Living the Local Food Experience
A few months ago, the 'organic versus local' debate finally made it to the cover of Time magazine, and Yum wrote about it. I was reminded of thoughts I had when Elizabeth mused on the issue almost a year ago. And then, this morning, while I was reading MC Milker's take on 'the organic dilemma,' the issue came burbling back to the surface of my thoughts.
I can't remember the first time I heard about organic vs. local, but I remember reading about ways to get local food. There are farmers' markets, of course, but not all of them are limited to growers. (There are some shady scuzzbuckets who stop at the wholesalers on the way to town, making you believe that you're buying food that came straight from the fields.) And many grocery stores now indicate where food comes from or, at the very least, which food is local. One of the options I hadn't heard of until a couple of years ago was the CSA (community supported agriculture) - basically a food co-op where people buy shares in advance of local farmers' goods, either for a season or for a year.
When the Time article started making its way around the Internet, its link popping up in my Bloglines on more than one occasion, I revisited the idea of a CSA. I spent a little time on Local Harvest and found some CSA's that had Alexandria pickup locations. We joined Olin-Fox Farms for their spring and summer shares.
For the past five weeks, we have been driving to someone's house, just a few miles from our own, and taking our portion of what the farms (most of them in the Northern Neck, I believe) have harvested that week. We've gotten fingerling sweet potatoes, purple-top and hakuri turnips, bitter salad greens, microgreens with pea shoots, herbs (cilantro, oregano, sage, mint, rosemary), shiitake mushrooms, collard greens, kale, eggs, spring onions, asparagus, radishes and flowers.
Now, everything we've received has been of exceptional quality. I can't emphasize that enough. The collards and kale are TO DIE FOR and even the turnips are good. It's been nice having small amounts of fresh herbs, and we've enjoyed the flowers brightening up the kitchen. We got asparagus for the first time this week, and it's amazing.
But the portions aren't overly generous. I know that a share is for a maximum of two non-vegetarians, but that's stretching it a bit. Salad greens have generally arrived in a sandwich-size plastic bag. Our whole share each week can usually fit in a plastic grocery bag.
Two notable exceptions have been the eggs and the collards and kale. We've received several dozen farm fresh eggs and large bags of collards and kale. Sometimes we even have eggs or greens lingering around by the time we pick up our next share. And did I mention they're delicious?
It works out to a little more than $35 a week, which is the cost of the spring share, the summer share, a fruit share (available during the summer only) and the new member fee added up and divided into six flat monthly payments. During those months (mid-March to mid-August), we're only getting twenty weeks of food, due to weeks off here and there for planting and season transition. Though I should add that the nice folks at Olin Fox Farms were nice enough to let me spread the payments out over six months.
But $125 a month is a significant portion (more than 10 percent) of our grocery budget. And for the last payment, we're not going to get ANY food that month. Again, it's because I asked Olin Fox Farms to let me pay that way, but I'm just glad that we'll be taking some trips in August and won't need to buy as many groceries for home.
At this point, the shares have been a little thin to justify $35 a week, though yesterday's haul (the last week of the spring share) was really nice. I understand the weather has been giving farmers fits this year, and things are not growing as well as they could or should be. When I compare the things we've received this season to the produce list on Olin Fox Farms' website, I realize that it must have been a very bad year for farmers. I'm hoping that with the fruit addition in the summer and all the lovely things that will be coming into season, we'll make up a bit in terms of quantity.
If we lived closer to Reedville (which we've visited, by the way, and is absolutely charming), then the costs would be a little lower. We're at the farthest distribution point, and thus our costs are a little higher because of the transportation.
It's hard to compare this experience to shopping at the local Giant or even the relatively new Whole Foods. We're getting small amounts of expensive food that is incredibly fresh and delicious and has a smaller impact on the environment than any of our other food options. It's hard to say whether or not our CSA membership is 'worth' the money. Because...quantity? No. Quality? Yes. Variety? Maybe/no. Feel-good factor? Yes. How do you put a price on those things?
One thing we've learned is how incredibly lucky we are to live in a world with the kind of global transportation structure and technology that enables us to have just about any kind of produce that we want at any time. It takes the suspense out of the seasons. But now, I find myself rooting for the weather, praying for whatever the farmers need to get some new things out of the ground because I'm sick of turnips (albeit sweet, tender ones) already. I wish that we lived in a climate that could sustain citrus crops, and I imagine how exotic and decadent it must have been for the first northerners buying Florida grapefruit from their local grocery store.
If nothing else, I think I have a greater appreciation of the foods that I have access to and the struggles that local farmers encounter trying to make a go of it in this very global marketplace. Those are good lessons to learn even if we don't remain CSA members forever.
I can't remember the first time I heard about organic vs. local, but I remember reading about ways to get local food. There are farmers' markets, of course, but not all of them are limited to growers. (There are some shady scuzzbuckets who stop at the wholesalers on the way to town, making you believe that you're buying food that came straight from the fields.) And many grocery stores now indicate where food comes from or, at the very least, which food is local. One of the options I hadn't heard of until a couple of years ago was the CSA (community supported agriculture) - basically a food co-op where people buy shares in advance of local farmers' goods, either for a season or for a year.
When the Time article started making its way around the Internet, its link popping up in my Bloglines on more than one occasion, I revisited the idea of a CSA. I spent a little time on Local Harvest and found some CSA's that had Alexandria pickup locations. We joined Olin-Fox Farms for their spring and summer shares.
For the past five weeks, we have been driving to someone's house, just a few miles from our own, and taking our portion of what the farms (most of them in the Northern Neck, I believe) have harvested that week. We've gotten fingerling sweet potatoes, purple-top and hakuri turnips, bitter salad greens, microgreens with pea shoots, herbs (cilantro, oregano, sage, mint, rosemary), shiitake mushrooms, collard greens, kale, eggs, spring onions, asparagus, radishes and flowers.
Now, everything we've received has been of exceptional quality. I can't emphasize that enough. The collards and kale are TO DIE FOR and even the turnips are good. It's been nice having small amounts of fresh herbs, and we've enjoyed the flowers brightening up the kitchen. We got asparagus for the first time this week, and it's amazing.
But the portions aren't overly generous. I know that a share is for a maximum of two non-vegetarians, but that's stretching it a bit. Salad greens have generally arrived in a sandwich-size plastic bag. Our whole share each week can usually fit in a plastic grocery bag.
Two notable exceptions have been the eggs and the collards and kale. We've received several dozen farm fresh eggs and large bags of collards and kale. Sometimes we even have eggs or greens lingering around by the time we pick up our next share. And did I mention they're delicious?
It works out to a little more than $35 a week, which is the cost of the spring share, the summer share, a fruit share (available during the summer only) and the new member fee added up and divided into six flat monthly payments. During those months (mid-March to mid-August), we're only getting twenty weeks of food, due to weeks off here and there for planting and season transition. Though I should add that the nice folks at Olin Fox Farms were nice enough to let me spread the payments out over six months.
But $125 a month is a significant portion (more than 10 percent) of our grocery budget. And for the last payment, we're not going to get ANY food that month. Again, it's because I asked Olin Fox Farms to let me pay that way, but I'm just glad that we'll be taking some trips in August and won't need to buy as many groceries for home.
At this point, the shares have been a little thin to justify $35 a week, though yesterday's haul (the last week of the spring share) was really nice. I understand the weather has been giving farmers fits this year, and things are not growing as well as they could or should be. When I compare the things we've received this season to the produce list on Olin Fox Farms' website, I realize that it must have been a very bad year for farmers. I'm hoping that with the fruit addition in the summer and all the lovely things that will be coming into season, we'll make up a bit in terms of quantity.
If we lived closer to Reedville (which we've visited, by the way, and is absolutely charming), then the costs would be a little lower. We're at the farthest distribution point, and thus our costs are a little higher because of the transportation.
It's hard to compare this experience to shopping at the local Giant or even the relatively new Whole Foods. We're getting small amounts of expensive food that is incredibly fresh and delicious and has a smaller impact on the environment than any of our other food options. It's hard to say whether or not our CSA membership is 'worth' the money. Because...quantity? No. Quality? Yes. Variety? Maybe/no. Feel-good factor? Yes. How do you put a price on those things?
One thing we've learned is how incredibly lucky we are to live in a world with the kind of global transportation structure and technology that enables us to have just about any kind of produce that we want at any time. It takes the suspense out of the seasons. But now, I find myself rooting for the weather, praying for whatever the farmers need to get some new things out of the ground because I'm sick of turnips (albeit sweet, tender ones) already. I wish that we lived in a climate that could sustain citrus crops, and I imagine how exotic and decadent it must have been for the first northerners buying Florida grapefruit from their local grocery store.
If nothing else, I think I have a greater appreciation of the foods that I have access to and the struggles that local farmers encounter trying to make a go of it in this very global marketplace. Those are good lessons to learn even if we don't remain CSA members forever.
posted by merseydotes @ 8:55 AM
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