Community Supported Agriculture

I finally had some time today to catch up on some sustainable food reading. There is always so much going on in NYC, it's hard to stay on top of it all and decide what events to attend! I added a new book to my list of those "to-read" called, "The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove" by Cathy Erway. The author spent two years in NYC cooking every day and did not go out to eat. While we do cook most of our meals at home from locally sourced ingredients, it can get repetitive at times. I found Ms. Erway's blog and added it to my feed in the hopes of finding good recipes I can use.

It also happened to be our Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, farm share pick up day today. We have been so fortunate here in Forest Hills to have a wonderful CSA three blocks from our apartment. CSA is a program where members of a collective group pay farmers at the beginning of the growing season to grow and deliver vegetables (and some fruit) throughout the seasons. Our CSA has two seasons - summer with weekly deliveries, and winter with monthly deliveries. Our farmers are awesome and grow a variety of organic vegetables - see www.goldenearthworm.com. While the cost up front seems like a lot, when you divide it out per delivery, it is very reasonable. Not only am I eating fresh fruits and vegetables, it allows me to lower my carbon footprint and support local agriculture. The first year Colin and I joined the CSA, we had so many vegetables we had to split the share with a friend. Last year, we found ourselves hoping for more produce than our half would provide (granted, it was a more difficult growing season last summer). We continued with the winter season this year, and as we would expect, our vegetables are mostly the root vegetables that store well - beets, carrots, rutabagas, radishes and potatoes.




This was today's delivery of root vegetables (after we cooked a few potatoes). While we do sometimes get stuck in a rut of making the same things week after week, it's always really exciting to make a really great new dish. Speaking of great new dishes, Colin experimented today with a vegetable quiche - which did come out fantastic.

In addition to the vegetables we get from our farmer out in Long Island, we also have the option to buy sustainable meat through our CSA. The meat comes from several producers in upstate New York and Vermont, and is frequently delivered with our vegetables. With the vegetables, the farmer plans what is grown to give us variety, while we decide what meat we want to order. Our typical order, which we received today includes turkey (breast or ground), chicken, and eggs. Occasionally we will order beef, but it is pretty rare. We spend about $30-$40 on each order, which lasts us about a month. Because we can't get fish from the farm, we buy that separately at either Whole Foods or Trader Joe's to incorporate into our meals. Trader Joes tends to have much cheaper prices on their fish, but I don't think their overall selection of foods (especially produce) is that great.



The eggs we ordered from the farm were used in Colin's quiche tonight!

The weekend of February 27-28, 2010 there are some exciting sustainable food events happening in NYC. On February 27, a free afternoon event called "Foodprint NYC" is taking place (http://www.foodprintproject.com/). There appear to be some excellent speakers who will look beyond the plate to the social, political, artistic and economic forces that shape the way we eat. The following day JustFood, a food justice non-profit, is holding their annual CSA conference (http://www.justfood.org/csa/csa-events/csa-nyc-conference). The conference brings together CSA members from all over the city and some of the farmers who produce the food for these members. I look forward to attending both events.