Tag Archives: vegan

Adventures in CSA (week 3): The price gap narrows…barely

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Last week, the price difference (the savings by going with the CSA) was driven primarily by the Asian Pears – which only now appear to have ripened! This week, the more pedestrian items in the box kept the savings down to a minimum BUT I have to note a couple of caveats: 1) My grocery store doesn’t carry rainbow carrots or Italian eggplant, so in both cases I had to price out the nearest equivalent, and 2) in both of those cases, I’m sure that the nearest equivalent was cheaper than the actual item would have been in the store.

Here’s how it came out:

Week 3 CSA

Weight
(lb)

Grocery Store Unit Price
(per lb)

 Grocery Store Total Item Cost
Tomatoes 1.12 $2.79 $3.12
Eggplant 0.83 $1.59 $1.32
Italian Eggplant** 0.68 $1.59 $1.08
Radishes* 1.00 $0.99 $0.99
Green Peppers 0.71 $1.59 $1.13
White Onion 1.19 $0.99 $1.18
Macintosh Apples 0.79 $1.59 $1.25
Rainbow Carrots** 1.05 $1.59 $1.66
Cucumbers* 3.00 $0.89 $2.67
Acorn Squash 1.75 $1.79 $3.13
Corn* 3.00 $0.60 $1.80
White Potatoes 1.01 $0.99 $1.00
Grocery Store Total Cost $20.33
Week 3 Savings (Deficit) $0.33
Program-to-Date Savings (Deficit) $10.61
Notes:
* Items are priced by the unit or bunch; I checked for rough equivalency (and they were close enough).
** Exact matches weren’t available. Closest equivalent was priced, but these prices are likely to be lower than actual if the exact item was in-store.

So, there is still a (very) modest savings by going the CSA route versus the grocery store. Furthermore, the variety of the items in the box outmatched the grocery store. That was probably what surprised me the most – that I got two items my grocery store didn’t even have. I had considered going to the nearest Whole Foods to see if they had the Italian eggplant or the rainbow carrots, but I decided against it; if the idea is to compare the CSA against where I shop normally, then the only fair comparison is against my regular grocery store. Feel free to put your own store to the test and see how they do…

Adventures in CSA (week 3): New frontiers

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This week should prove more of a challenge for me than the prior two weeks, for two reasons: 1) radishes, and 2) eggplant. I’ve never been a fan of radishes, and I’ve only ever really seen them deployed as extra color and crunch in salads. Eggplant’s never been a favorite of mine because the consistency hasn’t ever really worked for me. So, as DH pointed out, this will be our first “stretch” week: really branching out and trying stuff that neither of us have taken to. Still, I have to say that this is the most colorful week we’ve had yet, thanks in part to the gorgeous rainbow carrots. The picture below doesn’t really do them full justice, since I was trying to get everything in the shot, but the carrots range from a yummy light orange to a light yellow to a pale yellow that borders on white. I can’t WAIT to dig into those guys! (And the corn’s already been eaten. You bring corn into this house, and it’s gone in less than 24hrs.)

 

CSA Week 3

Ooh! Pretty colors...!

 

Contents of this week’s box:

  • Tomatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Italian Eggplant
  • Radishes
  • Green Peppers
  • White Onion
  • Macintosh Apples
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Cucumbers
  • Acorn Squash
  • Corn
  • White Potatoes

I’m not entirely sure whether the potatoes will go the way of their predecessors (week 1: rosemary-garlic french fries; week 2: hash browns), but both are really winning formulas. The squash may get roasted, or turned into risotto, or roasted and then turned into risotto…it’s all pretty open right now.

And, as always, I’ll post the cost comparison after I’ve had the chance to go to the grocery store. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen Italian eggplant or rainbow carrots at my grocery store, so this one may get a little tricky. Just as this gives me a chance to explore new foods, it also gives me an opportunity to test out the variety of what’s in my grocery store. They haven’t been beaten by the CSA on variety yet. Yet.

Of course, there’s always the question of quality. The CSA carrots have been quite good thus far (although the ones that my sister has shared from her CSA have been even sweeter), and the corn hasn’t been as good as the stuff from our local farmstand. Still, comparing CSA to CSA to farmstand (that has its own CSA) is really not the right comparison. Comparing the quality to the stuff from the grocery store, I can say that the tomatoes have been more flavorful, and that’s one area where flavor can be hard to come by in the grocery store varieties. The Macs have been as good as what we get from the orchard, and they are comparable to those from the grocery store (we’re lucky enough to have plenty of local orchards to supply our grocer).

In other words, what I’m seeing (and tasting) is a variably better product at a better price. So far. Whether or not all of that holds up as we go through the remaining 5 weeks, I’m not quite sure. But, so far I’ve been very pleased with what we’ve gotten, and I love picking up my box o’veggies every Friday afternoon. For a person who used to hate vegetables as a kid, I think that’s a pretty fantastic thing!

Adventures in CSA: Brinner Gone Wild

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I don’t know about anyone else, but there are some nights when the meal plan is just kinda filled with question marks. We had actually planned for tonight to be makeshift Chinese food (some frozen General Tso’s Chicken with rice on the side, plus some manner of veggie and maybe some egg rolls or other appetizer from the deep freeze). Still, the CSA veggies beckoned, and we decided to go for a “brinner” (breakfast as dinner) instead.

You see, there are few foods that make me come running nearly so fast as hash browns. No – not home fries…little chunks of potato with peppers are just kinda meh, in my opinion. But, you shred some potatoes, throw those suckers into a pan and turn ’em golden brown…well, that just makes a little pan of heaven. So, DH took our lovely little red potatoes from the CSA, shredded them in the food processor, and tossed ’em in a pan with some butter. They took longer than either of us were hoping for, but the end product was still crispy in spots and soft in others (perfect!) and delightfully yummy. We paired those with french toast and turkey sausage. But didn’t we still need a veggie? Why YES.

At this point, that’s when things get “wild”. Brinner went smorgasbord when we added kale chips to the mix, crisping up the CSA kale in the oven. The recipe couldn’t be simpler – just wash and dry kale leaves, then chop into small pieces. Toss the pieces in a bowl with a small amount of olive oil and spread them no more than one layer deep on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle some seasoned salt on top (we used Penzeys 4/S Special Seasoned Salt) and bake at 350F for about 10-13 minutes. Even the kids got behind the idea of kale chips!

As with last week, we’ve made a good dent in the CSA box. We haven’t yet tackled the butternut squash (it’s still got plenty of time), and we have both onions left to be used. I did try one of the Asian Pears today, but I’m pretty convinced it wasn’t 100% ripe yet, since its flavor was so subtle as to be non-existent. Ah well, it can’t always be a winning day.

On the plus side, tomorrow is Friday and that means it’s CSA pick-up day! I’m looking forward to see what’s in my third veggie box…