Monday, December 29, 2008

Community Supported Agriculture

My four years in Davis wreaked havok on my fruit and veggie eating habits. I devloped an allergy to ALL fruit, so, clearly, something went wrong somewhere. I'm sad to say that since leaving Davis, my fruit and veggie habits have only slightly improved. I cook with some common veggies, but over two years later, I still can't eat any fruit unless its cooked or I accompany it with a base to keep the acidity down (fruit with yogurt/cottage cheese, fruit and ice cream, fruit and cheese, etc). Melons and highly acidic fruits (strawberries, oranges, etc) are completely off limits still. No matter what I do, the results are unpleasant.

Anyway, to try to improve our veggie habits (and maybe trick my body into being able to take fruit again), we've decided to join a Community Supported Agriculture program (or CSA). We're currently deciding between two programs right now--one where we pick out what we want then pick it up at a designated location each week or one that delivers directly to our house but picks out the contents of our box each week. The produce is all organic, and we'd actually be paying less for the produce than we would if we went to Safeway and bought the same items (not organic). It's possible that we could get better deals at a Farmer's Market, but seeing as we haven't made it out to one, this option looks like our best bet until we can start going to the Farmer's Market regularly.

What I like best about CSAs is that not only will we be getting super fresh, in-season only vegetables, but in the process we'll be supporting local farmers.

No comments: