This week’s pickup: golden beets, sugar snap peas, green beans, spinach, mushrooms, green onions, blood oranges, apples, eggs, and bread (the bread is parmesan sourdough; I wanted to try their new “blackberry crumb” bread but it was all spoken for by the time I arrived).
I love getting snap peas and green beans. I look forward to sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of peas in my lap, pinching off stems one by one. I like doing that sort of thing by hand when I have time; it makes me feel like the most recent link in a long chain of food preparers, stretching back across time. Except, uh, that my ancestors probably weren’t trimming peas and beans while watching TV.
Ah! I just came across your blog via Howchow and I love the CSA posts! I seriously considered joining Breezy Willow’s winter/spring CSA and now I kind of feel like I missed out :) Maybe next year.
Thanks for linking to my blog as well! I am going to add you to my list so I don’t miss out on your CSA posts. I love love love snap peas. We are trying to grow them this year… fingers crossed.
Thanks! Your CSA posts were an inspiration. I was taking pictures of each pickup, but it’s much more fun to blog about it. :)
Good luck with the snap peas!
I signed up for Breezy Willow’s summer share, and I’m really regreting not finding a way to sqeeze into the spring as well. Until then, I shall view your pictures and paw at my screen. Any BrzeeWlo tips and tricks would be much appreciated- how does the whole bread thing work? (I can already see a house debate raging, with me and parmesan sourdough on one side, battling against my wife and blackberry crumb.) Thanks for sharing!
Good point! The bread thing must be negotiated beforehand. We abide by the rule that the person who makes the pickup gets to choose the bread. That person tends to be me. :) Fortunately K is perfectly happy to eat whatever bread I bring home.
We split our share with another couple, too, and they’re usually also fine with whatever I bring back. They did gently let me know last year that I could ease up a bit on the pumpkin pecan spice bread, though. (Seriously, that stuff is divine.) So now I try to alternate sweet and savory breads.
The really awesome breads tend to disappear quickly (witness my failure to get my hands on some blackberry crumb this week). The pickup window is from 3pm to 7pm, so the earlier you get there, the better the selection will be. If you’ve really got your heart set on something, you can also email the CSA folks asking them to set something aside for you.
I sit here now, at Buckland Farm, in Clearville, Pennsylvania. This is a farm of a dear friend as they go into their second year of organic farming. I find myself bothered by the use of term “CSA” in your blog posts. There’s no place in Maryland or Virginia where peas would be part of a CSA delivery at this time of year. You’re in a “produce wholesale club” … but not a CSA, because the centralized local component of your produce is lacking. You certainly can’t get citrus in the tri-state area.
Sorry to be fussy, but this is a misnomer. You are not in a true CSA, and your postings impact — inaccurately, imo — expectations of what people can — and can’t — get with a CSA.
I see your point, Jessie, and I appreciate the feedback. I admit I was initially a little hesitant about joining up with the Winter/Spring CSA (as they call it) because some of the produce would originate from outside the immediate locality.
However, I think the experience still rings true to the spirit of the CSA, which after all stands for Community Supported Agriculture — and when I show up at the farm for my pickup, I feel very much part of a vibrant and involved community, supporting agriculture that’s grown sustainably, on smaller farms. It doesn’t matter as much that in some cases the farm is actually a citrus orchard in Florida, or wherever the heck they’re getting the peas from (I’ll ask; I’m curious now. I know the spinach is grown in local greenhouses, but I don’t know about the peas). The gambling aspect of a CSA share is there too — I’ve prepaid for the season and I’ve bought into the risk that there may be unseasonable droughts or frosts, even in far-away areas.
Although I enjoy my Breezy Willow experience, I definitely don’t want to give anyone the wrong idea about what to expect from a local CSA. In the future I’ll make an effort to find out and disclose where exactly the produce is coming from.
Good luck to Buckland Farm; organic farming is demanding (Breezy Willow just got their organic certification after years of effort) and I hope things work out well for them!
A most legitimate, thoughtful and insightful response! Thanks. I spent much of my weekend helping newly weened piglets get used to high human contact. Buckland Farm is also raising heritage breed, woods-raised pigs. And that makes for some yummy sausage!
That sounds like a fantastic weekend. I’ve never dealt with piglets personally, but I’ve cooed over them at the state fairs. Yay for heritage pigs — sounds like they’ll have a good life before they get turned into good food. :)