Community Supported Agriculture

I first heard about CSAs when I was living in Austin, and for $10/week, a bag full of fresh fruit and veggies and sometimes farm-fresh eggs would show up on my doorstep every Friday. It exposed me to all kinds of new and interesting produce, and I loved the challenge of figuring out what to do with it all before the next delivery.

In an effort to regain control of my eating (and cooking), I just joined a local, organic CSA and received my first delivery of the summer season last Tuesday:


That gigantic baguette-looking vegetable is an Armenian cucumber, and it seriously is as long as my arm. A third of it made for wonderful marinated (in rice vinegar, sugar, salt, sesame oil, and crushed red pepper) cucumbers to go on the side of garlic-sesame pork tenderloin. Most of the bounty kept well while we were in NYC (trip report to come shortly), and I hope to use a lot of it once tomorrow's delivery arrives and I see what else is on the menu this week. Unfortunately, I knew the ripe plum and yellow pear tomatoes wouldn't, so I generously shared those with my coworkers, who swore they did not let them go to waste.

Can't wait for tomorrow's delivery! Hoping for more tomatoes so I can make Cooking Light's fabulous tomato and eggplant gratin.