This week we signed up for a new CSA.
What's a CSA, you ask?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Wikipedia describes CSA as:
"...a form of an alternative food network, ... (CSA) is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, in a vegetable box scheme, and sometimes includes dairy products and meat."
In practice, what this means is that we make a weekly payment to our CSA that they use to invest in their farm. In exchange, we receive a percentage of the farm's harvest.
What about Bryson Farms CSA?
Bryson Farms is located in western Quebec. It's an organic farm that specializes in heirloom produce. Unlike most CSA's in our neck of the woods, Bryson Farms is able to continue delivering their produce to customers year round by using a combination of fresh, storage vegetables (like potatoes and beets), preserved produce (like frozen squash puree and roasted tomatoes) and greenhouse produce. Every Friday, we put our camping cooler on our front porch (complete with ice packs in the summer and blankets in the winter), and the good people from the Farm transform it into a veritable cornucopia by the time we get home from work (or at least that's the idea!). We took our first delivery this Friday. Take a look at what we got:
- Mixed salad greens (x2)
- Kale (? I think?)
- Baby bok choy
- Broccoli rabe (aka rapini)
- Turnips
- Yellow and purple carrots
- Red carrots
- Garlic
- Squash
- Fingerling sweet potatoes
- Golden beets
- Winter radishes (2 black, 1 red)
- Micro-greens (x2)
What a haul! This is the two person box and costs $50 per week. We participated in a different CSA a couple of years ago and we were disappointed with the quantity, quality and variety (plus that one didn't deliver; we had to pick it up, and it wasn't certified organic). Based on this first week's delivery, I'm very impressed with this new CSA. I'm looking forward to seeing how it will progress as we get deeper into the winter.
More on the Bryson Farms CSA and what we're doing with all the fancy-shmancy produce to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment