It's Wednesday morning, and as I have been every Wednesday for the past month, I am antsy. I keep peeking at my phone out of the corner of my eye to see if the message light is blinking. I know that 8:30 is too early, but knowing that doesn't keep me from hitting the button to wake up the display screen to see if maybe I had just missed the blinking notification.
I am delighted when it starts to blink, quickly clearing the notification and turning to my computer to pull up my email.
It has arrived: the weekly newsletter from my CSA.
A newsletter? I'm wound tightly over a silly newsletter?
The short of it?
Yes.
The long of it?
Every cold, bleak, dreary January I start dreaming of veggies. I long for my Saturday morning trips to the farmers market. Tangy tomatoes and sweet, crunchy sugar snap peas.
So I search out whatever information I can find on the locals CSA farms and dream of signing up for a share. My overly shady backyard and superbly brown thumb keep any real hopes of a garden beyond tomatoes and the occasional herb from every becoming reality.
This year I decided enough was enough. I printed the enrollment form and sent in my check.
Community Supported agriculture had appealed to me for a few years. I knew from lectures during my culinary education several years ago that the average piece of produce travels something like 1500 miles from the farm to my table and each day in transit, it loses nutrition and flavor.
What better way to kill birds with one stone than to eat local:
- Eat more nutritious food (the weekly share is usually harvested within a day of delivery)
- Help the local economy (putting a higher dollar amount directly in the hands of the farmer by cutting out the middlemen transport companies and grocery stores)
- Help the environment (my produce travels just over 60 miles from the organic farm instead of 1500)
Yes, to be fair, there were other farms that I could have chosen that actual would have been closer to home. But many things about Grinnell Heritage Farm appealed to me.
First and foremost, having been introduced to their product by way of some heavenly heirloom tomatoes, I knew their produce. Since first bite, they have been a required stop the last two summers during the large downtown farmers markets.
Second, they took the time and effort and leapt the hurdles to become certified organic.
I'm not a person who will only eat organic, but I certainly will if I can. There's so much known and unknown about the chemicals that are used to bring us fruits and veggies out of season. It's too much of a chance to take if it's avoidable.
The third thing that sold me on this particular farm was their newsletter.
Yes, the very one that had me tied in knots this morning.
This weekly newsletter announces the arrival of yet another box of yumminess. Wednesday is the day that my share is delivered and the newsletter tells me what I can expect to see in my box.
For me, it's the beautiful wrapping on the present.
Not only is this newsletter well written, but it's thoughtful. Included on page two are recipes and storage tips for some of items. Helpful for those of us who have never had kohlrabi, kale or even turnips before.
But it's the front page that tipped the scales.
All of 2009's newsletters were posted on their website for me to peruse. It was on the front page of each one that I got to learn about the people who were growing my food.
So I'm a little behind the eight ball, having just picked up week four of my share, but we still have a summer of fresh goodies and happy eating, don't we?
