I’ve been reading about CSA’s (Community Supported Aqriculture) for a while now, but they always seemed like too much effort, money, or commitment. But recently, our church joined up with a CSA that works out really well for us.

A CSA is a way for the public to create a relationship with a farm and receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become “shareholders” of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments. Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on the farm during the growing season.

Each week, I go to the Local Food Stop website to see if I want to purchase the basket of produce they’re offering.  If it is things I’ll use, I pay and pick it up at our church Thursday evenings.  There’s no subscription commitment or requirement to work on the farm, and it’s reasonably priced – cheaper than both of us eating out all week, and healthier.  Because they’re working with several farmers, there is a varied selection of produce, and so far, it has all been top quality.

This is what we got the first week: apples, plums, a pomegranate, romaine lettuce, green peppers, an acorn squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, purple cauliflower, and a little basil plant.

The best part of it is that we’ve been cooking a lot more with this great food.

• Baked apples for breakfast – cut in half, spread with brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins, and microwave for 5 minutes.
• Pomegranate Walnut Chicken – bread chicken with walnuts and saute, cover with sauce from pomegranates, juice, red wine, broth, and some seasoning
• Acorn squash – cut in half, spread with butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, thyme, and bake for an hour
• Beef stew – crock pot the beef, cauliflower, zucchini, tomato sauce, and potatoes
• Pesto sauce – mix olive oil, basil leaves, garlic, and walnuts and then pour over cheese ravioli – we added in a little cream sauce too

I snacked on the plums, and am saving some of the stew veggies for chicken curry.  I haven’t used the tomatoes or lettuce yet.  We had a couple of snaffus due to our inexperience in the kitchen – we didn’t know how to properly bread chicken but the delicious pomegranate sauce covered it up, and our beef stew was a little bland.  The pesto was awesome, and I discovered a really cool mini food processor that was under my cabinet.  (Mom, did you leave that there?)  So overall, it was good enough to try another week.

This week, we got: tri-colored shard, red leaf lettuce, snap beans, concord grapes, radishes, yellow squash, apples, pluots, mushrooms, green onions, and an avocado.

This week’s recipes haven’t been posted on the CSA website yet, so I’m a little unsure on what to do with some of these items.  If you have any great recipes these, particularly the chard, lettuce, radishes, squash, or onions, let me know.