First CSA week

I picked up my first share of vegetables last night:

Poorly pictured are: kale, beets, radishes, small head of butterleaf (something) lettuce, dill, cilantro, thyme, small bag of mixed greens, kohlrabi! and arugala.

I was a little surprised at how small the share was. The CSA is $600 for mid June through October, which is already shorter than I’m used to. My other CSAs have been around/less than $500, also, but I figured the NJ cost of living is what’s driving the cost up on this. I don’t know, maybe I just built it up in my head — I was anticipating a truck-load of food, because when I checked with the farmer she told me that it would serve 2 adults/2 children.

Oh, I just went back and checked the email:
“WE USUALLY SAY A SHARE IS FOR 2 ADULTS/2SMALL KIDS.

AS YOU KNOW, IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOUR INDIVIDUAL EATING/COOKING HABITS.

EARLY IN THE SEASON THE SHARES WILL BE LIGHTER, MOSTLY GREENS,SOME EARLY POTATOES IN LATE JUNE,BROCCOLI RAAB ETC.

IN THE HEIGHT OF THE SEASON A SHARE COULD CONTAIN 2-3 EGGPLANT, 4-6 ASSORTED PEPPERS,4-6 ASSORTED ZUKES, 3-6 LBS ASST TOMATOES. HERBS CUKES, TOMATILLOS, FLOWERS ETC.” — that seems a lot more like what I’m looking for. 3-6 lbs tomatos! how great. I bought ONE tomato last night at whole foods and it cost $0.86! It was the prettiest tomato there, but it may have come from HOLLAND. Dutch tomatos.

Here’s info on the CSA. It was surprisingly hard to find a local group here in the Garden State, but I found this webpage very helpful, as well as the tremendous CSA Center database.

Anyway, after I got my share, I went to whole foods (/whole paycheck) and spent 60 bucks on more lettuce, yellow squash, avocados, onion, one tomato, and fennel. there was other stuff, like risotto rice, misc. spelt pastas, yogurt, parm cheese, etc., but I mainly went there b/c I was in the neighborhood and I felt like I didn’t have enough vegetables. I was using the CSA week as my deadline to start preparing my lunch every day, and I needed more food! Man, whole foods consistently overwhelms me. I spent a long time just staring at chocolate bars, cheese, and pesto, and I didn’t even buy any of that stuff. I’m lucky I escaped!