I’ve heard a lot about people starting their own vegetable gardens lately. I think Lilly and I have come up with the perfect compromise for having our favorite organic, green vegetables, getting a huge variety, and not sweating over the soil. Easy gardening, is that possible, you say?
We are now buying our produce from a farmer who offers a Community Supported Agriculture program.
This is how it works. The farmer puts together a box of their fresh, organic vegetables. Each week, we pick up our box at a drop off location near our house. Inside the box, we will find an assortment of vegetables that will compliment our family’s meals. Each week we’ll find different things. For example, there might be fresh tomatoes and zucchini, but also things like fresh herbs and edible flowers. Won’t that be fun to add a special blossom on our plates! Each week the box will change, giving us the important dietary variations that we all hear we should eat, but have a difficult time actually doing. Until now, I have picked out the SAME things every week; broccoli, spinach, green beans, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes… same old, same old. All organic, but I certainly don’t experiment much.
The greatest thing is that our local farmer has a website that will have recipes on how to cook the more unusual vegetables we will find in our delivery box. This is the summer to experiment. I can’t wait to pick up the first box on Tuesday!
If you ever have an ingredient and don’t quite know what to do with it, go to www.epicurious.com. In my opinion, it’s the best cooking site online. You can enter in any ingredient in the search box and it will come up with a variety of recipes. The site even takes into account gluten free and other dietary restrictions, which in our family is a big necessity.
So we aren’t doing all the work, but we are helping out our local farmer by supporting their farm, doing our part to limit fuel usage for transporting produce, and staying away from pesticides, all while adding a greater variety in our diets. Oh, did I mention it’s less expensive too?
We are planting our own green beans, but who knows when these will bear fruit! It’s all a learning experience, but thanks to our local farmer, we won’t starve.
If you would like to find a local farmer near you who offers a CSA program, go to www.localharvest.org.
Shown above is our herb design on a foldover note. These make a nice gift for your favorite gardener. Remember, they can be ordered with return address stickers to match.
Tags: fold over note, stationery