I\u2019ve always prided myself on growing a garden full of fresh veggies.\u00a0 I love to be outside and spend time in my garden.\u00a0 However, life has its phases and right now my days outside are spent chasing my two year old daughter and caring for a newborn.\u00a0 I finally had to admit it to myself that I didn\u2019t have the time to have a big garden.\u00a0 I shared my disappointment with a few friends and they enthusiastically said, \u201cJoin a CSA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation and in return receive shares in the farm\u2019s bounty throughout the growing season.\u00a0 Intrigued by the idea, I did some research and found a certified organic farm that offered produce from mid-May to Thanksgiving.\u00a0 Every week, they drop off boxes of produce to\u00a0local residents homes who have volunteered to be\u00a0pick up\u00a0sites.\u00a0 I decided to go for it and sent them a check for the season.<\/p>\n
For three weeks now, I\u2019ve gone to my local pick up site to retrieve my box of goodies.\u00a0 I get excited for Wednesday to come to find out what\u00a0we’ll get.\u00a0 This early in the season we\u2019ve already tasted fresh strawberries, lettuce, spinach, red potatoes, scallions, broccoli and radishes.\u00a0There are many benefits to joining a CSA and\u00a0getting our food locally, but here are\u00a0a few\u00a0benefits I hadn\u2019t predicted:<\/p>\n
My daughter likes fresh, tender broccoli and baby spinach!\u00a0 She hasn’t liked broccoli I’ve bought before at the supermarket, but the tender organic broccoli she loved.\u00a0 Who knew?\u00a0 Same with the baby spinach \u2013 I\u2019ve given spinach to her numerous times before and she always puts it in her mouth and then spits it out with disgust.\u00a0 Not so with the tender baby spinach that came in the CSA box.\u00a0 She ate it, looked at me and said, \u201cmore, please.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019re eating greater variety.\u00a0 I tend to buy the same fruits and vegetables every week.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember if I\u2019ve ever bought radishes.\u00a0 Turns out my husband loves radishes \u2013 something I never knew.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s almost as exciting as growing them yourself.\u00a0 I was disappointed that I wouldn\u2019t have time for a large garden.\u00a0 There\u2019s something satisfying about going out and picking vegetables you\u2019ve grown to make dinner.\u00a0 But I am getting gratification from supporting a local farm.\u00a0 I get updates about the farm and even can go to the farm on specific weekends in the summer.\u00a0 I feel a bond with the farm that I certainly don\u2019t feel going to the supermarket.<\/p>\n
To learn more and find a CSA in your area, go to: http:\/\/www.nal.usda.gov\/afsic\/pubs\/csa\/csa.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve always prided myself on growing a garden full of fresh veggies.\u00a0 I love to be outside and spend time in my garden.\u00a0 However, life has its phases and right now my days outside are spent chasing my two year old daughter and caring for a newborn.\u00a0 I finally had to admit it to myself that I didn\u2019t have the Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,780,55],"tags":[381,382],"class_list":["post-2222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e","category-nutrition-2","category-c","tag-community-supported-agriculture","tag-csa","cat-42-id","cat-780-id","cat-55-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/P1000178-300x225.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2222"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8200,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222\/revisions\/8200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}