To Bring Us Up-to-Date...

While my husband and I have been Farm Share members since September 2009, this is the first time I have posted a blog entry.  I have often thought about beginning a blog to discuss our Farm Share experiences and recipes, and I'm not sure what prompted me to take the step to actually begin a blog, but here goes.  It's not that I feel our experience with or knowledge of food is so noteworthy that others will benefit from hearing our stories.  Instead, being a member of a Farm Share brings such benefits, joys and fun challenges that I simply like to talk about it.  I also believe sharing our experiences may peak others' interest in being a member of a local Farm Share. 

Being a Farm Share member truly is an adventure, and one we enjoy every single day.  It has changed the way we view what we eat, how we shop at the grocery store (if and when we have to), and interact with the community.  For more information about the Farm Share in which we participate, please visit http://www.enterpriseproduce.com/.

We have a lot of experiences from the past several months I would love to share (my first time cooking with beets, turnips, and parsnips; being creative with what to do with loads of winter greens--kale, chard, dandelion greens, etc.--including lasagna and impromptu soups; the amazing salads we make with minimal effort; the hearty potato, squash, and vegetable dishes...), however, for simplicity's sake I will start sharing stories of our cooking and eating from this date forward.

To tell you a little about why we signed up for a farm share... 

We became members of a Farm Share after I read an article in Southern Living about local growers in the Virginia area.  We were in Washington, D.C. for the summer, and while we never made it out to the farms closer to Charlottesville, VA, we did frequent the wonderful farmers' markets in D.C.  My husband and I are both gradute students in Boston, so after discussing our budget and weekly food needs, we decided to sign up for a Boston-area farm share.  The impetus for our decision to support Community Supported Agriculture stemmed from many sources: our desire to know where our food comes from (geographically and how it's grown), the desire to support local farmers, and really, the simple desire to eat better food.  Getting a box of vegetables and produce once a week forces us to be creative with our meals and eat food that we may not otherwise.  Since then, our participation has been reinforced by knowledge we continue to gain about the food industry.  We read In Defense of Food and recently watched Food, Inc., which forever changed how we view the products in the aisles of supermarkets and what meat products we purchase.  I don't mean for this blog to be a political commentary, so I stop there.  But suffice it to say we are happy to support local, American growers by participating in Community Supported Agriculture.