fair shares.

This past Wednesday was a great day: my husband's birthday (yay!), Earth Day and the first day of our CSA season!

I've been wanting to join a CSA for a few years now - and the philosophy and approach of Fair Shares, which is a combined CSA, was definitely appealing to me. I've been hesitant about the cost (paying up front) and the amount of food we might end up with for two people, which kept me from joining last year. Plus, they had a waiting list for membership last season.

But this year, I decided to get more serious about eating locally and seasonally - so I joined the Fair Shares waiting list and found out about month later that I had a spot. Shortly after that, someone offered to split our share - we'll be alternating weeks - which would save us money and alleviate my worries about dealing with too much produce. Success!

So, after work on Wednesday I went to pick up our first share. My group received the following:

• Hinkebein Hills Chorizo
• Herbs en Route Thyme
• Ozark Forest Fresh Mushrooms
• Wildcard Greens Choice X 2 (I selected Swiss chard and a lettuce mix)
• Dry Dock Farm Lettuce Mix (lots of greens this week!)
• Salume Beddu Mostarda (mostarda is like a lovely Italian chutney)
• Heartland Fresh Chevre
• River Hills Poultry Alliance Eggs
• Marble Creek Maple Syrup
• Black Bear Bakery Bagels (3 varieties, 2 of each)

Here's a picture I took of our share. If you go to my CSA Flickr set, I have notes on some of the pictures, identifying what's what:

Especially excited about those mushrooms. And the chorizo! And the mostarda sounds delicious! Well, let's be honest, I'm excited about it all! The bagels from Black Bear have been wonderful. I'm definitely looking forward to our bi-weekly shares.

Anyone else CSA-ing?

Comments

[Kristal]

Very cool Ellen! I've considered doing fair shares (and splitting the share with Teresa) but I have a couple of my own concerns. First, even with splitting with someone, I'm a little worried about the amount of food we'll end up with - will it be too much? I also worry about ending up with too much meat (because Chad and I buy a quarter beef at the beginning of every year). And I worry that we won't really use every thing we get and will end up making trips to the grocery store anyway, causing us to go way over our food budget.

So, it would be really great if you keep us updated on how it works for you! :) I'd greatly appreciate it!!