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If it ever doesn't work out with Josh, and some totally hot Amish farmer guy (a la Harrison Ford in Witness) falls in love with me and wants to sweep me off my feet and take me to his farm, I'm going to have settle for a romp in the haystacks, but say no to moving.
It turns out, shockingly, that I'm not cut out for the hard life (Chatty Cricket, please stop laughing).
This summer, we signed up for a community supported agriculture share of a farm. This means that every Thursday, we pick up a box of vegetables from a local drop off spot. These vegetables have been lovingly picked and cut and delivered just for us. The vegetables weren't treated with pesticides, and they've come straight from the ground and into the share box. They are super healthy, totally organic, a diverse assortment, and I have determined that I hate them.
There are a lot of vegetables in every box. They are dirty. Very, very dirty. Covered in dirt and bugs and sludge kind of dirty. I consider us fairly well-rounded adventurous eaters, but we never eat the vegetables they send us. We don't get broccoli and cauliflower and brussel sprouts and spinach. We get parsnips and cabbage (oh geez, so much freaking cabbage) and bok choy and 79 varieties of squash. Oh, and did I mention turnips? Because we get lots of turnips. And lots of leeks and eggplants. How many leeks can one family eat? Turns out, for us it's just one leek and lots go to waste. It is shameful how many of the vegetables went into the trash, but the reality is that it has been too much work for me to pick up the box, wash the many vegetables that arrive, find space for them in our cramped fridge, and then come up with inventive recipes my family will eat from these many random vegetables. I wanted corn and tomatoes and salad greens and beans and cucumbers. That is not what we received.
Also, and this is going to sound ridiculous, I cannot remember to pick up my vegetables from 4-7pm on Thursdays. I just can't. The number of times I have emailed the poor drop-off woman to ask if I can come tomorrow, are too many to count. She must think I am the hugest idiot ever, but I think it is just pregnancy and a toddler and a tendency to stay home on Thursdays for Gabe to have downtime after his toddler program on Mondays and Wednesdays.
I signed up in March when I wasn't pregnant, and when I thought it was a fabulous idea for us to receive fresh vegetables and expand our horizons and I could make and freeze baby food. Turns out, not so much. So we will not be doing our share again next year, and I'll be buying my cauliflower and broccoli and spinach at our local farmer's market or grocery store, and I suspect I'll be much happier for it.
My dreams of being a sexy farmgirl will just have to fall by the wayside.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
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4 comments:
Tues. & Thur. tend to be my stay-in days (because Anna Sofia goes to MDO M/W/F) and I can tell you, I would forget. I've never done that co-op thing because my neighbor used to do it, split it with her parents and on occasion split her HALF with us and it was still too much. I'm thinking if you went in with two-four other families, it would make a lot more sense and would lessen the weekly pick-ups too (you'd each take turns). So, if you ever get the wild hair to do it again, maybe this might be the way to go. :) Besos!
I love this post! We are doing a CSA right now and my husband is the primary cook around here. He is so sick of turnips and rutabagas! He wants eggplants (lucky girl, you) and greens! Ours is a winter share so we've been getting lots of root veggies and leeks (fortunately hubby likes leeks!). We always think it's such a good idea when we sign up and then we are desperate to buy our own veggies...sigh, we are currently debating whether to sign up for the summer share...
Our CSA veggies were not so dirty. But while I loved the idea of fresh organic produce--I found myself really wanting choices. We got no green beans (at all!), or we'd get 4lbs of cucumbers for weeks, then none. Then pounds and pounds of tomatoes.
That's not how I cook. I wanted cucumbers and tomatoes together, for gazpacho or salads. I wanted enough potatoes to feed 4 adults and 2 kids at shabbat dinner--1.5 lbs is NOT enough for that.
So while I loved it in principle and definitely made decent use of it, it didn't mesh 100% (or even 60%) with how I operate my life. Next year, if we are still living here, I will probably pass on it and go back to making my rounds of the farmers' markets--the advantage of living in a major metro area and having a car is that I have nearby options to go to on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
Oh I am not LAUGHING, I could NEVER wash buggy vegetables and eat them. No. As much as I would love the idea of gloriously fresh vegetable, I prefer the vegetables to pass through he middleman who washes them and delivers them to the clean grocery store. I'll pay the premium.
Plus, you don't want to go live on an Amish Farm...how would we talk on the phone? You'd have to take the buggy MILES AND MILES into town just to listen to my Mother in Law stories. It would never work.
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