CSA

Our family has been participating in a CSA for the first time this year. Pleasant Hill Farm, about two miles east of Stoughton, prepares a 5/8ths box of fresh organic produce for us to pick up every week. We pay a membership fee, and then participate in the abundance (and sometimes blunders) of a season of production.

The ownder of the CSA does a great job. He's a garlic guru, so early in the season we received every kind of garlic I'd never cooked with before, but loved- scapes, green garlic, etc. Each week we get a lot of the basics, like leafy greens, potatos, squash, onions, carrots, and we usually get a delivery of at least one or two items per week that I have to learn how to cook with, like basil, beets, kohlrabi, and the tops of various tubers.

I must confess that it's more fun than growing your own garden, because you feel like you're participating in a community activity. You can stop out and do self-pick any time, and if I had time or decided to make time, Pleasant Hill welcomes volunteers to come out and do some of the grunt work involved in maintaining such a large organic vegetable garden.

I've got this routine going, every Tuesday afternoon I stop by the farm, pick up our box, drive home, and spend about an hour cleaning and peeling and cutting things so they'll fit in the frig, then researching recipes that make use of what we've received. I think never before in my life have I thought about vegetables as pure gift. That and the rasberries that cropped up in our back yard about two weeks ago and have delighted us when made into sauce, pie, and jam. Geez is it ever good not to be living in the city and apartments any more!