guest blogger: our fully belly csa

Guest Blogger: Future Wife of the "Bean Grower"

As we watch our garden grow, we enjoy eating vegetables that are almost as local as the ones from our backyard. We belong to a CSA program or Community Supported Agriculture. This means that at the beginning of each growing season we buy a share of a local farm. By paying up front, we help the farmers to replace farming equipment, buy seed etc. In return, we get fresh vegetables from the farm each week--whatever produce is ready for harvesting. It is pretty exciting (and at times discouraging...) because you never quite know what you are going to get. Your weeks worth of produce is in the hands of the farmers. They know best.

We belong to the Full Belly Farm CSA, a farm in the Capay Valley in Guinda, California and we pick up our vegetables right here in Berkeley. This is our third CSA. We were members of CSAs from two farms when we lived in New York. When we started the CSA four years ago, I barely knew how to cook. I would pick up a couple of large bags of vegetables in the East Village and I would be completely stumped. What I am going to do with 12 eggplants?! We don't even like eggplant! How about rhubarb?! I have never eaten it in my life. Needless to say, a lot of food went to waste. And...not even in the compost bin. This was NYC and we lived in a 6 floor walk up. A lot of it went in the trash. However, I did learn to make ratatouille and rhubarb cake!

I am happy to report over the past few years, I have used the CSA vegetables to actually teach myself how to cook. It is a game I play with myself. What delicious recipes can I make based on the vegetables from the CSA each week?

Yesterday was notable. I made a recipe for which every ingredient was from our CSA (minus the lemon juice...more on that later). I made German potato salad with green beans (a family favorite for July 4th.) Here are the ingredients: potatoes, green beans, fresh basil, red onion, garlic, and purslane. (A note about purslane: I have never even heard of this before. It is a green plant with small, thick leaves. I was told it is often used in Mexican cooking and is similar to spinach. It is apparently really good for you.) I also used lemon juice from a Meyer lemon picked from our backyard. It was part of the dressing I put on top of the salad (lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and Dijon mustard). All in all, it was a big hit.

I love that lots of vegetables we are eating are from a local farm! I can't wait to find out what we will get in our CSA box next week.