One of the best things my husband and I did for our health and eating habits was to join a Community Supported Agriculture program, or CSA. The general idea is you pay a farmer (or group of farmers) a set amount every month, and in turn you get a box of fresh produce delivered straight from a local grower. The produce is fresh, in season, often organic and pesticide-free, locally grown, and super tasty! The image above is just a sample of one box we received: fennel, butter lettuce, kale, avocados, oranges, celery, broccoli, strawberries, and Swiss chard.
Not only are you supporting local growers, a CSA forces you to incorporate more veggies into your diet, and more versatile ones at that. We had fallen into a routine of only eating broccoli, carrots, and asparagus, since those are our favorite. Sure, they're good for us, but where are the green leafy veggies? The iron? The vitamin B? And we hardly ever ate a fruit other than a banana.
When we received our first CSA box I remember opening it up and wondering, "what the hell is that?" Some of the veggies I knew, but there were definitely some I didn't. Turns out the mystery veggie was Swiss chard, which has now become one of our new favorites. A month or so later, and we had baby bok choy. Ooookay...guess I'll have to figure out what to do with this, too! A couple minutes on the grill with some olive oil and salt and pepper, and bok choy is very tasty!
I really recommend trying one out. It benefits everyone involved. If you live in Southern California I suggest Farm Fresh To You - they're the CSA we use, and not only can you choose the frequency and size of the box you get, they deliver to your door! Plus their program you can cancel at any time, whereas others you have to sign up for a year. If you are interested, visit their site at www.farmfreshtoyou.com. Otherwise you can Google "Community Supported Agriculture" for your area and get started! Enjoy!
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