Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Community Supported Agriculture...and carrots!

We've come to the decision that, while we've loved the CSA this year and the produce has been excellent, we don't plan to continue next year, mostly because we'd rather have more say in what we buy and when we cook. The CSA food has been delicious, but there's a lot of guilt if we don't do something with it immediately. And goign to the farmers market has come to seem like a crazy extravagance. But we really, really like visiting different farmers markets and being able to see what's in season and make out own decisions about what we'll cook and eat. The CSA has made us try a few new things, but it makes more sense to spend our money on things our family loves rather than bravely tolerating turnips. And it's not like won't still support local farmers next year--we'll just be supporting more of them.

I will miss the weekly surprise. What did we get? Ooooh! Purple peppers? Strawberries? Funny carrots?

I've seen lots of carrots with legs:



but this was the first time I'd seen a carrot that needed to pee!

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3 comments:

Chris said...

Love those carrots!

I came to the same conclusion about CSAs. I find that between Growers Outlet, People's year-round farmers market, and the seasonal markets, there are plenty of opportunities to get local produce. What kinda blows my mind is that Portland doesn't have a covered, year-round FM or an organic version of Growers.

Fairion said...

I am with you on the CSA. Ours provided lovely produce too. But too much of it we did not enjoy. We do much better visiting the market and sampling lots of different items there.

Angela said...

Those are some seriously curvy-girl carrots!

I agree, too. We did a CSA one year, when we lived in a small apartment, and I was able to grow tomatoes, herbs, and lettuce on our terrace, and that was about it. I found out very quickly, that it was more economical and better suited our needs to shop at the farmer's market. For example, we ended up with a lot of kohlrabi and a lot of okra for weeks in a row (we were living in MO), which my husband doesn't like. Also our weekly CSA share might have 4 pears in it, but I wanted to make pear butter, so I would end up making a trip to the farmer's market that week anyway.