Back in the spring I was looking for ways that my family could be healthier. I suppose we should all be on this bandwagon more than we are. But through the magic of Facebook newsfeed, I saw that my friend was talking about this thing called a CSA. I thought, "what in the world is a CSA?"
In a nutshell, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, we have an agreement with a farm that we will buy a "share" of their harvest every week. We go on Wednesdays and pick up a box of vegetables, meat, and a dozen eggs. You never know what kind of veggies or meat you are going to get, just that it will be about the same amount each week. It doesn't completely eliminate our need to grocery shop, especially since I'm not brave enough to order their raw milk... but it is a big chunk of our weekly food!
This is what came in our box yesterday.
I would like to say that before we jumped in with both feet, I did a ton of research and weighed the pros & cons, etc. Nope. What happened was I saw my friends post, I googled "CSA" and found out a few basic things. Then I asked my friend (who actually DID do all of this research- Go Sam!) a few questions and that was about it. Then we just said, "you know what? Let's do it!" Would I do it again? Absolutely.
I have had SO much fun with this! Before CSA, we were sort of in a broccoli, corn, and green peas rut. Those were basically the only veggies we ate because they were the only ones I was confident in cooking. But now we get lots of different vegetables, including some that I have never even heard of before! Who knew there were a hundred different kinds of squash & watermelon?? It forces me out of my comfort zone and into a whole new world of veggies & meats. I even made my own pickles last week!
Besides pickles, I have made my own spaghetti sauce from scratch, zuchinni bread, zuchinni casserole, Kale chips, and I have roasted anything and everything you could imagine.
All this is great, but I think my very favorite thing about being a part of CSA is what it is teaching my children. They are SO excited on Wednesdays to go get our "farm box" and see what we got! When we go to the grocery store now, A points out vegetables to me. We probably spent 20 minutes in the produce section of Kroger the other day walking around and naming what everything was. I love that they are so involved and learning about fruits & vegetables and healthy habits that will hopefully stick with them for the rest of their lives. This morning, A even helped me break green beans for lunch today!
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