My CSA Started!

This year my parents purchased a CSA for us to split. They bought a 10lb meat CSA and a small family portion vegetable CSA. The vegetables started last Monday, the meat begins today.

For those of you who don't know what a CSA is: it stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically you pay a local farm $X in the winter and over the summer months they give you a box of food every week. By paying them in the winter they have the resources ahead of time to plant and prepare to make you your food. But its a bit of a gamble, what if April and May have tons of rain and all the seedlings drown, you get less food, but you still paid $X. Of course, since you paid that money ahead of time the farm benefits and can survive the bad season.
The upside of this gamble for the consumer--other than supporting local farms, which is ALWAYS an upside--is that if there is good weather, or even passable weather, you get lots of vegetables, fresh and locally grown all summer long!

This is a picture of the first week's takings.
It was a big ole box of leafy greens, a half dozen eggs and a plant. (Al will not be surprised to learn that I chose Lavender, Knowledge will be surprised to learn that I have not killed it yet... but that one I bought while she was visiting is dead).

I gave half the leafys to mom and dad (the half I couldn't identify) and kept the eggs, the plant, the white radishes, and the boston and romaine lettuce.

That night I had a boston lettuce salad with radishes and a fried egg with some crumbled goat cheese. It was FANTASTIC. I ended up having that same salad with boston or romaine lettuce for the next two nights.
This is pretty impressive because normally Tallman and I NEVER eat salad.

This CSA will be worth it because Tallman and my salad intake is increasing!  (my parents have been making the greens into smoothies, and salads, and sautes.)