CSA shares

Just received a newsletter announcing the last CSA delivery for the winter season. (CSA - community supported agriculture) This is a program that allows us to buy "shares" in a local (wisconsin) family farm oriented food co-op. Each month we get a share delivered to a convenient spot in our city neighborhood. The food is whatever is available locally during the season, usually organic, and usually farmed using sustainable techniques. They are looking into being able to provide meat next season as well.

Here is their wisconsin website: http://www.homegrownwisconsin.com, here is the csa website for homegrownwisconsin: http://www.homegrownwisconsin.com/csa.htm

Here is a site that will let you find a CSA organization in your community: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

I don't often get on a soapbox but this is something I believe very strongly in. Rather than supporting whole paycheck all the time, I look to my CSA shares for the basics. Rather than eating the beautiful but tasteless strawberries that whole foods ships into Chicago from South America in December, we ate nasty looking but fabulous tasting apples grown less than 100 miles from here on a small family farm with as much sustainable technique as possible.

Last month we got potatoes, onions, garlic, turnips, popcorn on the cob (haven't made this yet) some cheese, carrots, and those nasty looking apples that tasted very good

Here is what will be in our box on Thursday:

Turnips
Austrian crescent fingerling potatoes and mixed fingerling potato medley including Russian banana fingerling red thumb and baby blue
White Jerusalem artichokes
Popcorn on the cob
Carrots
Salsify – rare specialty from west star farm – pale to brown skin and creamy flesh-packaged in chunks and pieces and lighter than the Jerusalem artichoke
Parsnips
Wild sumac berries – not like your average berry –clusters of red hairy berries in a spike form- stay clear of the white berries (not included) they are poisonous! Sumac is sacred to Indian people- being the foundation of many medicines, used in the dyeing of mundane and sacred objects of artwork and in c eremonies. Tastes like lemons and makes a wonderful tea packed with vitamin C.

Mix of Red and Yellow flesh potatoes
Raw milk cheddar cheese
Rutabaga
Garlic
Green cabbage

Recipes for: salsify patties, sumac tea, mock oyster chowder (salsify stew)
Gratin of Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke and carrot soup, spiced parsnip and apple soup with parsnip chips, lentil soup with bacon and cabbage

Anyone know anything about sumac berries, jerusalem artichokes and salsify?
I can't wait.

We're not CSA subscribers, but act as alternates (if someone is away, we get called to see if we want their share). During opera offseason Betsy travels too much for us to commit to weekly. Good stuff, though it can occasionally be a challenge.

Whether one is interested in CSA or not, I'd recommend a film that just came out on DVD, "The Real Dirt on Farmer John." This is the Netflix thumbnail:
Filmmaker Taggart Siegel paints a fascinating portrait of a man who refused to yield. By transforming his farm into an experimental haven in the late 1960s, John Peterson attracted hundreds of artists, hippies and other political radicals. But when the agriculture crisis of the late 1980s led to the farm's eventual collapse -- and his neighbors publicly branded him a devil worshipper -- most locals thought he'd call it quits. They were wrong.

We saw it at a local theater on its limited release (complete with a forum with Farmer John and Dan Barber from Blue Hill restaurant), very quirky and enjoyable.

Dried and ground sumac is a classic Middle Eastern condiment. Sprinkle it on some hummous for a real treat.

You've inspired me- I found an interesting CSA that has dropoffs in the next town over (Vallejo). I'm signing up today.

Thanks for the suggestion....found three near us . One farm is one of the many I buy from every Saturday at the Farmer's Market. They run April through Dec. here. This farm apparently grows year round and are only about 4 minutes from me. Yippee!

Unfortunately, I have found in the past that CSAs are impractical for people who live alone. So then I tried to set up a shared membership with some friends, but it didn't work out.