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Baby Wetzel's profile. (What a cute baby nose!)

It’s week 34 of our CSA adventure, and week 34 of our pregnancy.  In pregnancy land, this was the week of the ultrasound, and a lot of my writing juices were absorbed in that preoccupation (blogging pre-ultrasound, blogging post-ultrasound).

But what about the CSA food? How did that factor into our week?

We are real people, after all. We have real life preoccupations. So, do we have time for “real food” or “slow food” or “local food” or whatever other food term you prefer to describe the CSA food that we’re eating? Isn’t it easier, in a stressful or busy week, to just stop at McDonald’s and eat off the dollar menu?

In addition to the busy schedule, our dishwasher has been out of order. Something about a tube. And a snowstorm delaying a repair guy. And getting a really inept repair guy…I’ve been complaining about it in detail to friends and to Mr. Wetzel and on twitter.

Wouldn’t life be easier if we just scrapped this “commitment to the farm” thing?

Meh. I don’t think so.

You see, I drive once a week to the farm and pick up all our veggies for the week. We do still go to the grocery store for non-produce items, but I save that excursion for Thursdays and shop off a list. So, technically, we’re only driving around twice to pick up our food. (Three times if you count our stop by the dairy farm for raw milk every Sunday after church). If we relied on fast food or pre-made meals, we’d be making many more runs and stops.

You can eat an amazing amount of farm food raw, and food that you have to cook tends to keep for a while. This week I relished the carrots from our share; I had a pregnancy craving for them two nights in a row, and they were such a terrific late-night snack. The apples are my no-brainer snack; I eat them with organic string cheese from Trader Joe’s. Leafy greens make great salads.

What don’t I eat? I’ve been meaning to make cole slaw out of the cabbage, but the idea of grating it just intimidates me. I will. One of these days. I will conquer the cabbage.

I stash the potatoes until I have a slew of them, then cook them all at once. Typically so I can do something with them that involves cheese. My “fast” potato meal is, of course, to wrap it in foil and bake it.

And the onions? This pregnancy isn’t letting me eat them, so I’m storing them. Come Spring and Summer, they’ll come in pretty handy. I remember always running out of onions last year during the warm weather.

When I don’t know what to eat for a meal, I take a look at what we have, and do something with it. We don’t have to choose what’s in our fridge. The seasons do that for us. Thankfully, the seasons change, as well, which keeps things interesting.

Scooter watched me eat the strawberries. I think she was jealous.

Do I only eat what’s in the CSA? Nope! Do I only eat locally? Nope! This week I had the BIGGEST pregnancy cravings for strawberries. It’s February, and we’re in Washington; there are NO  strawberries here. When I stopped by Costco, however, they had packages of strawberries, grown in the USA, and they looked and smelled great. I brought them home and polished them off within 36 hours. And I was delighted to!

We eat locally most of the time. It’s easy to eat locally, even during a busy or stressful week. In many ways, eating through our CSA is easier on meal planning because it’s a no-brainer: we eat and cook what’s available. We drive around less, and we eat at home more. All in all, we are healthier and spend less money, while maintaining a great appreciation for the food of our region and the food that’s in season…and that love spills over into other foods as well. Our CSA food is ultra-food: it is ultra-good and it is a sound choice. And we are real people.

By ekwetzel
2011-03-02

Week 34:
(Top Row)
Potatoes
Beets
Onions
(Middle Row)
Carrots
Apples
Pears
(Bottom Row)
Rainbow Chard
Cabbage
(more) Rainbow Chard

When you are at the mercy of the seasons, each time one of your favorite foods comes into season, it seems like a miracle.  In the summer, I feel this way about raspberries. I can never eat enough of them: raw, in baked dishes, or fresh off the vine.  This week, the Wetzels celebrate cauliflower.

Mr. Wetzel doesn’t naturally like many vegetables, but one produce species he can never get enough of is cauliflower. As a wife, I try to encourage and support good eating habits in my former-bachelor, so I have always tried to get cauliflower for Mr. Wetzel whenever it is available.  When we started the CSA, we knew we’d be changing our eating habits to coincide with what produce was available each season, so that meant less cauliflower for us during most of the year.

But that also means that – when cauliflower is in season – we pig out.

You’ll notice that this week we have a ton of cauliflower in our share, but not much else. Our CSA has a wonderful grab box where you can switch out something you don’t like with something you do…and whenever other share members use the box, the available foods in it change according to what people do/don’t want that week. This week we struck white gold: there were several heads of cauliflower in the trade box, and we gleefully swapped them for our onions, parsnips and chard.

I like it that eating seasonally has created a greater appreciation within us for the foods we eat, and even for the foods we love.  We don’t take our fruits and veggies for granted, but we are voracious for them each moment they grace us with their presence. CSA eating is eating in the moment. Seize the veggies by their stalks, and indulge! Some of them only come this way once a year. If you’re too busy wandering the polished and changeless grocery aisles, you might miss the opportunity to find true culinary excitement.

By ekwetzel
2011-02-21

WEEK 33
Cauliflower ;o)
Apples
Pears
Carrots
Fingerling Potatoes

Photo courtesy of Justin Higgins

Each week, we receive an email newsletter from our CSA, Terry’s Berries, letting us know where the week’s produce hails from.  Washington State has less severe winters than the rest of the country, as does the west coast in general; so much of our produce is either grown in state or stored through the winter. Here’s an example of a note on the origins of our produce:

“Right now, cabbages and kales are coming from California because they got frozen in Washington.  Other years we have been able to harvest beautiful cauliflower in January, cabbage and kales too. Apples and pears are from Washington state as well as potatoes, leeks, onions, shallots, parsnips, carrots, and some other root veggies.”

It is common for CSAs to source produce from other farms, but beware if the CSA you are considering regularly contains out-of-season produce. For instance, a CSA share for February in the Pacific Northwest should never contain green beans. They are so far out of season, the only place they are likely to come from is Mexico. And that kind of defeats the purpose of “local food.”

Summertime is the easiest time to sponsor local CSAs and local produce, because the harvest is so plentiful and vibrant. If you do buy from a CSA in the winter, simply take a moment to put on your thinking cap and ask yourself how likely it is that each item in your grab bag of food was either grown nearby or stored for these winter months. When in doubt, ask the CSA where the produce comes from. Transparency is key.

The most local food of all, of course, comes from your own backyard or container gardening, and this is the season to start planning for the planting season to come. Check out seed catalogues. Plan out your garden.  Pre-order your seeds. Get prepped for doing veggie starts in the next month or so. And, in the meantime, keep eating locally and enjoying the produce of the season: root veggies, cabbages, and apples!

By ekwetzel
2011-02-11

WEEK 32
Potatoes
Shallot
Carrots
Pears
Apples
Rainbow Chard
Cauliflower
(We traded our parsnips and onions with other CSA members for extra apples and pears)

Terry's Berries at the local Farmer's Market

Local food is all the rage. It’s the edgy thing in the food world right now. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when I see McDonald’s trying to promote itself as a localvore or Walmart setting up pretend “farmer’s markets” (i.e. ones that avoid local farmers). I’ve come to expect a brilliant marketing façade from the big corporations, in lieu of any meaningful change to their food systems.

What is more difficult to figure out is which of the smaller farmers are, in fact, small farmers…and which are just fantastic marketers.

In Tacoma, there are many farmer’s markets in the summer, and it is amazing how far away some of the vendors travel in order to hawk their wares. It’s amazing how not-local and not-fresh some of the produce can be. Market season is just around the corner again, and what can we do as naïve spenders approaching the tables of different fruits and veggies?

Rely on community to find those farmers that are the diamonds in the ruff. Talk to the farmers, get to know them, and ask them questions. Where do they come from? How big is the farm? What is their philosophy for food production? If a farmer is not open about his farming practices, he likely has something to hide; however, a farmer who is excited to share information about his food is probably also a farmer with food that is worth getting excited about.

A CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. You start with relationships: between the farmer and the land, between the buyer and the merchant, between the owner and the farmhands. A wholesome and holistic relationship on all these levels is vital. Someone who is willing to cut corners in one area of their business is willing to cut corners in other areas as well.

A farmer that is open, gracious and a good steward of the earth is often like the food he or she grows. There may not be flashy signs or stickers to attract you. Their quality Is often understated. They don’t have much polish or finesse. But they are good to the core. Trust your gut. And once you’ve had a taste, you won’t want anything less than to return, time and again, to cultivate a lasting relationship of deep and golden worth.

By ekwetzel
2011-02-08

WEEK 31:
Carrots
Shallot
Potatoes
Onions
Apples – We traded out some root veggies (not pictured) for extra apples
Frozen Raspberries
Romaine Lettuce

It’s cool and damp outside. The grass here is green and lanky. We should have mowed our lawn more in the fall, but it’s matted down by the morning frost now. It rarely snows in Washington, and when it does the magic only lasts for a day or so until the temperature rises back to the 40s or 50s, and we go back to dodging puddles on the way to the car.

What amazes me about the winter is not how monotonous the CSA palate can seem at Terry’s Berries; rather I am amazed that fresh food can even be produced in the wintertime.

In the summer, I intentionally kept myself from apples, knowing that the winter would hold months of fresh apples that I could partake in. I love apples, and golly am I thankful that the apple, of all fruits, is the staple that grows here in the winter.

Click on picture for a larger image. For original posting, visit: http://www.good.is/post/a-guide-to-when-fruits-and-vegetables-are-in-season/

Depending on climate, different areas of the country are able to grow different produce from season to season. I really appreciate this infographic (pictured to the left) from Good Magazine (http://www.good.is). It depicts when fruits and veggies are in season in six different areas of the country. California is of course magical in its ability to produce a cornucopia of American staples year round. (Of course, there are tradeoffs: what Californian is ever lucky enough to experience the occasional snow day?)

January is almost over, and spring is only a few months away. Garden plans are brewing in kitchens across America, and signs of spring are already peeking through the soils of our imaginations. Before we know it, April will be here with the cherry blossoms, the tulips, and the sweet greens of spring.

And, since our due date is in April, our baby will be arriving too. A little, local fruit of the womb.

WEEK 28
(Top Row)
Parsnips
Shallots
Head of Garlic
Onion
Potatoes
(Middle Row)
Delicata Squash
Apples
Pears
Carrots
(Bottom Row)
Leeks
Beets
Turnips
Bok Choi