Our First Box

This sum­mer, Veron­ica and I decided to pur­chase a join a CSA (community-supported agri­cul­ture) farm. CSA farms sell shares of their har­vest each year, and mem­bers typ­i­cally receive a box full of fresh, locally-grown, often organic pro­duce each week. Some farms also offer meat, cheese, eggs, honey, etc. Madi­son, in addi­tion to host­ing the largest producers-only farmer’s mar­ket in the coun­try, boasts the Madi­son Area Com­mu­nity Sup­ported Agri­cul­ture Coali­tion (MACSAC), which acts as an advo­cate for 35 area CSA farms.

The Box Opened

We attended MACSAC’s annual Open House in late March, where we had the oppor­tu­nity to check out most of the par­tic­i­pat­ing farms. One thing we were look­ing for in a farm was the avail­abil­ity of half-shares — we doubted that the two of us could go through a huge box of veg­gies every week with­out waste. There were a num­ber of entic­ing options, and we ended up going with a farm called Drift­less Organ­ics. We liked their crop list, which includes can­taloupe, water­melon, straw­ber­ries, and var­i­ous herbs in addi­tion to a plethora of veg­eta­bles. We also like the fact that we could select a pick-up loca­tion that can be seen from our apart­ment. We get an assort­ment of pro­duces every two weeks — a lit­tle more than half a bushel each time.

A Bounty of Veggies

Our first box of the sea­son arrived today. As with all CSAs, the selec­tion changes from week to week (or fort­night to fort­night is our case), and you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get each time. That’s half the fun: try­ing to fig­ure out what the heck to do with a veg­etable you with which you have lit­tle to no expe­ri­ence. I knew it was going to be a lot of food, but I was still astounded when I opened our box and spread its con­tents out on the kitchen counter. We got arugula, broc­coli, but­ter­head let­tuce, green onions, green gar­lic, kohlrabi, radishes, rus­set pota­toes, and spinach. Aren’t they gorgeous?

A share in a CSA farm is truly a share — if some­thing goes wrong with the crops, all the mem­bers eat (or rather, don’t eat) the losses. This is where the “community-supported” bit really comes in. If there’s a bad year, CSA farms are pro­tected from going under by their mem­ber­ship. Last year, there was exten­sive flood­ing in Wis­con­sin, which was detri­men­tal to many farm­ers. Here’s hop­ing that severe weather won’t be an issue this sum­mer, and that our boxes will con­tinue to be bountiful!