My Chunky Minestrone

Prepping the kale for freezing

Ready to go in the freezer

Joining a CSA

Before a few weeks ago I had never heard the term CSA. While looking up books about sustainable food at the bookstore, I saw it on a book jacket and jotted it down to look it up when I got home. CSA stands for community supported agriculture. From a quick Google search I found localharvest.org, a website where you can find local farms and CSA subscriptions. The description of a CSA from their website is:

"Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season."

So I found a very nearby farm located in Long Beach and contacted the manager. Unfortunately, I had to put my name on a waiting list to join but in the mean time I found Farm Fresh to You. It's more corporate and the farm is farther away (located a couple hundred miles north of us) but they deliver and have a great selection. Until the Long Beach one opens up, I decided to join this one. We got our first delivery about a week and a half ago and so far I have made:

~Leeky Chicken & Couscous
Leeks from CSA
~Beef Stew with Butternut Squash
Butternut Squash & Onion from CSA
~Minestrone Soup
Carrots, Spinach, Turnips from CSA

And today I prepped the Kale for freezing. Plus we've eaten the apples and persimmons. I really enjoy trying new recipes and learning how to use and store all these new fruits and veggies.

This week's delivery will be just in time for Thanksgiving and I'm excited to have an organic/local feast this year!

Becoming a locavore

I am a mother of an 8 month baby girl with quite an appetite...she loves everything and anything I eat, she must eat too. In the last couple months, as her culinary palette has expanded to include my food, I have found myself re-evaluating the food I eat. It turns out there is a lot of food in my diet that I refuse to let my perfect baby girl have. She came in to this world preservative and chemical free and that is how I would like to keep her! I started researching and came across a plethora of information about sustainable food (aka locavorism, slow food movement, etc.). I recently viewed the documentary "Food, Inc." and I have being reading "The Locavore's Handbook" by Leda Meredith and although I'm only 4 chapters in (you try leisure reading with an 8 month old), I'm intrigued. I am by no means an 'all or nothing' personality and so I am starting small, finding out what changes I can reasonably make in my family's life to live a healthier life (personally and environmentally) and this is my about what I find out.