rutabaga or brussel sprouts?

Today was the last day to pick up our CSA farmshare at Crystal Springs. We split a share with our neighbors (not literally but a few houses down the road), Bill and Jean. If you don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. A farmer offers a certain number of shares (I think Crystal Springs has 300 spots) and you pay for your share in the early winter. Then from early June until late October, you pick up your share of whatever veggies they are offering.

It works for the farmer because they get a steady income and the community shares the risk with the farmer. If it's a good season, you might get lots of food and if the weather is more challenging, you might get fewer big juicy tomatoes and more cabbage. It also often means that land can be protected from development. At Crystal Springs, the local land trust owns the land, which is permanently protected, and leases the land to Farmer Seth. They also recently remodeled the farmhouse, where his family and farm interns now live.

The way it works is that, each week, one of us goes to the farm and picks up whatever vegetables they are offering. For most of the season, there were hordes of greens every week - standard lettuce, arugula, baby bok choi, mitzui, kale, plus at least several other types of mixed greens whose names I can never remember. And the other stuff really varied, depending on the month and what was growing.

Going to the farm on Friday has been a really nice way to end the week this year. I drive thru downtown and head out Pleasant Hill Road into rural Brunswick. It's a nice change from my typical day when I leave work and speed down the interstate trying to pick up Sawyer vaguely on time from daycare. On a few summer fridays, I did pick up Sawyer first and took him with me to pick up the share. It was fun to visit the sheep or see the farm equipment ("digger! tractor! box truck!") but it was rather tricky to keep him from trying all the veggies, so I have to admit it's easier to go by myself.

For many Fridays of the season, we would often feel that there really were not many veggies. And yet, somehow, we never quite managed to finish our entire 1/2 share during one week. So I have NO idea how a family would work with a full share! I suppose you would have to do more detailed meal planning than we could do recently. All season long, we did get potatoes, onions, and squash that should still last us for at least 2-3 more months (along with rutabaga, cabbage, turnips, and beets that will keep for a while as well). And the recipe for Greens Pie (perhaps I'll post that later) by itself was worth the cost of the share - especially since it was the only thing that kept the greens from rotting.

I think we are going to try to keep eating local when it's possible over the winter. We are definitely more aware of the sources of our food. One of the nice benefits was that there were frequently other local farmers offering other organic food for a very reasonable price (apples for .50/lb, goat cheese, milk, sometimes ice cream, as well as lamb from the farm's sheep). In early fall, you could also pre-order ham from pigs raised at the farm. We ordered one pound of bacon and a 1/2 ham, which I just picked up today - 7.4 pounds!

While it was a good experience, and we were glad to support a local farmer, we aren't going to sign-up again for next year. I initially thought that if we had a CSA share, I would be less likely to spend money at the local farmers' market. But I'm not sure it worked out that way - typically, Sawyer and I would go to the Saturday market and pick up the veggies we really wanted. We might have spent slightly less because of the CSA but I think we'd prefer to keep going to the farmers' market and get specifically what we want. We're still supporting local farmers - but there will probably be less waste.