A Year in the Life of A CSA Host

As many of you know, I've been hosting a CSA at my home for the past year. I wanted to pass on some things that have been really meaningful for me, and some reflections on the experience. 

Some of you may not know what a CSA is, or what it actually means to host one. Community Supported Agriculture allows us to buy direct from the farmer, which ultimately means cheaper produce, a deeper connection to those growing our food, and also more sustainable practices (since the food is primarily local). In addition, our CSA is organic or eco-grown, which means that we ditch the pesticides and herbicides that come with conventional produce, and in the end, we end up contributing to "greening" the earth. Every little step counts. In addition, everything is seasonal, grown in the tri-state area (for 99% of the produce). This means that you get what you get when nature delivers it. An abundance of fruit in the summer, an abundance of roots and greens in the winter. 

As a host, I would receive boxes of produce that would be in season, and I'd divide it into shares for people to pick up. So for example, today (December 5th) we received:  apples, pears, potatoes, celeriac, carrots, kale, lettuces, bananas (these were not local), tomatoes, oranges, broccoli, and a few other things. I'd divide them all by weight or number in individual share boxes (we had 15 shares total), put extras in a grab/exchange basket (those items not divisible by 15), and put out a sign up sheet where people leave their payment for the next share, and check off that they've received today's share.  

There were many unexpected things that I learned from this experience. The first thing that was very evident to me was the seasons changing, and what was available. To be honest, many of us are used to buying what we want, when we want it. Even in December, you can find strawberries. But everything comes with a price. Getting "what we want, when we want it" means that someone has to drive it from the region that it grows (and pineapples don't grow in NJ), and that means gas, travel, time, fumes, paying the driver, and many other facets of the food industry that we don't see. Eating food that is seasonal and local makes sense for these reasons alone, but I also found that it makes sense in other ways:  in the summer, my body wants to cool down with fresh berries and lettuce. In the winter time, I want to warm up with a sweet potato, some amazingly sweet apples, and boost my immunity with broccoli and kale. It just makes sense that I crave these things, and never has this been more evident than when I hosted this CSA.

The second thing I noticed is that organic produce isn't always pretty and perfect. And I loved that. I love the spots on the apples (but when you taste them, the flavor is nothing like what you'd buy at a supermarket). I love the non-waxy oranges and the incredible juice inside. I love how the lettuce comes in crazy colors like deep purple, red, brown even, and vibrant greens. I also found that the tomatoes with the little extra give also had the extra flavor in them, especially when made into a sauce. Some people turned their nose up when they saw spots here and there, but I knew the secret (the same secret when my mother cut into the gnarly crab apples from the tree) - they were the most delicious ones! So when they were left behind in the grab basket, I gladly gave them a home. Nature isn't perfect. Heirlooms come with knobs and colors and features not common, and that's what I was after. That's where the nutrition, flavor, and authenticity was. 

I also gained a huge appreciation for the farmers. I typically would say a prayer of appreciation before I ate, appreciating the earth for the food, the bees for the pollination, the farmers for the picking, the drivers for bringing us the food, the ones who pumped gas, who bagged it all, the store clerks, everyone involved in getting us the produce. But ever since I started the CSA, this appreciation deepened. The connection for me became closer to those that provided the food that we ate. I became the one who dispersed the food, very early in the morning, on cold days, and I have to admit, sometimes when I'd rather sleep in. One of the deliveries took place during the 2 week outage from Sandy, so had to make due with gloves, a hat and some serious bundling up. But it was all wonderful and fun and creative. I warmed up by the action and exercise of opening boxes, stooping down to pour out beautiful potatoes in the shares. I saw the sunrise, I greeted the truck guy who told me stories about how he met his fiance, and have a beautiful plant-based Thanksgiving. I connected with the workers who talked with the farmers, and to be pleasantly surprised by how quickly they replaced items and often sent extras because the harvest was plentyful. I also connected with the pod members who sometimes didn't know what they were getting but appreciated the opportunity to better feed their families. This was beyond gold to me. I couldn't pay for this. I couldn't even ask for this experience. It was just given to me.

One of the best parts of the CSA was being forced to try something new. We're so "old" in our practices sometimes, when we just buy what we know. Suddenly, I was trying acorn squash, celeriac, green tomatoes, even mini kiwis - they all tasted fantastic and really required me to up my game on my repertoire. No more boring dinners of the same old things. It was during this period of time when I feel I really became a chef. 

It was a life-changing experience. I worked through the seasons, smiling at whatever mother nature had to give us, meeting new people, appreciating what it really means to bring food to the table, in a nutritious, organic, clean, whole way. 

If you are ever interested in finding a CSA near you, you can visit any of these sites. Get ready to be inspired. 

http://www.purpledragon.com/

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

An Organized Whole-Foods Pantry

More so in recent times, it's come to my attention that the state of the kitchen (or should I say, the center of the home, where we usually congregate, eat, talk, dream, prepare, settle down with a cup of tea at night) should be as clean and organized as possible - for heaven's sake! 

There are many reasons for this, the biggest being that I'm a busy person and simply put, I need to know what I have. That's it. We've all bought several bags of beans only to realize that we've bought too much - and that for the next 6 months we must succumb to eating the beans, otherwise, we'd risk them becoming extra gassy, old, stale, hard to digest and well, just plain stinky. It's good to know what you have and use it in a timely manner. 

The second reason is efficiency. When I'm hungry and I want to make something to eat, I can't spend time rummaging through what I have. Like a child, "I need to eat, and I need to eat now!" I'm very visual and I need to see what I have instantly, so that I can whip something up in a jiffy and impress everyone on the block (actually, not really, that never happens....it's just about whipping something up fast and enjoy the pleasure that comes with filling a hungry belly). This is also very helpful when it comes to shopping. Since everything is in glass jars, I can see when we're running out of oats, raisins, and cannelini. There's no rummaging through bags (brown, plastic, or otherwise), and things are neat and in order. 

The last reason is that we're all hoping to eat better, so we should really set ourselves up for success in every way possible. If you have nothing in the house that's healthy or good to eat, then we're more apt to go out, order in, or just buy something in a hungry frenzy. Keeping yourself stocked with good things enables you to eat well, simply put. It's a no-brainer.

So, for these reasons, I wanted to show you what's in my pantry, and to encourage you to keep things in the kitchen organized, neat, clean, but fun and creative also. Use this as an opportunity to create a fun space for yourself! Get back to the "old way" of living where we ditch the boxes of prepackaged goods (actually, un-goods), and go for whole, recognizable foods!

Here's the scoop for what you should include:  

1.  Grains (and please whenever opt for beautifying non-gluten grains, as gluten makes oh not so beautiful):  teff, millet, quinoa, buckwheat and oats. Also include flours if you're a baker, but if you're not, best to store them in your freezer. I go through spells - I'll make some scones, and then I won't bake for another 2 months. Therefore, the freezer is my best friend.

2.  Beans:  I love beans to sprout (aduki and mung) and beans to eat (black, cannelini, chickpeas). Having them in glass containers makes it super easy for me to soak them over night and then cook them in a pressure cooker with some kombu. I make big batches and use what I need and freeze the rest. Doing this enables us to ditch the cans (bpa, no way!) and the extra money they cost by making the beans yourself. 

3. Seaweeds: I just mentioned kombu which is super important to have - anything that requires water should get about 1 or 2 inches of this baby in it (think stews, soups, rice, grains, beans, anything that requires water to cook). It's one super simple step to make sure your food is more digestible and infused with the minerals from seaweed. In addition to kombu, we have a big basket of:  hijiki, nori, dulse, and a myriad of other seaweeds. I love just clipping them into salads, or having them in shakers to be used as a salt alternative. Just make sure they're not from the waters of Asia but more from Maine like from this site, so that you're not getting a dose of pollutants in with your seaweed. 

4.  Nuts/seeds:  we love seeds and nuts (I love seeds more than nuts, but it's all individual preference). Since we don't use much oil, we tend to use the whole food variety and add in sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds to our cereals, to much on as a snack, and what have you. We keep overstock in the freezer and keep what we need on hand (they go rancid quickly, so take out and put in mason jars what you'd use for the week). 

5.  Spices:  I LOVE LOVE LOVE spices. It's so easy to make something taste absolutely gourmet and spectacular with a pinch of this and a pinch of that - and not to mention that many of them are medicinal (like ginger and cayenne boosts metabolism, clove boosts immunity, garlic just makes everything taste good, etc.) I keep my spices fresh in an Indian spice box, and add them to nut milks to create chai or even to plain rice for a little kick.  You're also more apt to use them if they look nice. The remainder of the spices that don't fit in the spice trays, I just labeled them and put them in a basket for easy grabbing.

6.  Aliums and roots: we keep our potatoes and onions in big open glass jars or baskets, so that we can see when we're short (or see when they're spoiling - since onions are water rich, their shelf life isn't as long as one might wish. You can also keep these in your garage if it's cold enough, or your fridge, but I've found that I'd rather use my fridge for greens than onions. Also, when kept in glass jars, I can see them better and use them up faster). We're not big on white potatoes, but sweet potatoes/yams and 3 kinds of onions (red, yellow and sweet) are always in our pantry.

7. Fruit: I happen to like room temperature fruit. I also like to see it so I can eat it - again, opening the fridge is too hard for me sometimes and in the cold of winter, I don't really want to eat a cold orange. All of our fruit is out in easy to grab baskets. This also helps greatly when it comes time to shop for food.

8. Herbs: one of the things we've done this year is really get proactive about making our own teas, growing our own herbs, and drying them. We have lemon balm, different kinds of peppermints, and nettles (which make an amazing mineral-rich infusion). I also have a huge bin of my herbs for making tinctures, infusions, medicinals, and keep them neatly placed in a wicker basket for easy grabs. At night, it's easy for me to remember to make a raspberry leaf infusion on the stove and drink it up the next morning. 

This is pretty much it in a nutshell. As you can see, when everything has a place and a creative order to it, it's actually MUCH easier to eat healthy. No more rummaging through cabinets when you're starving (or if you only have cabinets, just designate one for herbs, one for beans, one for grains, and then all you need to do is open the door and everything is at your disposal).