Tag Archives: fruit

Adventures in CSA (year 2 week 2): Tatsoi ahoy!

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I have to remember not to call this veggie Tetsuo. He was a character from “Akira”. Tatsoi looks a bit like a baby bok choi, although it’s supposed to be something akin to the love child of bok choi and spinach. THAT ALL WORKS FOR ME.

It’s week 2, and we’ve made it through much of what was in our week 1 box. What didn’t go into the stir-fry typically went as a side-dish for dinners, except for the strawberries – which disappeared in near-record time. This week’s box is a mostly green box, accentuated with some interesting splashes of orange, blue and yellow. Man, oh, man…do I ever love seeing all that luscious color splayed out on my counter like a splatter of Pantone chips.

At this point, I don’t yet have an opinion on the value of the box. It weighed more than last week’s box (good!), and it includes something obscure enough that I’m nearly 100% sure I’ll have to check Whole Foods to get a price for it. Some of the items, like green beans and carrots, are fairly cheap, so those always weigh down the value. Still, I’m not in this solely for the financial gain. With the deadline looming for the sign-up for the veggie box program through work, we need to figure out whether we want to stick with what we have now (through our local farm) or if we want to revert back to the prior deal. Decisions, decisions. Well, in the meantime…

Here’s what was in this week’s box:

  • Shell peas
  • Tatsoi
  • Green beans
  • Summer squash (both yellow and green)
  • Carrots
  • Blueberries
  • Spinach
  • Pickling cucumbers
Year 2 Week 2 box contents

Such lovely colors…

I’m scheming on something that may or may not involve the tatsoi, carrots, and summer squash. I’m still thinking on it. The tatsoi is too small to make decent Bok-os with (unless making them appetizer-sized), but that’s okay…it lets me branch out and forces me to be a bit more creative. I like that. Half of the fun of getting a new box every week is in the challenge: “What will I make with THIS stuff?” I prefer not to make the same thing over and over again, since repetition can breed boredom, but certainly I do like to repeat some dishes that have enjoyed good traction with the kids.

Never having pickled, but knowing several people who have, I figure we can come up with a decent solution for the cukes. The blueberries are likely to disappear in dh’s morning cereal, as well as straight from the hand into the bellies of at least several members of the household. And who doesn’t like peas? The peas and green beans are perfect for us, since those are staple veggies in our family. And the summer squash…well, I believe I have a friend they should meet. His name is Ka-Bob.

I can’t say for sure all of what I’ll make with this box, but I’m definitely looking forward to checking out this Tets…tatsoi and seeing just how tasty it can be. Preferably without the futuristic, post-apocalyptic Tokyo setting.

Adventures in CSA (Year 2 Week 1): No surprises

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Color me completely unsurprised that this box wasn’t up to the price that I paid for it. Thinking back on last year’s CSA through work, the veggie box program that seemed destined to build my upper arm strength as I faithfully carried the boxes from my office building allllll the way to my car (not parked next-door), I remember those boxes being filled FULL of stuff. So, when I got this week’s box and it wasn’t nearly as heavy as I expected, and there seemed to be more air than I anticipated, I knew that something was up. In fact, I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t be earning back my $22 investment this week.

I was right.

Here’s how it came out:

Year 2 – Summer Week 1
Weight
(lb)		 Grocery Store Unit Price
(per lb)		 Grocery Store Total Item Cost
Strawberries (pint) 1.00 $3.50 $3.50
Sugar Snap Peas 1.00 $4.99 $4.99
Snow Peas 1.00 $4.99 $4.99
Zucchini 1.25 $1.99 $2.49
Spring Onions 0.31 $0.99 $0.31
Red Russian Kale 0.31 $1.29 $0.40
Red Mustard Greens 0.63 $1.29 $0.81
Carrots 0.50 $0.99 $0.50
Grocery Store Total Cost $17.98
Year 2 Summer Week 1 Savings (Deficit) ($4.02)

Now, it’s not like I’m anywhere near ready to throw in the towel. First off, I have until July 2nd to make a move on whether or not I want to get in on a full season at work’s program for the summer (I can just go month-by-month, otherwise, with no financial penalty). Second, it’s not like there’s a quality issue. This stuff is good, tasty produce. Third, my grocery store isn’t even great about stocking all of these things all the time. In fact, the mustard greens gave me a run for my money, since they didn’t even have them in store this week and I had to look at their price for their “To Go” program (similar to a Peapod-type service) to find out what they usually charge. Plus, my grocery store doesn’t carry Red Russian Kale. They carry (regular green) Kale. Period. That’s not a knock on them; it’s just a statement of fact. Lastly, I understand that the farm has to make money. Really, none of these programs survive if they give away more food than they can afford, offering boxes that routinely are worth more than they produce. I get the concept of profit margin, really I do.

What’s funny is how fast we’ve already gone through a few items. The mustard greens were cooked a day after we got the box (tasty, simple recipe to follow), and the strawberries are greatly depleted. This farm is our regular source for strawberries when they’re in season, and we’ve been going through about 1/2 dry gallon of strawberries every week for the last two weeks. DH had to act fast and stock up, since dd finally caught up to ds on falling in love with the tasty red berry.

So, we’ll see how week 2 goes. I’ve already threatened to use up the snow peas, carrots and kale on a stir-fry, so the week 1 box will disappear RAPIDLY. If week 2 goes similarly, my decision-making process on which box program to use (irrespective of the financial value) may be really tough.

Adventures in CSA, year 2: this has all happened before and it will happen again

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After my angst over potentially switching from the program offered through work to the week-by-week CSA offered by my local farm, we’re now officially beginning week 1 of my 2012 Adventures in CSA. This particular box came from our local farm, at a cost of $22; purchasing in advance for the entire season gets the per-box cost down to $20. The suggests that someone out there thought that around $20/box is a good price that people will consider reasonable for a week’s worth of vegetables. Of course, your mileage may vary on the number of people to be fed by a box; both programs advertise the box as being enough vegetables for 1-2 adults for a week. Hmm. I’d tend to think that 2 adults could whip through those veggies in far less than a week. What primarily holds us back is that the kids won’t eat everything out of the box.

Ah, but this is neither here nor there. Let me start out by presenting you with the contents of the box:

  • Strawberries
  • Sugar snap peas
  • Snow peas
  • Zucchini
  • Spring onions
  • Red russian kale
  • Red mustard greens
  • Carrots

 

2012 Week 1 CSA

Our first veggie box from the farm in town

 

The first thing I noticed about this box when the cashier handed it over was that it was startlingly light. I’m used to the later summer and fall boxes, which are weighed down with apples and potatoes. As I told dh when I met him at home with the box: “There’s NO WAY this box will come out to $22 in value.” We will have to see. The quantities are also a bit odd; we got only 1/2lb of carrots (just about three small carrots) and light bunches of other things. I’ll post about the value of this box after I have all of the prices together, probably tomorrow.

One important distinction between the two box programs is that the one from our local farm is 90% fulfilled by produce from that very same farm, whereas the other box program (the one through work) is fulfilled by somewhere between 10-20 farms that are all within an extremely close radius of each other. The latter is bound to have more variety than what you’d be able to get from a single farm…but that shouldn’t (and likely won’t) be a deterrent to getting that particular program.

I consider us extremely lucky to live in an area where we can get into not one but TWO different CSAs within our town. It’s extremely unlikely I’d ever do the other CSA in town; that one requires that you help plant and harvest, and I’m willing to bake into the cost of the CSA my never having to pick strawberries ever ever EVER again. (Ow – my back.) So, if you have access toany CSA, it may not be the utopian CSA, but if it has fresh fruit and/or veg and it’s local, then you’re already doing something really wonderful for a local farm and your local economy.

Fear not; I haven’t turned into a complete loca-bore. I like to eat oranges all year round, and since I don’t live in Florida or California, you better believe those suckers are shipped in from out of the region. Still, there’s something really wonderful about telling your kids that you have a veggie box in the car and then hearing them explode with joy, clapping and cheering. That’s pretty priceless, to me.