The CSA Chapter Closes

The farm shares are now over for the year (sigh of relief).

This did not work out very well this go round -- oh, sure, there were moments of culinary heaven when I had the time to really prepare the food well...but overall, the farm shares created a lot of problems.

For starters, I got bok choy fifteen times. I've still got three heads of it in the fridge as I type this. Contrast this to only getting broccoli four times. And, remember I was in two different farms...I guess the bok choy is super easy to grow and really pest resistant and the broccoli is not. I got very little corn and that is not surprising because the yield is very low when you don't use chemicals to grow it.

I love to cook but I like to be in more control of what I have to cook. When you've got three heads of bok choy and over a dozen sweet potatoes on your hands, you've lost control.

Three times between June and now, I've been out of town and had to give the shares away so I have to factor in that there was some money down the drain there.

I also will not miss having to figure out every Thursday when/how I was going to get the stuff picked up. Sometimes that was a problem too.

Probably the worst of it was that I had to throw so much stuff away. I'd say I threw out at least 30%, if not more. I just cannot use a dozen cucumbers in one week or even over the course of two weeks. SO doesn't eat them at all so cucumbers are all on me.

I've considered cutting back to a half share from the farm that stood out as the better of the two but there will still be the problem of too many cucumbers, eggplant, kohlrabi, swiss chard, etc. There will still be the problem of having to make sure I find time to go pick it up and there still won't be enough of the basic stuff like carrots, onions, and celery (no celery at all this year).

One thing I failed to notice is that my cooking guru does not have a farm share. She used to but because of all the reasons I mentioned above, she does not. I should have paid attention to that!!!




If I want to support the farms, I think I will just make a donation next year!