Adventures in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) - buying locally grown produce

[csziggy]

I recently signed up with a CSA organic farmer. It works out great since we are trading horse manure for our produce. The way their deal works, you can sign up for full or half shares - a share is roughly a bag of produce a week, exactly how much and what you get depends on what is ripe and how much there is.

The farmer came last week to pick up the first load of manure. We had to wait to see how well it 'cooked' for her. Federal regulations for certified organic farmers require that the compost reach 130 F inside and that the pile be turned five times before it is spread. She was not sure if the manure would reach a high enough temperature - the previous manure she had gotten from another source was old and it never cooked properly so she could not use it on her fields. The load she got from us reached 140 the day after she got it home!

So yesterday I picked up my first batch of veggies. I am sharing one full share with a family who has horses here. Their horses are producing the manure we are trading so this is fair. We got about a quart each of sugar snap peas and radishes, and three bunches of greens. We also got two pages of recipes that could be used with the produce, which is great as you'll see.

Now, this is kind of funny - neither of us could figure out what kind of greens they are! We have not been cooking with fresh greens and these don't look like what we're familiar with. With the clues in the recipes, we decided that we probably got Swiss chard, kale, and turnip greens. Working on that premise tonight I cooked two different recipes for greens.

The 'chard' and 'kale' went into a recipe I found on AllRecipes.com - actually two recipes that were almost identical, Italian Kale and Italian Chard. Onion and garlic sauteed in a little olive oil, wilt the greens, sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper to taste. I threw in some mushrooms because I had them. YUM!

The presumed turnips greens went into a recipe for collard greens I also found on AllRecipes.com, Sweet and Smoky Collard Greens. Again, start with sauteed onion and garlic, wilt the greens with enough water to keep steaming them until tender, add brown sugar, molasses and Liquid Smoke. Again, YUM.

I've never liked greens the way my Alabama raised mother cooked them - stewed in a pot with a chunk of pork until totally limp and greasy. These recipes let me sort of stir fry them until just done with still a bit of crunch to the stems. I did slice the greens so the stems were cut into small pieces, especially the big chard stems.

Oh, the peas and half the radishes went the first day in a salad. The rest of the radishes will go in salad tomorrow for lunch!

It is going to be fun finding out what I get next week and learning how to use it.

[sazemisery]

1. CSA'a are great

Great for you, the farmer and the community.

[csziggy]

4. We're going to try it this year and see how we like it.

I am not sure if we can get all the veggies we like this way - here in the South many of the things we like will not grow over the summer or at all. Some can grow in the winter, but here we are far enough north that we get hard freezes which can kill winter crops.

The other difficulty is cleaning and processing the fresh veggies. The greens had been washed but still had a lot of dirt on them. I washed them at least four times and still had a little grittiness. I go in for my shoulder surgery in a few weeks so there may be a while that I cannot do the washing, processing and cooking. As it is, I had to space it over two days - first washings yesterday, then more washing, chopping and cooking today.

That is one reason I have been buying supermarket and frozen veggies - bad shoulders, bad knees, bad back and injuries over the years have made it hard sometimes to deal with the extra work for the fresh from farm stuff. But I really want to support the local farmers and they need the compost so it is win-win for all of us if this can work!

[elleng]

2. THIS really got me!

'Federal regulations for certified organic farmers require that the compost reach 130 F inside and that the pile be turned five times before it is spread.'

REGULATION!

[csziggy]

3. Regulation may be the wrong word - but for the compost to be cooked

hot enough, mixed thoroughly, and kept hot so bad germs will no longer be viable is required. I learned a little about composting years ago as part of killing off parasites and fly larva before manure could be spread for fertilizer and this sounds about right to me. When used to fertilizer for crops intended for human consumption, you'd need to be very strict about making sure that the composting was done properly.

[elleng]

5. It IS regulation,

and appears to be necessary as you've informed me! Thanks!