Intervale Open House
Hey all, I will be at some or all of this open house (link to details) to discuss with anyone who wants to listen about farming, farming in the Intervale, farming this year (going really well if I haven't specifically mentioned yet), farming on our specific farm, and ways you might get to eat things that are grown on our farm.
While I'm writing about such things I had a few thoughts.
1. Reasons I like our CSA: I am at all of the pick-ups, so you get to ask the farmer questions about how something was raised. More things specifically good about our CSA: Choice. You aren't just handed stuff in bag or box and that's what you get. You get to choose your squash, or more importantly, your tomatoes (you may like orange ones better than red ones), or sometimes choose peppers over eggplant or vice versa.
2. Reasons CSAs are still pretty cool beside the aforementioned: you are usually getting a very good deal, sometimes as much as 20% more vegetables. Secret awesome reason: you are in the position to learn alot about agriculture in America if you want.
3. Organic is still important: I know local seems to trump all these days, but I was looking at some asparagus at the farmers market (can you tell I obsess about asparagus (and what was I even doing at the market anyways (bus man's holiday))) and saw some super-huge asparagus. I'm not naming names, but sufficient to say it was not from an organic farm, and once I got over my asparagus envy, I remembered that bigger does not always mean better, certainly not better for you, and usually not as tasty (my go to evidence for this is carrots and celery from California, I mean the celery tastes like salt water and the carrots like domino sugar in suspension.) Now I know organic comes in many shades, heck, I am not even certified organic. It can be confusing, what the end result healthiest for you and planet food to eat is, which is why I keep circling back to points 1 and 2 on my list.
And how is Open Heart going (just in case you can't make it for cookies and lemonade (uh, did I mention free cookies and lemonade)) - swimmingly is the best word I can think of. Very much without hitches so far, not even the normal ones you would expect like spending a whole day setting up irrigation or having to reseed something, etc. If you want to know more you'll just have to come.
While I'm writing about such things I had a few thoughts.
1. Reasons I like our CSA: I am at all of the pick-ups, so you get to ask the farmer questions about how something was raised. More things specifically good about our CSA: Choice. You aren't just handed stuff in bag or box and that's what you get. You get to choose your squash, or more importantly, your tomatoes (you may like orange ones better than red ones), or sometimes choose peppers over eggplant or vice versa.
2. Reasons CSAs are still pretty cool beside the aforementioned: you are usually getting a very good deal, sometimes as much as 20% more vegetables. Secret awesome reason: you are in the position to learn alot about agriculture in America if you want.
3. Organic is still important: I know local seems to trump all these days, but I was looking at some asparagus at the farmers market (can you tell I obsess about asparagus (and what was I even doing at the market anyways (bus man's holiday))) and saw some super-huge asparagus. I'm not naming names, but sufficient to say it was not from an organic farm, and once I got over my asparagus envy, I remembered that bigger does not always mean better, certainly not better for you, and usually not as tasty (my go to evidence for this is carrots and celery from California, I mean the celery tastes like salt water and the carrots like domino sugar in suspension.) Now I know organic comes in many shades, heck, I am not even certified organic. It can be confusing, what the end result healthiest for you and planet food to eat is, which is why I keep circling back to points 1 and 2 on my list.
And how is Open Heart going (just in case you can't make it for cookies and lemonade (uh, did I mention free cookies and lemonade)) - swimmingly is the best word I can think of. Very much without hitches so far, not even the normal ones you would expect like spending a whole day setting up irrigation or having to reseed something, etc. If you want to know more you'll just have to come.
posted by Josh May at 9:38 PM
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