March 23, 2001

9:49 PM

If you're lucky, it's not too late to sign up with a Community Supported Agriculture (?) program in your area. Imagine getting more fresh, often organic, locally-grown produce (of sorts familiar and un-) each week from late spring through fall than you probably eat in a month! Some friends did this in college and I was thrilled to find a farm near me this year. Is there one near you?
posted by sudama (15 comments total)

I've been wanting to do this for a while, now. thanks for posting this information, sudama. I'll see if they have a package for two people.

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 10:06 PM on March 23, 2001

YES there is one near me. Lots, in fact. My house [to be] gets a big box of fruits and vegetables. Yams, potatoes, tomatoes, apples etc etc etc. They leave a big box on the porch and it's like Christmas every week! Plus it's helping keep the teeny farms around here in business which always makes me happy.
posted by jessamyn at 10:22 PM on March 23, 2001

My wife and I are splitting a 2-person bunch with my Dad. The person who runs our farm sends out a weekly email talking about the latest thousands of seedlings planted in the new greenhouse, etc. It's really great. I can't wait for June -- did you see that list?
posted by sudama at 10:54 PM on March 23, 2001

There's a great p-patch organization in Seattle. I just got a 10x10 plot in a garden that's right near downtown, and amazingly across the street from where I work.
posted by jragon at 11:23 PM on March 23, 2001

darn. I just thought of the fatal flaw. I just moved into a place with the tiniest refrigerator in the world. I have to buy my veggies every few days, I can't buy for a week anymore.

dang.

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 12:01 AM on March 24, 2001

rebecca you can still get fruits, no? Avocados and several other good ingredients can also be kept for a while if they deliver them as they would to stores...
posted by chaz at 1:29 AM on March 24, 2001

sudama, big thanks for nurturing action ... i think about this many times, but do nothing. there are three or four such farms within 20 minutes of my home.

support biointensive farms or grow your own!
posted by dukejohnson at 2:37 AM on March 24, 2001

I prefer to decide for myself what I am going to be eating at any point. Combine that with the fact that I don't particularly care if my vegetables come from a small farm or a large farm and I'll be sticking with Safeway.
posted by obfusciatrist at 10:39 AM on March 24, 2001

chaz sez: rebecca you can still get fruits, no?

sure, and maybe we'd actually *eat* more fruit (although I'd be the only one eating the avocados - yum!), but could I find a place that would actually send me only 14 pieces of fruit a week? and that would be a lot of fruit for us, two pieces a day.

I need to go look at the quantaties. it always seems like a bit more than we could use. it would be fun, because it would force me to try things I normally wouldn't, and it would force us to eat more veggies.

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 11:37 AM on March 24, 2001

weirdly, one of the pickups for one of the farmers is *in my new building*.

this is starting to look a little too synchronous to ignore.... :)

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 11:58 AM on March 24, 2001

rcb: my grandparents' houses all had larders, where they could keep food cool and fresh without needing a fridge. (This is, of course, in a cool climate, before central heating.) And I'm always more inclined to store things in cool cupboards than refrigerate them, unlike Herself, who has something of a hygiene complex...

Perhaps bestow larderdom upon a spare closet?
posted by holgate at 7:02 PM on March 24, 2001

actually, we live in an old apartment, and there is a large larder built into the kitchen. you're right, I need to find out what will do well in a *cool* space and what needs to be in a *cold* space.

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 7:07 PM on March 24, 2001

Hey RCB: see if you can share w/ one of your building mates. The only serious problem is if they only deliver 1 avacado...
posted by evad at 7:24 PM on March 24, 2001

Most vegetables, if fresh do fine in a cool space. the reason most supermarkets chill them is to prolong their shelf life beyond the natural timespan. Thats the primary reason why fresh veg. is better for you than supermarket veg. - the vitamins in them haven't broken down.
Root vegetables and pulses will keep for 2 or 3 weeks in a cool dark place, broccoli, peppers and such is best eaten within a week of picking, salad stuffs also.
You'll generally find that supermarket bought fruit & veg. goes bad far more quickly because of the time since it was picked, supermarkets only need to make it look good up until the point you buy it and chilling vegetables only makes then *look* fresh.
posted by Markb at 1:28 AM on March 26, 2001

as a followup, and on behalf of those like myself who use past metafilter threads as an information resource:

the link to state-by-state CSAs has gone down in the last few days. here's another listing (which appears to be a slightly different subset of these farms).

I went ahead and signed up with a local farm as a result of this thread and I've been very pleased that I did so; for those in the northern california area, here's my review of terra firma farms.

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 12:50 PM on June 24, 2001