CSA BOX

I swear every Wednesday feels like Christmas! My friend Joey introduced to Terra Firma Farm's CSA program. While we do have a decent garden of our own, we don't have the variety that a CSA box provides.

What is CSA? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is a way that people can directly support a small, local farm while getting a weekly supply of fresh, high-quality, organically grown products. A farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Local consumers buy a share into the farm – they support this year’s crop with an up-front membership, and in exchange, each week during the growing season, they receive a box of local, fresh, and seasonal produce directly from the farm.

For us, a CSA box really made sense. We love vegetables, we love to cook, we don't travel a lot during the summer, and we are ok-with the "shared risk" of the farm share -- meaning, that sometimes there will be a bumper crop and there will be extra goodies in the box. Or, sometimes, the drought, bad weather, or a pest problem could cause crops to suffer and we'd share in that too. For us, the idea of supporting our organic farmers and eating the healthiest regardless of outcome outweighed the risk. It feels (and tastes!) good to be buying and supporting locally.

Terra Firma Farm (where my CSA box comes from) is a 200-acre CCOF certified organic farm that grows vegetables and fruit year-round. They serve the San Francisco Bay area, Davis, Sacramento, Vacaville, and their hometown of Winters. The CCOF certification isn't easy to get - there are rigid requirements and mandatory annual reviews. I like knowing that the farm is absolutely accountable for the quality and care of their produce (and in other cases/and at other farms the care and health of their livestock too).

In our box last week, we received: gorgeous red leaf lettuce, peaches, apricots, onions, summer squash, green beans, beets, tomatoes, and the first ears of corn! I asked my friend and Chef Marybeth Rocco what she would do with this bounty! Because the produce is so fresh, her focus was to treat the items simply and let them stand-out on their own by highlighting their freshness. Nonetheless, her other suggestions were mouthwatering:

• Roast the beets and use them in a salad using the red butter lettuce and the onions, adding walnuts, orange segments/supremes, balsamic vinaigrette (and goat cheese). Serve with with pan roasted salmon.

• Pair the tomatoes and onions and simply add extra virgin olive oil, S&P. Serve with grilled steak.

• Grill the stone fruits for dessert and drizzle with honey and top with paleo granola or crumbled amaretti cookies or biscotti (for those not on a clean 30 challenge 😁).

• Roast or grill the patty pan squash, grill other vegetables like portobello, zucchini, and eggplant, add those to tomatoes, sliced. Make a cool stack and and top it with (fresh mozzarella & 😁) basil pesto.

I was so excited to see early tomatoes and the first corn of the season in our box. My ten year-old loves corn. I think that comes from his awesome mid-western relatives. Following Chef Mary Beth Rocco's instinct, I kept a lot of my preparation simple this week - grilling and roasting and letting the produce speak for itself. I also made a couple of great salads:

• Red leaf, tomatoes, and green beans from the box with red onion and toasted pistachios finished with a simple vinaigrette and Maldon sea salt.

• Red leaf mixed with spinach, with Applegate Naturals turkey breast, slivered almonds, organic peaches, red onion, and raw/shelled hemp seeds.

• A frittata that included roasted and grilled veggies which was a terrific way to use up leftovers.

This was a good week. A very good week! Can't wait to see what's in the next box!

#bodymind