Category Archives: locavore

Adventures in CSA (year 2 week 8): Weekend challenge

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{I was at the BlogHer ’12 conference last weekend, so we didn’t order the veggie box last week, in case anybody starts to wonder “What happened to week 7…?”}

With ds turning 3 years old today and dh doing another triathlon on Sunday, our weekend was thrown into a complete tailspin. So, when I texted dh a few days ago (while he was 2000mi away for work) and said, “I want the veggie box this week!” I think he thought I was out of my not-locally-grown gourd. I tried swaying him with the enticements of “Melon” (no specificity, just MELON), blueberries, the ever-delectable cherry tomatoes, etc., and he just wasn’t having it. He was meh all the way, mostly because he was afraid that we wouldn’t go through it.

Then I said, “but we’re going to get CORN!” (and we really LOVE the sweet corn from our farm). Again, the meh, followed this time by his insistence that we won’t be eating it right away since our family tradition is to have my parents over on the Friday night of the weekend when they’re visiting and order take-out from our local, truly wonderful, Chinese joint right up the street. “AHA!”, I said. “LET’S GRILL THE CORN!!” I could hear the shrugging over SMS, but he relented, and thus was born what I’m terming a weekend challenge: I’d like to see just how much of the veggie box we can go through in one weekend, given that we’re having company over for a birthday party.

Thankfully, this week’s box is packed with things that are well-loved in our household. And, since I already had my heart set on getting that corn grilled, I now have a good use for the cucumbers. FINALLY. My sister also has some cukes, from her own garden, and she’s whipping up a batch of tzadziki to share with everyone. Since dh & I both love Greek food, this should make for a nice accompaniment to the salad I’m going to whip up (the recipe will be shared later, assuming it comes out tasty).

Year 2 Week 8 Veggie Box

Purple potatoes AND a purple pepper…?! AWESOME!

So, here’s what we got:

  • Field Tomatoes
  • Purple Potatoes
  • Corn
  • Cucumbers
  • Melon
  • Blueberries
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Sweet Peppers

As of writing this post, I have not yet cut into “Melon” but once I have, I will try to ID it and be specific in terms of pricing it out. All I know is that the skin has an orangish hue that suggests canteloupe, but its size and skin texture don’t really match, so “Melon” is a bit of an enigma to me right now. Since I also picked up some grapes from the farm (grown in the trellises that hang over one of the walkways into the farmstand), I’m probably going to make up a fruit plate or fruit salad. These grapes don’t taste like regular ones from the grocery store and I can’t for the life of me come up with a suitable comparison.

It’s much like with the cherry tomatoes; the red ones I got from the grocery store last weekend (when in a rush), were red flavorless little oblong things. The cherry tomatoes I got today from the farm, in shades of red, orange and yellow, are like eating candy. Then again, the fabulous orange cherry tomatoes dropped off by a friend who lives in town (and who also frequents the farmstand) were luscious little things that made it clear that the ones I got from the grocery store must be the tomato equivalent of packing peanuts. Clearly, growing your own or buying from a farm just gets you a superior flavor. (And we have full-sun problems with the layout of our land that make it difficult to grow tomatoes. The one set of tomato plants we have going in buckets were ravaged by some passing deer, and there’s one solitary tomato left, hoping to live to see its way to the insides of our bellies in a few weeks. Fingers are very much crossed.)

And so this is where the “value” of the purchasing from the farm versus the grocery store just can’t capture the true value of buying higher-quality produce. As I discussed with my mother last night, I know we’re lucky, living in a town with both a working farm AND a working dairy, so I realize what I have isn’t available to everyone. I lament that somewhat, but hopefully those who are interested will at least dip a toe in the water by finding a regional farm, farmer’s market, or some other means of getting fresher, local produce. The quality difference can be really immense, before you even get to the additional benefits of lessened environmental impact, heightened boost for the local economy, etc.

So, back to the idea of using as much of it as possible in one weekend…I think it’s fairly likely we can do it. The Melon, blueberries, and grapes will end up as part of some kind of fruit salad or assortment. The corn is planned to go on the grill and end up in a salad with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. The sweet peppers be sliced and go out on the table to be demolished quickly by the kids (who will each go through an entire pepper in a single sitting, if you let them). Really, the only thing likely to make it through the weekend is the potatoes, since we still have some purple potatoes left over from a prior veggie box. Should the weather head south, I can always make a metric ton of purple potato chips for everybody. I’d hate to heat the house like that, running the oven in the middle of August, but I’m not above it if the weather isn’t conducive to grilling dinner. Again, fingers crossed.

Price comparison will go up either Sunday or Monday, so stay tuned…

Adventures in CSA (year 2 week 6): Savings a-go-go

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Rather impressively, this week’s box was cheaper than the grocery store by more than 25%! It’s rather impressive, really. Maybe it’s something about being mid-summer, that you’re neither dealing with light and inexpensive greens nor are you dealing with heavy (but similarly inexpensive) winter squash. I remember the first grocery shopping trip I did before dd went off to camp and needed to have her lunches packed for her. The list of fruit and veg was quite long and, though I was happy filling my cart with so much lovely produce, our wallet did take a hit once I got up to the register. This week, in particular, certainly does show that it’s possible to eat local fruits and vegetables without breaking the bank ANY MORE than you would if you purchased the exact same items as the grocery store.

Actually, cancel that last statement – or let me amend it. When I do my pricing, I price against the mass-market fruits and vegetables, as it were; I don’t price against the more expensive “organic” varieties offered in store. So, technically, if you were to buy the organic versions at the grocery store, you’d be spending EVEN MORE than what you’d pay for the veggie box through the local farm. That’s just lovely.

Here’s how it all broke down…

Year 2 – Summer Week 6
Weight
(lb)		 Grocery Store Unit Price
(per lb)		 Grocery Store Total Item Cost
Green Peppers (each) 2.00 $1.99 $3.98
Potatoes 2.74 $1.49 $4.09
Zucchini 2.48 $1.99 $4.93
Cucumbers (each) 2.00 $0.99 $1.98
Cherry Tomatoes (pint) 1.00 $3.99 $3.99
Wax Beans 1.02 $2.49 $2.53
Heirloom Tomatoes 1.24 $3.99 $4.96
Corn (ears) 6.00 $0.50 $3.00
Grocery Store Total Cost $29.45
Year 2 Summer Week 6 Savings (Deficit) $7.45

It’s clear, from looking at the numbers, that certain items – like the heirloom tomatoes – really helped me get a lot of extra value out of the box. (They’re also terribly yummy, too.) The sheer heft of the box also helped; though they claimed that I was getting 2 lbs of potatoes and zucchini, both came in well over that weight. Even had they come in right on the dot, the quality and expensive nature of some of the items included (specifically the cherry tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes) helped out quite a bit.

Of course, here’s where you then start to diverge from a simple value discussion. The cherry tomatoes we get from our farm aren’t like the cherry tomatoes you get at the grocery store. Take the best, most wonderful, sweetest cherry tomato you can get at a grocery store and then double the flavorfulness. You may then come close to approximating how incredible these cherries are. The sheer wonderfulness of them makes them disappear in a heartbeat; we had most with dinner Saturday night and the remainder got snapped up at lunchtime on Sunday. In fact, my prediction of caprese salad fell flat but was replaced instead by dh doctoring half a Digiorno cheese pizza with the fresh basil, halved cherry tomatoes and a few cloves of garlic. Holy cow did that take the pizza to a whole other level. It was fantastic.

So, looking at it from the point of view of savings, this box hit one right out of the park. From a taste perspective, it also went a long way towards validating that buying this week was the right choice.

Adventures in CSA (year 2 week 6): Tomato, Tomahtoh…

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{Note: If you’re wondering what happened to week 5, the answer is that we took the week off…}

If there’s one thing I LOVE about our local farm, it’s that they have the most amazing cherry tomatoes I’ve ever had in my entire life. These things are like candy, seriously. So when I saw that this week’s veggie box included not just a pint of cherry tomatoes but also some heirloom tomatoes, I swooned…and then promptly told dh that I was GETTING THIS VEGGIE BOX and we will FIGURE OUT how to get through them all before I leave for BlogHer’12. (I’m heading to NYC without the family, but since cherry tomatoes don’t last all that long in our house, this shouldn’t be a problem.)

This week’s list of goodies was a nice balance of “WTHMORECUCUMBERS?!” and “Ohhhh Tomatoes!”. We even got a pair of small purple potatoes, which promptly were turned into purple potato chips with the remnants from a prior week’s veggie’s box. In fact, thanks to our local farmstand (which has a fishmonger truck on Fridays only), our dinner Friday night was entirely local: sea scallops from Provincetown, corn from the farm and potato chips made from the farm’s purple potatoes. SO GOOD.

Year 2 Week 6 Veggie Box

TOMATOES!! YEAY!!!

  • Potatoes
  • Green Peppers
  • Cucumbers
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Corn
  • Wax Beans
  • Zucchini
  • Heirloom Tomatoes

Now, lest you think we don’t have a plan for the heirlooms yet…guess again. DH has a basil plant at work (don’t judge – I think it’s wicked cool), and he brought home a container of freshly picked basil leaves to go with the heirlooms. And I will acquire some mozzarella. And then we shall have a caprese salad and ALL WILL BE RIGHT WITH THE WORLD. But lest anyone think I’ve gone crazy locavore and am planning to press my own olive oil…think again. Colavita is my friend. And it will still be awesome.

The peppers will likely be snack-time for the kiddos, who are complete pepper-heads, and the wax beans may just get steamed and eaten with dinner. That’s the funny thing about some of these summer veggies: they’re so wonderful that the best preparation is often next-to-no work. Just wash, dry and eat. Or maybe wash, steam and eat. Zucchini and other squash do well on the grill (especially if you sprinkle some spices and herbs on top, or a mixture like Penzeys Greek Seasoning – a fan favorite in our household). It’s not until you start to get to the fall and all those winter squash that more prep really needs to come into play.

So score one yet again for the veggie box – the simpler the preparation, the easier it is to incorporate into a busy schedule that leaves little time for elaborate dishes during the week. More on the value of the box in a later post…for now, I’m just going to enjoy making my (even brief) plans for all this lovely local veggie goodness.