Unboxing the Co-op - always exciting!
My husband and I try (not saying we're totally successful) to focus on getting organic produce and meat whenever possible. To support that goal, we have our backyard garden (you've probably seen some of my posts about that) AND we participate in an organic CSA.
BTW, we get our meat from a local farmer as well, a story for another day.
What's a CSA you say? A CSA or Community Supported Agriculture is a program or a cooperative where the consumer (in this case me) makes a season long commitment to purchase the harvest before the growing starts. This way the farmer has assurance the crops grown will be purchased. Since produce degrades quickly after harvest, CSA consumers are always getting the freshest produce with the most nutrition.
In our case, the grower/farmer is Honey Brook Organic Farm. Not only do we get fresh produce, we get organically grown produce. Honey Brook Farm has been operating in New Jersey for about 25 years and is the state's oldest certified organic CSA. Lucky for us, they have what they call a "boxed share" delivery program. The produce is boxed up and delivered each week to local retail establishments to allow more people to participate. If I recall (you can check their website) they have over 3,000 participants.
So each Wednesday afternoon, we pick up our box of organic produce and enjoy the bounty of the harvest. Today I thought you might be interested in seeing what was picked this morning and in my kitchen this afternoon! If the box itself looks a little "beat up" its because each week we return the previous week's empty box for re-use. They get most of the season out of one box.
Bunch of Carrots
Red Onions and Basil & Kale
Lettuce Mix
Sweet New Jersey Corn - this is going to be good!
Broccoli!
That's one funny carrot (or is it two carrots?)
Hope you enjoyed the story. Check out a CSA in your neighborhood. They usually have various sizes to choose from (Honey Brook has 4 different boxes) or you can share a "share" with a friend. Also, many of they have pro-rated portions in case you missed the early sign up.
Thanks for stopping by. If you enjoy my posts, please follow me at @lrich.
All Images @lrich taken today (7/12/17) with my Canon EOS Rebel T6i with Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II LD Aspherical Macro Lens
Nice food. How much for the whole box?
As mentioned, you pay for the season. So we start getting a weekly delivery end of May and it continues through early November. So, for the box of veggies you saw, its works out to be about $19 a box. More than enough veggies to feed two or three for a week. Actually quite a bargain. And you're getting what was grown & harvested locally.
You should be able to make some pretty awesome salad combos with all those fresh veggies, great idea. It's also nice to support local growers that are doing things the right way!!! Upvoted and re-steemed.
thanks @cognoscere, yes a lot of veggies...sometimes its hard to use them all...but I can always make vegetable soup!
Great program ..great local community support :) great healthy produce :) upvoted and following :) :) Kayleigh
Thanks @kayleigh-alesta. This is our 3rd season, I really like supporting the local farmers who are attempting to get back to clean food! Thanks for the upvote & follow.
Hip hip hooray for honey brook csa! Them's some good lookin' veggies! And what a flirty carrot! Resteemed!
haha, a rhyme ... thanks for the comment and the resteem!
Very healthy choices so much you can do with this bunch
for sure! sometimes we have too much each week once our garden starts to yield...we share with the neighbors or freeze/can the extras! We always try not to waste!
Man.. you should be very happy then :D
interesting information , and really good post
thanks @ingridlevinson!