Community Supported Agriculture

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a relatively new socio-economic model of food production, sales, and distribution with the goal of increasing both the quality of food as well as the health of the land on which the food is grown while simultaneously reducing some of the potential financial risks for farmers.

As a shareholder, we pay for produce in advance of the growing season, providing the farm with the necessary capital to help cover the anticipated costs of farm operation and the farmer’s salary. In return, we get weekly shares in the farm’s bounty – fresh, local, organic produce! The farm that we became a shareholder in is Grindstone Farm located in Pulaski, NY.

We just purchased a 3 week share from the farm as a sort of test drive. This is part of the Spring Share and then we can decide if we want to do the Full Season Share which is 20 weeks for $565 or the Academic Share which is 8 weeks for $250. Most likely the Full Season Share is out of our price range, although I think we'd save money in the long run if we went with it. Right now with our diet having changed to mostly organic foods we spend between $80-$100 a week on groceries, most of that expense seems to come from produce. It seems wrong that eating healthier is more expensive--maybe that's what's wrong with our country!

We get to pick up our box of produce every Thursday at another shareholder's house, just up the street from us. We are excited to see what will be in our first box and what we can make with it! You don't really know what you're going to get in the box all we know is that we'll get "seasonally available vegetables and a few fruits." The variety and quantities of what's in the box depend largely on Mother Nature. The farm does have a website that let's you put preferences as to what fruits and veggies you like--we have a couple on our "Never Send" list--but really it just depends on what grows. You can also use the website to add extras to your box, such as eggs and meat.

We're really excited about this latest endeavor--I really think it will force us to eat more vegetables and ultimately, eat healthier.

Roast chicken

I would say that my free range roast chicken and veggies was a 90% success. The final 10% was my fault, not the chicken's. I followed a very easy Jamie Oliver roast chicken recipe, substituted an orange because I didn't have a lemon, rubbed the chicken with dried thyme instead of fresh, and popped it in the oven. While it cooked I made up some potato wedges with mozzarella and thyme, from potatoes we got at the market, and popped them in the oven at the half way mark for the chicken.

I also snapped some fresh peas, but decided not to cook them since I was cooking for one (Heather had to work that night). They were delicious a few days later.

Finally, it was time to eat. The chicken looked and smelled amazing, but alas...I overcooked it.

I'm typically not bad at cooking meat--my mom usually overcooks meat a little bit, but I'm pretty good at making sure it comes out right. This time, I relied too much on the cooking time listed in the recipe, rather than really looking at the chicken during the cooking process. I just have to be more diligent, I guess.

So overall, a pretty good meal, but I'll have to try it again and make sure I do it perfectly! At least the leftover chicken has kept us stocked in lunchmeat for the week, which is a blessing since organic lunch meat is fairly expensive and we only buy it once every two weeks.

Food Inc.

Part of the motivation for our new 'lifestyle' came about on a dreary afternoon at home. It was a typical Saturday afternoon, cuddled up on the couch with Netflix, and we stumbled upon Food Inc on instant play. I had been wanting to watch it since seeing the director of the documentary on the Today Show. We were both shocked and sickened by the food industry in this country--ashamed that with our purchases we've been supporting the continuance of such a system. I've never watched something that got me so motivated to make a change, but we knew that was exactly what we had to do.

We decided right away that we were going to work harder to shop locally and eat foods that consisted of wholesome, natural, organic ingredients. There was a stint in D.C. when we went all natural--but quickly realized it was going to be tough on our tight budget. We've realized now though that our health and what we put into our bodies is worth the extra cash--it also helps that our new city is a lot more affordable than D.C.!

We've created a system when it comes to buying our groceries; a trial and error process that we're still perfecting. Our immediate reaction in an effort to buy locally and organically was to rush on over to our local co-op. However, after dropping $86 on only a few days worth of food we realized this might not be a realistic option for us. The next grocery day we decided to check out the 'Nature's Market' at our local Wegman's. Many of the same products as the co-op, but in a big box store. I struggled with this one a bit, knowing that shopping at Wegman's we're not supporting 'the little guy', but on a tight budget it's what works for us right now.

Also this past Saturday we went with a couple of friends to check out the local farmer's market. It's not in full swing, given it's the off season, but there were still a lot of local vendors offering just what we were looking for. I became a bit of a skeptic, however, walking around the market. I couldn't help but question how organically (as in not using pesticides and other harmful chemicals) all of the produce was. A lot of the 'farmers' seemed to be taking imported vegetables and fruits and putting them into barrels to make it appear that they had grown it themselves--this practice was a bit disturbing to me. However, we managed to find a few true farmers who were selling a crop that was obviously from their own fields. I'm not exactly sure how organically grown everything was, but at least we know it was grown locally. The meat that we were able to find at the market was excellent and from a farm not too far from home--it was nice to be able to find a good variety of free range, grass-fed, organic meat.

So our current buying system consists of a trip to Wegman's Nature Market for the majority of our dry or frozen goods, a weekly trip to the farmer's market for fresh produce, meat, and eggs and a stop by the co-op for our milk and maybe a cup of soup :) A bit more driving than we'd like to do, but until we live in a community where we can walk to a fresh air market and get everything in one stop this is what we can do to ensure we're not supporting the horrific food industry in this country.
-Heather