of the lettuce to make a giant Greek salad for a BBQ on Monday and then the rest for another Greek salad for Todd and I later that week (plus some for lunch for me). We got 2 dinner salads out of the mixed greens and 3 big spinach salads out of the spinach. I haven't done anything with the mint yet but I plan to try to freeze it so we can have mojitos sometime. :)

One thing I noticed that was great was how long everything stayed fresh. We didn't have the spinach until Thursday night, and I know that the spinach I normally buy goes bad in that amount of time. I imagine this must have something to do with how ridiculously fresh the food was and also how much time "normal" produce must waste in the processing and trucking to get it to us.

So, week 2, 5/30/09. We got:
1 head of bibb lettuce (not quite as big as last week's lettuce but still big)
1 bag of mixed salad greens (even bigger)
1 bunch of kale
1 bunch of radishes
1 bunch of green onions

I love that this week is pretty different from last week! I've never cooked kale or really done anything with radishes, so this week should be fun. Here's a picture of our haul:



While I was at the Clintonville Farmers Market, I also picked up some ridiculously fresh strawberries. You have to go really early to get the berries, as they sell out quickly. I was so excited to be there on time (thanks to getting up early to start my run early) that I bought 3 things of berries from 2 different farms. They're so good it's amazing. They're so ripe that there is no white part near the stem. Just stem and then juicy redness. I dropped one onto the counter from about 4 inches up and it splattered a bit. That's how juicy they are. Needless to say, they're already almost gone. PS, if you've never had homegrown fresh berries, you should really try them. They're so different from the kind you buy in the stores. In some ways, they're less sweet than the best grocery store ones, but they have so much flavor.



Ok, that seems like enough rambling about food! I coordinated a wedding yesterday so I need to get caught up on normal household things today. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day in Columbus today!