CSA

What is a CSA, and why did we join up?

CSA stand for community supported agriculture, and the basic idea is that people buy shares in a farm's proceeds before they're actually available. It works for the farmer because they get an influx of cash in the dead of winter when the farm is producing nothing, conveniently just in time for them to buy the seeds and supplies they need for the upcoming harvest, and it works for the consumer because by the time you're picking up your weekly share, you've forgotten about the check you wrote in February, and it feels like you're getting veggies for free. Although, that may just be me.
 Anyhow, there are quite a few options in our area, but we decided on North Star Orchard. One of their farms is less than 15 minutes from our house, they grow using organic methods, and they're devoted to more unusual varieties.
The veggie CSA runs for 22 weeks, which means we're very nearly covered for vegetables until October (they don't grow corn, and we're from Jersey, we can't go the entire summer without corn!) The first few weeks tend to be a little lighter than once we really get into summer, but we've been told that we should be getting arugula, spinach, broccoli, Tatsoi, lettuce, scallions, and a broccoli/kale cross breed called purple peacock.