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Adventures in CSA (year 2 week 3): MYO Box Time!

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This week was an odd one. Having been uninspired by the option in the box offered by the farm this week, we decided to invoke the privilege of NOT purchasing a box. I figured that I would first try to construct my own box from the grocery store, since that’s what most people have access to. I set about with some basic rules:

  1. Must not cost more than $22 total
  2. Must have at least six items
  3. Must not have items already needed/planned for a meal
  4. Must contain at least one item that’s new to me (or that we have had only infrequently, at best)
  5. Must be items grown within the US (preferably New England, to keep it regional)

I’m pleased to say that I managed to do all of the following, including keeping everything to produce grown within Massachusetts! All but one of the items we picked out came from our local farm (the same one that does the CSA we’ve been ordering for the last few weeks), and the other item came from a farm on the other end of the state, out in Western MA. I will say that going to one of our local grocery stores was terribly disappointing. Not only did they not have any indication of the specific source for their fruits and veggies (unless marked in packaging, things were marked only for their country of origin), but they didn’t have anything other than squash from even a regional farm (and that was across the border, in Rhode Island).

When I talked with one of the produce guys who was stocking the area during my trip through that grocery store, he said that they hadn’t even been contacted by any local farms yet. I will note that this isn’t the store I typically do all of my week’s shopping in, but it’s a major chain and it’s a full-size store. Furthermore, when I went to one of their other stores that’s also nearby, I saw fruit tagged “Local!” and noted that the label said it was from New Jersey. OK, same coast, but NOT LOCAL, GUYS.

DH wanted us to give the farmstand a chance to provide a more interesting variety than what they were putting in their box, and I’m glad he pushed for that. They had a whole section that was just their stuff, and they clearly marked what was theirs versus what was from other local/regional farms versus what was from out of the area or country. Clear, easy-to-understand labeling really is a must if you’re going to try to understand where ANY of your food comes from, especially when it’s fresh produce.

So, here’s what I got:

Adventures in CSA, year 2 week 3

MYOB attempt #1: so colorful!

 

Year 2 – Summer Week 3 (Make Your Own)
Weight
(lb)		 Farmstand Unit Price (per lb) Farmstand Total Item Cost
Blueberries (pint) 1.00 $4.50 $4.50
Fancy Summer Squash 1.04 $2.19 $2.28
Golden Beets (bunch) 1.00 $1.75 $1.75
Red Beets (bunch) 1.00 $2.99 $2.99
Wax Beans 0.66 $2.49 $1.64
Cherry Tomatoes (1/2 pint) 1.00 $2.95 $2.95
Gooseberries (1/2 pint) 1.00 $4.99 $4.99
Farmstand Total Cost $21.10

The cherry tomatoes are the first of the season from our farm and they are always OUTSTANDING. As it happens, between me and dd, it’s unlikely that they’ll last the night. The fancy summer squash, wax beans and gooseberries are all “new to us” items that we’re excited to try. The summer squash may get grilled, the wax beans will surely be steamed, and the gooseberries (thus far) have been eaten plain. They’ve got a really bizarre-looking inside and the one I tried seemed like a grape, only a little more tart. It’ll be interesting to see how this MYO box process works for the week. We went with some items that we’re familiar with, like the beets, tomatoes and blueberries, and we branched out a little, too.

With some careful selection, we were able to purchase only local items (I consider Western MA local, since it’s within the same state), and we managed to get a decent selection of colorful, fresh produce within the budget I’d set. If this works out well enough, we’ll repeat it on any future weeks where we have a similar lack of excitement over the pre-selected box. Hopefully, it’ll also inspire others to consider trying their own MYO-CSA project. Supporting local agriculture and feeding yourself fresh fruits & veggies at the same time…it’s a win-win!

Short thoughts on shell peas

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Shell peas had been given nearly-mythic status in my mind thanks to the ravings of my BIL, who swears that freshly shelled peas from my sister’s garden is one of his favorite summer foods. So, it was with great joy that I saw the CSA box would have shell peas (aka “English peas”) this past week. I was never much of a pea person until dh and I started dating and he would get me into canned peas as a decent side dish at dinnertime. After we had kids, we more firmly transitioned to frozen peas – typically, the 2lb bag with the grocery store brand label.

And then there’s shell peas. They’re going to be fantastic. Mythic. EPIC.

My verdict: They’re yummy, but they’re more trouble than they need to be worth. That’s not to say that I didn’t like them. I did – really, I did! But they didn’t blow me away enough to make me think that this is THE PEA FOR ME FOR NOW AND FOREVER.

First off, there’s some effort required in taking them from in-the-pod to not-in-the-pod. For the bag of approximately 2lbs of shell peas, I spent a little more than a half-hour to shell the lot of them, and I yielded just about 13oz of peas. Half of them were prepared last night, and the other half went back into the fridge to be prepared later in the week. Everything I’ve read about shell peas said that you should eat them pretty soon after they’re picked, so we’re trying to be good about getting through them.

Once you get past the shelling process, the cooking process is super-easy. For about 6-7oz peas, just boil some water in a saucepan, add the peas and cook them for about 1-2 minutes, until they’re a pretty green. Turn off the heat, strain them to get rid of the water, and then stir in about 1/2Tb butter or margarine. Some people put salt in the water or salt the peas after. Some bypass all that and just eat them raw. Peas are, as always, a “whatever works for you” kind of vegetable.

Everybody liked the peas, but it was clear that the reception was only somewhat better than what we get for the frozen ones heated up in the microwave. For the price difference and the work required, that relegates shell peas firmly to weekend-duty, on an irregular basis. Shell peas may be a treat, but I think I’ve seen now that the myth was more in my head than in the pod.

Adventures in CSA (year 2 week 2): Better in several ways

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Surprisingly, while there was a still a price gap between what I paid and what I got, it was a smaller gap in several ways. First off, I got several things that my grocery store doesn’t actually carry IN-STORE. The easiest way to price these more random items was to find the closest equivalent on the “To Go” portion of their web site, which allows me to see a vastly larger array of produce than what’s available in the store. For example, the spinach (on the stems) and the shell peas were only available on the web site; in store, you can have bagged spinach leaves and bagged (shelled) peas. I used Baby Bok Choi as the closest equivalent for tatsoi on pricing, since it looked just similar enough for these purposes. I’m still in a net negative position, financially, BUT I’m getting things that are harder to find than what I normally come across, and that’s worth something that you can’t really put as much of a price on.

 

Year 2 – Summer Week 2
Weight
(lb)		 Grocery Store Unit Price
(per lb)		 Grocery Store Total Item Cost
Blueberries (pint) 1.00 $4.99 $4.99
Shell Peas 2.25 $2.49 $5.60
Summer Squash 0.89 $1.99 $1.77
Pickling Cucumbers 1.65 $1.99 $3.28
Green Beans 1.00 $1.99 $1.99
Spinach 0.45 $2.98 $1.35
Tatsoi 0.28 $2.99 $0.84
Carrots 0.73 $0.99 $0.73
Grocery Store Total Cost $20.55
Year 2 Summer Week 2 Savings (Deficit) ($1.45)

 

As of Saturday, when I went grocery shopping, we had yet to really dig into this box, since we’re still finishing off LAST week’s box, but I’ve already got my schemes in mind. One suggestion (thanks, Tammy!) was to put a bunch of the items from the box (including the blueberries) into a blender and make a smoothie out of them. I don’t see this as any kind of a cop-out: it’s a great use for fresh fruits and veggies! I have to admit, coming into the grocery store yesterday and filling my cart first with produce, I felt pretty happy about what I was pushing around, seeing how my cart was packed to the gills with all kind of fresh fruits and veggies. Of course, that didn’t completely cancel out the turkey pepperoni and Gatorade I put in the cart right after that…but, oh, don’t judge.