Community Supported Agriculture

I don't know about you, but I am one of those people that really, really wants to eat healthy, local, fresh, organic food. This sounds amazing, and I support it for both health and ethical reasons. But there are these things called Digiorno Rising Crust frozen pizzas that are so delicious, so cheap, and so easy to make, that it can thwart any "eat health, local, fresh, and organic" plan in its path.

My point is that sometimes major lifestyle changes seem so difficult, and so overwhelming, that it prevents you from making any changes at all. But, a little over a year ago, we visited our friends Jeremy and Michelle in beautiful Palo Alto, California, and we were introduced to Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). CSAs provide everyday folks like you and me with the opportunity to get healthy, local, fresh, and organic produce every week, with very minimal time or effort.

The concept is like this: you buy a membership to a local farm. In exchange for your membership fee, you receive a box of the farm's yield every week. It sounds simple, but this concept is literally changing the face of agriculture in our country and making local, sustainable produce possible.

We recently renewed our CSA with Johnson's Backyard Garden, an organic farm in East Austin. For $30 per week, we receive enough produce to feed a family of four for an entire week. Since there are two of us, we share with another couple and split the cost. And, the pick up location is actually closer than the grocery store where I shop. (Most CSAs recruit members to use their homes as distribution points to ensure that there are convenient pick-up spots throughout the city.)

I cannot tell you how excited we are to get to participate in something like this. We are blessed to live in a city where enough people care about organic produce that we have access to it. For more information on JBG and the state of agriculture in Texas, see this article from Sunday's Austin American Statesman.

To give you a little taste of the magic, I thought I would give you a tour of our CSA box from this week.


Lots of treasures to be found inside.


First up, collard greens. Not going to lie here, I thought it was bok choy. I was wrong.

Green onions.

Fresh spinach. Used this method at Simply Recipes to make this, and it was incredible.


Ummmmm. What the what? I think, I think that these are a different variety of collard greens. Jury is still out on this one.

This is where my mind was blown. This strange little guy is called a kolhrabi, and the flavor is similar to broccoli stems. Simply Recipes has an entire page dedicated to kolhrabi recipes here.

Lettuce.


Fresh broccoli. Still haven't made it, but am excited to.

Ok, this just got awesome.


To top it off, oranges, grapefruit, and avocado. These are actually not grown in the area, but JBG partners with other farms to be able to offer more variety.

I hope this inspires you to find a CSA near you.