Tag Archives | 52 Weeks With My CSA

Week 30 – Community: Putting the C in CSA

By Erin Darling on February 2, 2011 in Darling Homemaking

This had been a rough week in Wetzelville. Mr. Wetzel was home last week recuperating from a long overdue surgery on his ingrown toenail. I still am having trouble eating starchy or fibrous foods (i.e. CSA fruits and veggies). Plus, baby has been growing swiftly, pushing around my body and making the bones and joints ache.

It’s been a rough week, but it has not been a sad week. We have had a community to support us, help us and encourage us along the way, and in our weakness, those bonds were shown to be strong. Friends brought us soup; others prayed and offered words of encouragement; others shouldered responsibilities in order to lighten our workload for the week. Community is a blessing, and we consider ourselves truly blessed by those around us.

I am reminded of Aesop’s Fable, A Laden Ass and a Horse:

A Horse and an Ass were travelling together on a long journey with their master. The Horse’s back was bare, while the Ass carried innumerable bundles. Stumbling under his heavy load, the poor Ass cried out to his proud companion, “Please, good Sir, I beg of you to help me carry my burdens, otherwise I fear I shall die.” But the Horse was unmoved by this desperate plea, and refused to share his load.

Soon the little Ass was completely worn out and, stumbling pathetically, finally fell. No matter how valiantly he struggled, he could not get to his feet. Seeing this, their master lifted the many packages from the Ass and flung them across the back of the Horse, who immediately began to groan and wail in self-pity. “Woe is me!” he cried. “What suffering have I brought upon myself! I would not share a lighter load, and look at what has become of me: I must now carry everything alone.”

The strong should help the weak, so that the lives of both shall be made easier. (Excerpt & Illustration from Aesop’s Fables, illustrated by Heidi Holder; The Viking Press, 1981.)

Likewise, it is vital for us to remain in community with our farmers and food providers, that we both might be stronger for it in the long run. We are meant to shoulder responsibility for each other. We are meant to be accountable to each other and in relationship. We are meant to care.

By ekwetzel
2011-02-02

WEEK 30
(Top Row)
Carrots
Shallot
2 Onions
Potatoes
(Middle Row)
Apples
Pears
Wheat Berries
(Bottom Row)
Leeks
Bok Choi

Week 29 – Uneaten Food

By Erin Darling on January 25, 2011 in Darling Homemaking

Scooter insisted on being in the photo shoot this week.

On Sunday, my mother-in-law was over for a bit. She loves real food, but isn’t a member of a CSA, like we are. I remembered a delicata squash that had been sitting on our counter, and asked her, “Sherri…do you want a squash?” She lit up, excited at the prospect, recipes already brewing in her mind’s eye. I retrieved the squash from the window sill, and – alas – it had already started to mold. We waited too long. The food was lost.

To be perfectly honest, these days it’s hard for me to eat the food that we’re getting from the farm. To be more precise, it’s hard for me to eat any fruit or veggies. Period. My pregnancy is giving me terrible acid reflux, and it’s worst when I eat produce.

Mr. Wetzel and I went out to eat tonight, and I got salmon. Mmmm…great brain food for the baby! On the plate were some potato wedges and grilled asparagus, and despite myself, I picked them off the plate and set them aside, of of site. Even the site churned my belly.

The midwife says it’s hormonal, and things should calm down a bit after the 30 week marker. Hopefully, in the meantime, the extra honeycrisps I picked up at the farm won’t rot on the kitchen counter, as well. They are so tasty, it would break my heart to toss them. However, at this juncture, it would break my esophagus to eat them prematurely.

WEEK 29
(Top Row)
Beets
Onion
Shallot
Potatoes
(Middle Row)
Arugula
Pears
Apples
Carrots
(Bottom Row)
Cabbage
Delicata Squash
Turnip
Parsnip

Week 28 – In Season This Winter

By Erin Darling on January 16, 2011 in Darling Homemaking

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

Week 27 – Laying Off

By Erin Darling on January 10, 2011 in Darling Homemaking

What have I been doing with myself now that I don’t have a job? I’ve had time to do a little more reading, for one. As long as my pregnant belly doesn’t interfere!

I know, I know. The blogs have been posted pretty inconsistent lately. At the end of the year last year, I was laid off due to lack of hours at my job, and with that my access to the internet diminished significantly. No, I wouldn’t blog-on-the-job. My bosses were really cool, down-to-Earth guys, however, and they wouldn’t mind it if I did personal stuff on my lunch break, or if I stayed late to work on a personal project (on my own dime).

I don’t have a computer at home until my husband comes home from work (he uses his on the job). Our days have been so busy, especially with preparations for our baby on the way, that taking a few hours to write in the evening hasn’t always been a top priority. Sometimes you have to let things slide. Sometimes slacking off is good for the home. I am happy to say I have not sacrificed quality family time for you, dear readership, no matter how inconsistent that has made my blogging.

I do enjoy writing for you, though. I do enjoy thinking about our food and being honest and open about the way eating locally has affected us.

In light of our decreased finances, many things have shifted in our budget (one of which is my plans to buy my own computer). One thing that has remained rooted is our commitment to our local CSA. It is still cheaper to buy food from the farm than it is from the store. It is still cheaper and healthier to buy raw ingredients than processed foods, packaged dinners or fast food. We feel stronger and healthier eating veggies, milk and eggs from our local community. And we are confident that we will be raising our baby up on the right nutrients and values, from as early as the womb.

It’s not a hard decision for us to stick with the farm. We feel blessed to have it available, and we refuse to lay them off. Their presence on our plate is too irreplaceable.

By ekwetzel
2011-01-10

WEEK 27 – This week a new thing was started at our CSA: a community box. If you have something in your basket that you don’t like, you can add it to the community box, and replace it with something else that another share member didn’t want. Brilliant! I got extra potatoes and an extra pear!
(Top Row)
Garlic
Shallots
Purple Onion
Beets
Turnips
(Middle row)
Potatoes
Apples

Pears
Carrots
(Bottom row)
Mustard greens
Leeks

Weeks 25 & 26 – Resolutions

By Erin Darling on December 29, 2010 in Darling Homemaking

The funny thing about resolutions is that we never keep them. It’s a game we play with ourselves…a sick game where we come up with some unobtainable idea of the perfect “self” that we wish defined us. Resolutions remind us of our shortcomings, our failures, and our faults. And, when we invariably fail at our resolutions, it just reminds us of how pathetic, weak and imperfect humanity can be. (Why am I talking about humanity???) Truly, it reminds us of the weaknesses in ourselves, but in a depressing, shameful way.

I have no interest in a path that leads to self-loathing. Screw resolutions.

Ah…but then there is the path that few complete: the ones that keep their resolutions. Do they truly become better people? Or do they just gain the self-obtained right to think their better than other people? I have no interest in a path that leads to self-righteousness, either. Even if resolutions are able to be kept by some, I still say: screw resolutions!

We have to come to accept certain things about our lives. We are imperfect. We cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and fix our lives. Sometimes things that are broken stay broken. Sometimes things that hurt never heal. Sometimes weight is never lost. Youth flies out the window like a summer breeze. Death happens every day.

Once you can accept that life isn’t always a walk in the park, you can move on and appreciate what live has to offer. I think that being REAL and LIVING and WARM BLOODED with people is—hands down—more important than appearing perfect. The truth in life is that we all have flaws and we all offend each other, but none of us can pull it alone. We are a community. I believe God is at the heart of that community, and he brings us together to find meaning and comfort in Him.

Now for the practical application: if you’re thinking of making a resolution to eat locally this year, don’t! Don’t do it! Eat locally when you feel like it. Enjoy local produce, meats and cheeses. Get to know your local farmer and create a relationship with him. Let yourself become convicted that supporting local farmers is a good thing to do. But, if you can’t find your own love for eating locally, then stop. You don’t need to support local agriculture in order to save your soul. Root vegetables are not the indulgences of the 21st century. Food feeds the body; the soul is fed elsewhere.

Local sustainable food is good, but self-righteous localvores are idiots. Don’t become one of them. Be empathetic to others; share your food, and your good cheer; promote community and the local economy; however, don’t think that doing any of this will make up for other hurts or flaws in your life, because it won’t. The best it can do is mask them. Don’t hide behind a resolution. Face your life for what it is, and feed each part of your being in the way that it needs to be fed.

By ekwetzel
2010-12-29

WEEK 25 (There is a 1 week winter break for the last week of the year, and no CSA food)
(Top Row)
Potatoes
Cabbage
Carrots
(Middle Row)
Delicata Squash
Shallot
Pears
Apples
Onion
(Bottom Row)
Rainbow Chard
Leeks

*Photo by Molly Morris

Week 24 – Cups Full of Cheer

By Erin Darling on December 18, 2010 in Darling Homemaking

I guess you could have a lot of convictions. I guess you could walk through life with a lot of specific expectations. “The man I marry will be tall, interested in physics, and he will floss.” “I will leave early for work and get there on time.” “I will invest in certain portfolios and receive a certain kind of return on them.”

The thing is, life is unpredictable.

What if the perfect man for you has rotten teeth? What if your car breaks down on the road, or you get an urgent call from your sister who needs help with something? What if the stock market crashes and you lose everything you have invested?

We like lists. We like certainty. We like predictability. Life likes to defy us.

For example, consider the farm. A farmer can prepare her fields well, tend to them properly, and harvest appropriately; however, if the summer is too wet, or there is a killer frost in the Spring, the nature of her harvest changes drastically. At Terry’s Berries, we never know what food we will get when we sign up for a seasonal share of the yield. But we sign up anyways. We commit and pre-pay. Each week when we go to pick up our goodies, it is a new surprise. And we eat whatever bounty finds us.

You can’t go through life making decisions about your future and setting them in stone. What you can do, is decide what kind of attitude you want to have about your life. This is not a conciliatory move. This does not mean you let life run you over, only to say, “’It’s all good; I’ve got my Prozak.” No. What I mean is this: you decide to live a life of joy, then as situations arise – you fall in love; your sister needs you; your life savings are wiped out – you respond to them in a way that defends the way you want to live. Live from the heart out. Live rooted in soul.

Mr. Wetzel and I respect local food, we appreciate fresh food, and we prefer organic and natural farming methods. It is because these values, as well as others, that we make the commitment to eat from our local farms, creameries and butcher shops whenever possible.

We choose to have joy about our food, our finances and our life in general. Joy doesn’t happen by accident. You can’t nuke up a microwavable dish of joy. It’s something you have to cultivate, like a garden. It’s something you have to be attentive to. And, if you defend the joy in your life, it will fill you up.

You are the cup. Be filled up with cheer.

By ekwetzel
2010-12-18

*Photo of girl holding mug, courtesy of Molly Morris.

WEEK 24
(Top row)
Delicata Squash
Turnips
Parsnips
Sunchokes
Carrots
Potatoes
(Middle row)
Beets
Pears
Apples
Brussels Sprouts
Purple Onion
Garlic head
(Bottom row)
Cabbage
2 Leeks
Purple Kale

Week 23 – The Sparrows and the Lilies

By Erin Darling on December 11, 2010 in Darling Homemaking

To be honest, I don’t want to write a blog post this week. I’m not sorry I made the commitment to local food or to writing about it. The food is just not inspirational right now. We buy food from a farm. We’re convicted it’s healthy, good for local economy, good for the environment, cost effective, and a slew of other things. But this is not a week of revelations and insights about our wonderful CSA yummies. This is a week where we’re not poets, philosophers or activists. We’re simply eaters, and the food is just our food.

This post isn’t about perseverance. It isn’t about finding a bright side. It isn’t about BS-ing my way into writing meaningfulness. We like our food, but we haven’t been thinking about it much lately. It’s part of our habit, part of our routine. We don’t take it for granted, and we don’t expect it to be more than it is. In its silent, humble status of being, our potatoes are potatoes, our apples are apples, and our leeks are leeks. We don’t need them to impress us. We’re happy with them just the way they are.

Do you know what I have been thinking about this week? My own identity. We’re 23 weeks pregnant this week, and I’m starting to really show. Everything is in flux: my wardrobe, my appetite, my sleeping schedule…even my work schedule and income are changing. Being pregnant is disarming. You lose a lot of self-control and self-reliance, and it’s easy to freak out over how insecure and “not yourself” it can make you feel. I have found the truest way to remain true to myself, to my family and to Christ is to allow the people who love me to help me and care for me.

Which got me thinking about the lilies and the sparrows. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus addresses our tendency to worry (Matthew 6:25-34). He uses the birds and the flowers as examples, explaining that they don’t worry about caring for their needs; God cares for them day in and day out.

This is what I was thinking about: if a sparrow doesn’t care for its own needs, what’s the point of being a sparrow? Well…to be a songbird and sing. And, if a lily doesn’t care for its own needs, what’s the point of being a lily? To be a flower and look pretty. To BE a lily. Therefore, if the point of my existence is not to take care of myself, it leaves me asking: what’s the point of being me? If I can’t take care of myself, if I can’t find my identity in my independence and self-reliance, then how do I find identity? How do I find meaning? What’s my purpose?

And it struck me: I’m supposed to be me. To be real. To be honest. To exist fully and openly.

I think we can use self-reliance as a shield to keep us from opening our hearts to other people, and I think that’s a sad way to live. Think about the CSA where we get our food: CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We are all part of a community, whether or not we realize it. We all need support from each other, whether or not we are willing to give it. Real food cannot exist without real people.

You don’t have to spend your life having mountaintop experiences in order to be real or feel real. Potatoes are just potatoes, sparrows are just sparrows, and I am just me. But to be true to myself, to be real with you, I believe I am called to fill myself up with the songs of my souls, and then open the beak of my heart and let my being pour out. That, to me, is worshipful living. That is the foundation for community. That is how to find true identity.

I don’t typically like to write deeply autobiographical posts, but this is what I have for you this week. If I were to write about anything else, I wouldn’t be true to myself or to you. Being real takes courage. Being real leaves you open to the wind. But, being real is the only way to truly find the songs of your heart.

By ekwetzel
2010-12-11

WEEK 23
(Top Row)
2 Squash: 1 Delicata and 1 Kubota
Turnips
Potatoes
2 Leeks
(Middle Row)
Beets
Frozen Raspberries
Apples
Pears
2 Onions
4 Carrots
Garlic
(Bottom Row)
Mizuna
Fennel
Celery

Week 22 – For the Love of Apples

By Erin Darling on December 3, 2010 in Darling Homemaking

I love apples. If I could only have one type of fruit for the rest of my life, I’d choose apples. I was raised in upstate New York, and I now live in Washington state; I am an apple region kinda gal. It’s a good thing, too, because we’ll get apples all winter long in the CSA share. I remember: last winter the only fresh fruit from Washington State that we received all winter was apples and pears. Even so, the apples were so fresh, crisp and delicious…it was easy to love them all winter long.

Other than eating apples raw, I also love to make apple pie, apple cobblers and apple sauce. I remember seeing a cartoon of Johnny Appleseed as a kid; he roamed across America with a silly pot on his head, planting apple trees as if he was proselytizing the ground with good fruit, cooking up apples here in there in dozens of fancy recipes. I would often save the seeds in my apples as a child and imagine that I could toss them wherever I went as a sign of good cheer to the world around me. Apples were magical.

This year, in preparation for apple season, I didn’t buy a single apple all summer. I love apples, but you can get sick of something, even if you love it. In an effort to thwart apple disdain, I thought it would be a good idea to make myself savor and crave them a little more, before reaching a season where they would be a mainstay week in and week out.

Another reason I love apples is that they are a balanced fruit if you have problems with insulin resistance. With the diet I am on, I need o pair most fruits with a protein in order to create balance in my bloodstream. Because of the fiber in apples, as well as the balanced sweetness, I can eat an apple all by itself. No proteins necessary. Although, who could say no to a snack of apples and cheese???

By ekwetzel
2010-12-03

WEEK 22

(From bottom left)
Fennel
Beet
Onion
Purple Potatoes
Head of Garlic
2 Rutabagas
Curly Parsley
2 Leeks
Carrots
(In the Center)
Bowl of Pears
Purple Cabbage
Acorn Squash
Sunchokes
Bowl of Apples

*Apple photo courtesy of Molly Morris.

Week 21 – Traditional Thanksgiving Meal

By Erin Darling on November 26, 2010 in Darling Homemaking

It occurred to me this week that the traditional Thanksgiving meal is – in fact – an iconic example of real, local, in-season food. In autumn, our seasonal foods are all highlighted at the event: potatoes, cranberries, brussels sprouts, yams, sweet potatoes, applesauce, pumpkins and squash.

Also, autumn and winter is the heralded time of pies, meats and warm thick family meals. Can you imagine eating this heavy meal in August? Likewise, can you imagine feeling fulfilled with fruit salad and potato salad in November? We all have a sense of how we want to eat seasonally. Part of it is likely innate, but we can build off of the cultural knowledge that is passed down through our seasonal meals.

Food writers, such as Michael Pollan, bemoan the fact that we have lost a lot of the cultural food knowledge that used to be passed down in the kitchen from one generation to the next. It’s as if the current generations don’t know how to eat, most of the time, and that’s why it’s so easy to fall prey to the glistening lights and greasy palates of fast food joints. However, our food heritage isn’t completely gone. At times like Thanksgiving, we remember grandma’s secret recipe, we cherish the old foods and the long processes of cooking them.

But, we cram all our favorite foods into one event, then sit, stuffed as a turkey, snoozing on the couch.

What if – instead of saving the tradition for Thanksgiving Day – we carried it over into the entire season? If we made one or two of those special dishes every week, we’d be celebrating our heritage, spending time in community cooking and eating, and we’d be attuning our food senses to the natural dishes of the season.

There is so much to be thankful for, and there are so many local foods to be thankful for, that saving up for one day a year hardly seems possible. Express gratitude with your kitchen. Feed yourself with heritage.

By ekwetzel
2010-11-26

WEEK 21

(Top row)
Beet
6 Apples
2 Delicata Squash
4 Pears
Yellow Carrots
(Middle row)
Bok Choi
Brussels sprouts
Onion
Garlic
(Bottom row)
Fennel
Celery

=/ We also had a 5 lb bag of potatoes, but I for got them at the farm.

Week 20 – Gratitude

By Erin Darling on November 19, 2010 in Darling Homemaking

You can go through life greedy, discontent, and always looking for the next thing that holds promise to satisfy your wants and needs. You can grumble and complain about how terrible you have it, and how unfair your lot is. Or, you can appreciate the blessings in your life.

Gratitude is a spiritual discipline. It’s in anyone’s nature to want, crave and covet. But, learning gratitude opens up your heart and your soul to appreciate whatever you have, no matter how little it may be, and to let your life be filled with thanksgiving instead of wishful thinking. Gratitude is an attitude; it starts in the heart, and permeates the rest of your life. It doesn’t matter how much you have or what it is that you have. There is always something to be grateful for.

Thanksgiving is a holiday about appreciating our blessings: food, family and fellowship. Food is always a key feature in holiday meals, but for Thanksgiving it takes on a unique role: the Pilgrims were thankful because they were not going to starve. It was the food that the Native Americans brought to them that created the bond of community between them.

We rarely worry about starvation these days in America, and as we allow our food systems to get more and more industrialized, we lose touch with the people that grow and pick the sustenance of our lives. When you combine agriculture with community, you create a relationship and an environment of gratitude; when you take the community out of the equation, the eater is merely a consumer, detached from the land and often critical of the fruits before him.

No matter where you get your food, I encourage you to pursue a spirit of gratitude and a community around your food.

I’m thankful for dinners at the table after a long day of work and chores, and the conversations my husband and I have there.
I’m thankful that the food I eat from the farm is going to grow a healthy little baby in my womb.
I’m thankful for the long apple season in Washington, and the delicious apples that we eat throughout the winter when summer fruit seems but a dream.
I’m thankful for websites like allrecipes.com that help me figure out how to cook the weird and wonderful foods I get from the farm.
I’m thankful for how easy, versatile and delicious potatoes can be.
I’m thankful for whoever invented pies, because they are delicious and one of the best parts of Thanksgiving dinner.
Finally, I’m thankful that farms exist, even in this super-industrialized world, and that people can remain real and grounded, even in an urban area.

My wish for all of you is that you find community around your food, and that you find your own gratitude.

* Thanksgiving photo courtesy of Stephen Proctor.

By ekwetzel
2010-11-19

WEEK 20

(Starting from the bottom left and going clockwise)
Celery
2 Leeks
2 Kohlrabi
I forgot the name of this root vegetable! Oops!
Onion
Head of Garlic
2 Delicata Squash
2 Carrots
Purple potatoes
2 Beets
Greens, I believe this is a type of bok choi
Fennel
Bowl of Broccoli
(In the middle)
2 Pears
Sweet Pie Pumpkin
5 Apples

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