The Summer of CSA

For years, at least years since I have become aware of CSAs (community supported agriculture), I've wanted to participate in one. This summer we finally did it. After some research and weighing of options, we chose New Century CSA as our farm provider. This is one of the few (only?) central Ohio CSAs who deliver their produce, which was very nice. I also liked that it is a family-run farm.

Other Impressions of the season:

• We split a full share with another couple. This worked out well as there would have been way too much food otherwise.
• Corn, oh the corn. There was a lot of corn. Like 20 ears per week a lot of corn. Even with splitting the share, this was just too much corn for us.
• The farm said they mostly use non-chemical methods of farming, but will use chemicals as a last resort. I would like some clarification on this policy as it seemed to me some of the produce must have been sprayed.
• We would get a weekly e-mail saying what would be in the share that week. This was helpful, but it wasn't always accurate.
• Each Tuesday morning was an adventure as Milo and I would sort out the veggies. Our favorites were beets, cucumbers, the various lettuces. We could have done with less of the cabbage, okra, and hot peppers.
• Overall the quality of the produce was great. I would have preferred more variety of vegetables overall and varietals of species (all the produce seemed to be from modern seed).

All in all, it was a positive experience. I liked having to come up with menus and recipes using whatever we happened to have at the time. It was interesting to see how the share changed from the beginning of the summer to the end. Early June we had a lot of peas, kohlrabi and some early beets. By the end of August we receiving mostly tomatoes and corn.

We'll definitely do something similar next year, but we may branch out and try a different farm. For people who are interested in participating in a CSA, my advice is to create excitement for it in your family (Milo and I would look forward to the unpacking each week), be open to trying new vegetables prepared in different ways and use it as a learning experience.