Food communities – Know Your Farmer

I mentioned food communities in a previous post; if you know your grocer, maybe you'll get better groceries, or at the very least you'll have a better time doing your shopping. I'd like to suggest taking it a step further: know your farmer. Now there are a number of ways to do this. One is to go to the farmers market and chat up the folks at the various booths. You can meet some interesting people this way, and if you ask the right questions you can learn a lot about what grows well around here, what's especially tasty at a given time of year, and what it's like to farm for the local community.

Another way to get to know your farmer is to participate in a CSA. For those of you unfamiliar with the acronym, “CSA” stands for “community-supported agriculture”, and it's basically another name for a subscription farm share. I'm just finishing up my second season of participating in a farm share. I've shared a large family-size share with my close friend/neighbor and her husband. This was something I had intended to do for some time, and once I did it, it completely exceeded my expectations. I can honestly say it has completely transformed the way that I cook.

It took me a while to bite the bullet and join a CSA because I was daunted by the price. Most farms require paying up front for all or a significant portion of the season. That means writing a check for several hundred dollars, a bit much to ask for someone on a tight budget. But then I sat down and did the math. The big check was intimidating, but if I calculated the cost per week for a bag full of produce, it turns out I would be getting a great deal. As long as I cooked everything that I got, rather than letting things shrivel up in the crisper drawer, the farm share would be an incredible bargain. That means that a farm share only makes sense if you cook regularly...and it also helps motivate you to cook regularly to avoid wasting the tasty veggies that will soon be joined with another bag of tasty veggies next week.

These are the contents of my latest share (minus the butternut squash that I
roasted and devoured last night): beets, potatoes, squash, leeks, celeriac,
spinach, rapini, and mizuna greens.  Grown a few miles away, the greens all
picked a few hours before I picked them up.  Doesn't get much better than this.

There are three main things that I love about my farm share. One is getting to know the person who grows my veggies. The farm we belong to, Big Leaf Farm, is run by farmer Chris with the part-time help of his wife. Chris is an incredibly smart, thoughtful, and hard-working farmer. He's still pretty new to this CSA gig, but he seems to have a natural talent for it, and really cares about growing fantastic food for the dozens of families that have shares. He writes a great newsletter every week with updates on what's happening on the farm, recipes for what's in the share, and his thoughts on food politics and other issues pertinent to growing veggies.

The second thing I love about my CSA is that it has completely changed my process of deciding what to cook (and eat) each day. Instead of planning a menu for the week or a meal for the evening based on what I might be in the mood for (or what comes to mind as I rack my brain for ideas), I plan my meals based on what fresh veggies I received in my weekly share. And I use the term 'plan' loosely. This usually involves me standing with the fridge open, scanning the collection of roots, leaves, stems, and fruits that crowd the lower shelves. Then I pull a few out that seem like they might go well together and build a meal around them. This is the sort of thing that gets easier with practice, and it also works better if you can be open-minded about flavors and atypical combinations. Occasionally a meal might turn out a little unorthodox, but sometimes there are pleasant surprises to be found. You'll learn pretty quickly what flavor combinations you like. As you get some practice at this process, you'll also learn what other items to keep handy in your pantry and fridge for adding to your veggies. This will depend on what you and your family enjoy eating, but if you'd like some ideas, I'll discuss a few of my staples and how I use them in my next post.

The third thing that I love about my CSA is that the food is simply delicious. Really, I knew that the tomatoes would be head and shoulders above supermarket pseudo-tomatoes, but the carrots? I had no idea they could be this sweet flavorful. And don't get me started on the leeks, beets, squash, and kale. I could go on and on (and certainly will in the future). Oh, man, is it dinner time yet?

Do any of you have experience with a CSA? How have you liked it? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

And this is the time of year when farms are accepting new subscriptions; find one in your neck of the woods here.