Filed under: local food, sustainable food | Tags: Atlanta, CSA, local food, locavore, sustainable food
“And in this corner, we have the regionally-grown, farm-raised Killer Catfish, straight from North Carolina, weighing in at 5 monstrous pounds…and in the other corner, pulling on his gloves, is the wild-caught, organic, reigning champion of the sea, Psycho Salmon from Alaska! Let’s make this a fair fight, boys!”
I never used to be on the organic train (woot, woot!) until I joined a CSA. I thought people who used to tell me they could taste the difference in organic food were on crack.
Well, pass me a pipe. Because I’m starting to differentiate between CO2 tomatoes and the real thing. Between the flavorless carrots I find at the store and my CSA’s fantastic root vegetables. I have to assume that one of the reasons the vegetables taste so good is because they haven’t absorbed who knows how many pesticides during their life cycles. Not to mention that they arrive at my door the same week they’re harvested.
So you can imagine my sadness when my cohort forgot to sign us up in time for last week’s bounty. No problem, I’d simply go to the store. But nowadays I’m buying as much produce as I can afford organic.
I happened to already be in Kroger, so that’s where my shopping adventure began. In some cases, only conventional produce was available, and I didn’t bat an eye. I bought organic when I could. But then it came to the fish selection.
I felt trapped.
You can’t find organic, local, wild-caught fish. Well, you can…somewhere else. But not at Kroger. My choices were either something that was farm raised (catfish, salmon), but regional, or wild-caught fish from all over the world. I honestly didn’t know which was better. What kind of crap do they actually feed fish on farms? Can it possibly be as healthy for the fish as whatever they eat in the wild? (I suspect not. I suspect corn is involved.) But shipping fish from Alaska hardly seems ecologically friendly to me.
I chose the salmon from Alaska. I figured I’d rather eat the fish that lived a life out in the wild with a varied, natural diet.
Would you have chosen differently? Why or why not? What are your priorities when it comes to eating food that’s either good for you or good for the environment?
Yum!
As a side note, I made the most amazing beet & carrot salad this week! It’s complete with a ginger dressing that would make you slap your momma.
Filed under: Atlanta, CSA, local food, locavore, sustainable food | Tags: Atlanta, community supported agriculture, CSA, Georgia, locavore, sustainable food
Each and every vegetable (or fruit) I’ve received through my CSA has been absolutely top notch. Strawberries that are sweeter than sugar. Beets so indulgent they could be a dessert. And the best part: crispy, leafy kale!
But last week I had problems consuming things quickly enough. I asked Karen and she was skeptical of a couple of the items when they arrived, so it could be that we just got a bad batch. Has anyone noticed that organic food tends to go bad more quickly? I mean, I had a sweet potato getting spots after a week!
I quickly chopped off the bad parts of the potato, cut it up and made sweet potato fries. Yum! I actually ate these for breakfast the morning we left for London. It was excellent!
I mix these in a bag of sea salt, pepper and cayenne, and then bake. So good!
But I’m trying not to let food I’ve bought go bad. I’m reading Leda Meredith’s The Locavore’s Handbook right now, and she has a chapter on Simple Food Preservation (drying fruit, pickling vegetables and making herb oils).
I don’t know if I’m ready for the whole preservation process (it seems time consuming), but I may move in that direction if my horn of plenty becomes overwhelming. Does anyone else have experience with this? Right now my half share seems reasonable, as long as I’m mindful of what’s in the fridge!
Filed under: Atlanta, CSA, local food, locavore, sustainable food | Tags: Atlanta, CSA, local food, locavore, sustainable food
I picked up our CSA box from Whole Foods this week, and man was there a lot of food in it! We received the following:
- spicy lettuce mix
- goat cheese
- strawberries (from Florida?)
- broccoli
- cabbage
- eggs (for Lisa and Karen)
- spinach
- herbs
- lettuce
- sweet potatoes
- carrots (white?)
- popping corn
I’m so glad I’m splitting a share!
My first creation was spinach salad with strawberries and goat cheese! I also toasted some slivered almonds in butter and brown sugar and threw those on top. This salad was amazing and the strawberries were probably the sweetest I’ve ever had, and it’s just the beginning of the season!
I also made fried cabbage with pine nuts. I could have eaten this as a main dish instead of a side – it was that good! I just started with olive oil and threw in some salt, pepper, and thyme from my herb package.
I’m leaving for London next week, so I’m hoping to finish off all of my food before I leave! Karen and Lisa are simply taking the full share for next week. Lucky them!
Filed under: local food | Tags: Atlanta, community supported agriculture, CSA, Georgia, local food, locavore
I finally did it. I joined a CSA.
I’d been wanting to for a long time, mostly because I think there are hidden health benefits from eating locally (fewer preservatives and chemicals must translate to my health somehow, right?), and I’d put it off because of cost. But a coworker suggested splitting the cost and the actual share of vegetables, so now I’m in it to win it.
This is not an all-or-nothing blog where I’m planning on cooking a meal every day (a la Julie & Julia) or some sort of extremist experiment in which I only eat things grown locally (forgoing salt, coffee, or fish if it isn’t grown or raised within 100 miles).
Instead, it’s a real journal by a real person. Can I actually consume all the food I receive each week from the CSA, or will it be a waste of money and produce? Will cooking with local produce inspire me to seek out other locally made items (soap, dog food, shampoo)?
My goals include the following:
- Consume all of the produce I buy each week. I am open to supplementing my CSA groceries with other items that I need, as long as it doesn’t end up being wasteful. I am spending money up front on community supported agriculture, after all.
- Explore new recipes as vegetables I am unfamiliar with cooking come into season. Honestly, I’ve never even tried to cook turnips. Or sorrel. Or pak choi. But you can bet the farm I’m going to try!
- Monitor personal health as I move through this endeavor. Most people don’t listen to their bodies enough. I wonder what mine will tell me once I start eating locally.
