becoming a locavore

I’ve wanted to sign up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and here in Morgan Hill it’s even more tempting because we’re so close to so many farms selling local produce.  If you’ve never heard of CSA let me explain.

Every week a box is delivered to a specific location.  The box contains whatever fruits and veggies are in season at that given time.  You sign up for a membership, pay your dues and pick up your box on that given day.

When I looked into it last year the only one I found (I didn’t really do a very thorough search) delivered once a week and it was $35 a week for what they called a family share. When they broke it down it really seemed like a lot of produce and I wasn’t sure if we could go through that much.  At the time, the only people I knew who lived nearby was my sister and her family and they’re not the biggest veggie consumers so splitting it with them wasn’t really an option.  So I let it pass.

Then a week ago I was talking to one of my friends who was also interested in joining.  It got me thinking about it again.  Then I was looking at Swank Farm’s website and saw they were part of a CSA called Timptations.

Timptations offers both weekly and every other week pick up and they will substitute items for you as well.  Every week they send out an email newsletter listing what will be in that week’s box.  If there’s something there that you know you don’t like then you can choose something off their sub list.  You can also add things to your order off their a la cart menu like olive oil or extra produce.  The portion sizes are a little smaller and they only charge $24 a week.  Perfect for us!

So I was thinking about it when we came across their booth at a local festival this past weekend and it just seemed like fate.  So we signed up for the every other week trial membership for a month and today we picked up our first box!

I was so excited to see what was inside even though I already knew!  Carrying it in from the car I could smell the strawberries and it made me so happy!

So we got strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, asparagus, broccoli, butter leaf lettuce (both green & red), radishes, English peas and an heirloom tomato plant!  Everything looks and smells wonderful!  I’m not sure yet what to do with the radishes, but I’ll figure something out!  Out of the eleven items eight of them are organic.

I’m hoping this will encourage me to fix us some healthier meals and try new things.  I used to cook a lot.  And not just whatever meals, but I experimented a lot and considered going to culinary school, but I’ve been lazy for awhile and I really need to get back into that.  Here’s hoping this helps.  And it definitely doesn’t hurt that I know we’re supporting our local farmers too!