double chocolate zucchini bread

This blog post is dedicated to my friend, Adrienne.

Wednesday night Holiday Brook Farm held their first CSA member potluck.  It was a wonderful night filled with great friends and fantastic food - not only do farmers know how to grow food, they also know how to transform it into a gastric delight!  I'm still trying to figure out why my grilled eggplant doesn't taste *that* good ('that good' referring to the eggplant I consumed prior to the arrival of fresh goat cheese on the scene, when I promptly plopped a dollop on top of a slice of grilled eggplant, rolled it up and proceeded to eat it with my bare hands).  

Within a day or two of finding out about the potluck dinner, I received an email from my friends at King Arthur Flour sharing this recipe for double chocolate zucchini bread. Fast forward a couple of days and I'm at the farm picking up our weekly vegetable (CSA) share and lo and behold zucchini was amongst the offerings.  My fate was sealed.

I followed the aforementioned recipe exactly, save for a sprinkling of coarse sugar on top (because let's face it, coarse sugar on top makes most any baked good better).

The bread was a hit and honestly, you would never know there was zucchini tucked inside!  It simply adds moisture to this delectable dessert.  I'll be making this again in the days ahead so I can share it with the gals at work.  I may also have to put a slice aside for my friend, Adrienne, who took her zucchini bread 'to go' Wednesday night, only to have a certain member of her household, who shall go unnamed (but who happens to be her marital partner), eat every last bite!

Tip:  It took nearly 80 minutes for my bread to finish baking and next time, I'll line my pan with parchment so I can remove it from the pan with ease.   

I'm already looking forward to the next potluck.  Farm life is soothing to my soul and eating amidst the crops and livestock are particularly so.  As we drove down the driveway that evening, my son asked, 'are we going to do this again'?  And for a moment in time, all was well in the world.

Bon Appetit! 
 

Cooking Away My CSA

When most people hear the term 'CSA' their thoughts turn to fruits and (more likely) vegetables.  That's certainly how we began our love affair with CSA's.  But CSA's aren't confined to produce. Some farms include the option for shareholders to purchase shares of eggs, homemade bread, meat, cheese, fruit, flowers or other farm products along with their veggies. Sometimes several farmers will offer their products together, to offer the widest variety to their members. For example, a produce farmer might create a partnership with a neighbor to deliver cheese to the CSA drop off point, so that the CSA members can purchase farm-fresh cheese when they come to get their CSA share. Or a farm may create a standalone CSA for meat, flowers, eggs, or cheese, etc. 

As I mentioned above, we initially joined a vegetable CSA.  My son was four at the time.  Having grown up in a rural area where my parents raised and preserved every jar of jam and jelly, chili sauce and spaghetti sauce, pickles and applesauce and.... (you get the picture) pretty much everything we consumed, I was overcome with the desire to at least expose him to freshly grown produce.  I wanted him to know where fruits and vegetables really comes from and to taste the fresh goodness of organically grown, local produce. Next stop - Holiday Brook Farm in Dalton.  It wasn't long thereafter that Holiday Brook Farm began their meat CSA and we immediately signed up for a monthly pork share too.  We've had a fabulous experience there (just ask my son who ate half our allotted pint of self-picked snow peas last Saturday before I could even get them home).  

  

Last summer Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown began a cheese CSA featuring their handmade cheeses and offered the option to pick your share up at Holiday Brook Farm.  Cheese?  Are you kidding me?  Sign me up!  

  

A few months later, I converted to raw milk (that's another post for another day) and began making the trek to Cricket Creek on a regular basis for their sweet, creamy, Jersey and Brown Swiss milk.  So when they expanded their cheese CSA last winter to include raw milk and meat - you guessed it, I signed up!  They've continued to expand and modify their CSA in an attempt to meet their members needs.  They now offer bread, dairy, meat, ground beef and egg options, in addition to cheese, of course!

But enough of me waxing poetic.  Let me show you some of the delicious goodness that abounds in the Berkshires (and quite possibly where you live too!).  These were all taken in the past week.  Yes, we eat good here!

I hope these images will inspire you to eat good too.  And support your local farms in the process.

Bon Appetit!

Strawberry shortcake with berries from Nourse Farm
courtesy of Berkshire Organics

Boneless pork chop from Holiday Brook Farm
and asparagus from Smiarowski Farm

Grilled Burger with ground beef from Cricket Creek Farm
and sauteed snow peas from Holiday Brook Farm

Morning coffee with fresh 'cream'
(off the top of this bottle of raw milk from Cricket Creek Farm)

Raisin bread toast with fresh farmstead butter
from Cricket Creek Farm

Tom's frittata made with farm fresh eggs from
Cricket Creek Farm and amazing breakfast sausage
from Holiday Brook Farm

 

Smitten and Spoiled

Those of you who have been following this blog since the beginning are quite aware of how smitten I am with our CSA Farm. I love everything about belonging to a CSA - farm to table food (some of which we get to pick ourselves!), the opportunity to show my young son EXACTLY where his food comes from, developing a real relationship with the farmers that in essence are present at our table every day (I could go on and on).

Yes, indeed, we become a wee bit spoiled during the traditional growing season here in Western, MA when fresh, local produce (and a large variety of it) is readily available. But, all good things must come to an end, and eventually even the storage crops begin to dwindle. I knew this was going to be a tough transition for me (and my family).

To their credit, our local Big Y is committed to supporting local farms and food producers and labels these selections accordingly, making it relatively easy to continue purchasing local staples, but it's the fresh, local produce I really missed. Enter Berkshire Organics. Once again, I am smitten. My only regret is that this business wasn't my brainchild (though I'm eternally grateful to Aleisha for conceiving and ultimately giving birth to this convenient and affordable service).


For the past couple of months, we've been the proud (and happy) recipients of the Berkshire Basket. Since Berkshire Organics is "right down the road" from my daycare provider, I've opted to pick our basket up (vs. having it delivered) and we manage to stretch our basket out over the course of two weeks (with supplements from our freezer, root cellar and I'll be honest...the grocer). I LOVE the fact that Berkshire Organics' goal is to help reduce the distance from the farm to our table (sound familiar). They work with a number of farms within a 50-mile radius as well as an organic supplier who shares their vision by purchasing produce as close to New England as possible. The produce is fantastic and the variety (and flexibility) is great too! They let you know ahead of time what's in that weeks' basket and if there's something you don't like you can email them to request a substitution from a list of items that are available.

As we move into February and each day brings us a little closer to spring, the distance our food travels will begin to diminish. Before you know it we'll once again be basking in the warmth that Holiday Brook Farm brings to us.....in so many ways.

I am extremely grateful for the local food options available to us here in the Berkshires. For those of you who try to eat locally when you can, what do YOU do during the "off season"?

Bon Appetit!

Note: New England Bloggers are celebrating their one-year anniversary this week. To celebrate, Elizabeth - host(ess) of NEB has organized a carnival of posts that relate to our wonderful region. Please stop by to see the celebratory blog posts - and don't forget to say "hi"!

New CSA

First, an apology: whoa, I haven't posted in a while! For those of you who don't read my personal blog, I have a pretty good excuse--we welcomed our 3rd child five weeks ago. As I'm sure none of you are shocked to hear, not much imaginative cooking is getting done in our house. We've been eating a lot of salads (and sandwiches and bowls of cereal!). Don't worry, I have been doing some cooking, relying on tried-and-true recipes, like Jules' sausage kale soup, roasted garbanzo beans with swiss chard, and of course chocolate zucchini cake!

The other big exciting change in our lives is that we moved (4 days before lil' Z-man was born, but that's a whole 'nother story!). It's been great, except one thing: we're really too far away from our CSA at our new house. We've belonged to Waltham Fields Community Farm for the past two years, and I can't even tell you how awesome it's been. I absolutely love, love, love them! But now it takes nearly an hour to get there, sometimes more like an hour and a half if I'm fighting rush hour traffic. They've pushed up their renewals from January to October (now!!), so I was forced to make a decision with heavy heart not to renew our share.

So now I have to decide what to do for next summer. I'm looking into CSAs in the Nashoba Valley area (basically, anywhere kind of near 495 between Rte 3 and Rte 2, or even southern New Hampshire in the general vicinity of Nashua). I've been looking at Bear Hill Farm (Lisa, I hope you'll chime in!), and Dragonfly Farm, plus a few others I saw on Local Harvest. Anyone have any recommendations for me?

Alternately, I could just plan to shop the farmers' markets next summer. That supports local farms as well and may work better with the little man's nap schedule (whatever that ends up being!) than a shorter pickup window with a CSA. Plus, there's generally a wider selection at farmers' markets...things like bread, cheese, eggs, meat, fish, and fruit. I don't know, though; I really like the set up of a CSA.

It might be moot. I might pick a CSA and end up waitlisted for next summer anyway. But now's the time to start thinking.

Anyway, any opinions would be welcome, and I should be back with recipes soon!

Summer Squash in Coconut Milk, plus, the risk side of the CSA

I didn't take a picture last night, but here's YASSR (Yet Another Summer Squash Recipe...with all the squash, can we ever have too many recipes??) I found this recipe written on the board at the CSA pick up this week, and decided to try it when I got home. Quick, easy, yummy!

Ingredients:

3 or 4 medium sized summer squash (any varieties)
8 or so leaves of fresh Thai (purple) basil
A few sprigs of fresh parsley
A small handful of fresh cilantro
About half a can of coconut milk
Pinch of salt

Directions:

Cut the squash into bite-sized pieces.

Chop up all the herbs. Chiffonade, anyone? I just jammed all the other herbs inside the basil, rolled it up, and chopped!

Add the squash and herbs to a frying pan, and pour enough coconut milk to cover the bottom of the pan completely.

Cook over medium heat until done to your liking. Season with a little salt.

Quite tasty, easy, and a little different from the normal ways I prepare squash!

_____________________

And on the flip side, I wanted to talk for a minute or two about the inherent risk of a CSA. Part of what I like about a CSA is that it's a *SHARE* of a harvest. If there's a good harvest, presumably you'll get a good share size. But if it's a bad harvest, well, you might not get such a big share.

This year, our CSA is taking a huge hit: tomatoes. We probably won't get any. They were hit by late blight. It's not just our CSA, it's throughout the northeast, so I'm guessing many of you reading are in the same situation, with tomatoes and/or potatoes affected.

I won't lie...it's a disappointment. But I'm glad I belong to a CSA, where the loss of a huge crop like tomatoes means just that: disappointment. Presumably not something that leads to the demise of a farm.

Our latest CSA newsletter had a great article about losing the tomatoes. Tammy at Food on the Food has reprinted it on her blog. Worth a read (not to mention sticking around and peeking at the rest of her blog...it's wonderful, and the first blog I started reading way back when I first got interested in eating locally.)

The good and the bad

You want to hear something really neat? My CSA featured my recipe for zucchini pancakes in their newsletter! How cool and awesome are they? It is a really yummy way to have zucchini! I mean, almost as good as zucchini brownies!

Now the bad: they linked in the recipe incorrectly, so the blog is getting tons of hits to "page not found".

So, I figured I'd post the link here, in case anyone makes it from the CSA newsletter to our main blog page. Enjoy, and feel free to poke around the other recipes...there's a list of ingredients you can choose on the right side of the page. If anyone's visiting here from Waltham Fields Community Farm, welcome!

A Day in the Life of a CSA

By now you've heard us wax poetic about our respective CSA's and the beautiful and tasty bounty we receive from them each week. But what exactly does a CSA "pickup" or "share" look like?


Our goods this week were so striking, I decided I had to take a picture of them before I started cooking, so that's what part of this post is all about. The photo above consists of: Red Russian Kale (that is what's in the plastic storage bag), Beets, Scallions (hiding under the Carrots), Red Cabbage, New Potatoes, Carrots and Shell Peas. Additional options included Broccoli (we've been on the run a lot this week and have a bunch from last week, so we passed on that) and Senposai Collards.


Our CSA operates in a "market style" fashion, which means you pick and choose from the week's offerings until you fill your "share". The farm has generously provided us with customized canvas bags (small bags for small shares, which equal approximately 1/4 bushel of produce a week and large bags for large shares, which equal approximately 1/2 bushel of produce a week - we have a small share for our small family). One of the things I love most about this style of distribution is we get the most bang for our buck - taking advantage of the things we love (and new things we want to try), while leaving others that we don't. Or in the case of this week's broccoli - opting out because we still have some at home.


Up until this week I had passed on the Kale. Even though our CSA offers a few different varieties, I've never found a recipe for Kale that rendered it palatable to me. That is until now....


Some of the members of our CSA have been making Kale Chips. This concept intrigued me. I love chips. If I can find a way to justify eating them regularly....well, that would be almost like winning the lottery! (Hey, I said almost.) I didn't have a particular recipe to go by - this was passed along from Desiree at Holiday Brook Farm by word of mouth. I baked them in a convection oven, which worked perfectly, if that option is open to you! Without further adieu, this is what I did...


Tear Kale into bite sized pieces (I was not too particular about this, some of my pieces were small; others were quite large). Toss with a little olive oil and your favorite sea salt or seasoned salt (I used Borsari). Spread out flat on a large cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven, keeping close watch on them. Remove from oven when Kale is crispy (and before they are completely toast colored).


I don't know that this recipe has convinced me to to out and search for Kale on a regular basis, but I do enjoy these and will be making this recipe from time to time. Bon Appetit!

Our First CSA Meal of the Season

If you or anyone you know is on the fence with regard to joining a CSA I have three words for you...just do it! We have a small share (to supplement our small garden) at Holiday Brook Farm. Our first pick-up was last Saturday. As we pulled into the farm I was giddy with excitement (yeah, it doesn't take much). Upon filling our 1/4 bushel basket with fresh produce (with a side of pastured pork chops that my husband just couldn't resist) we were on our way and I was mentally preparing meals.

It has been very cool and wet in Western MA so far this growing season, but even so we ended up with -

• Four spring turnips
• Five radishes
• A head of baby bok choy
• A head of red leaf lettuce
• Braising Greens
• Spinach

I passed on the Kale (not my favorite) and Mesclun Mix, since I had some mixed salad greens in the fridge at home.

Our CSA provides a weekly newsletter and this week the featured recipe was Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Garlic. It was the perfect accompaniment to the grilled chops. With eight cloves of garlic, how could you go wrong? I'd highly recommend this simple recipe if you're looking for a delicious way to fix this veggie.

Ingredients:

1/3 c. chicken or vegetable broth

1 T soy sauce

1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch

3 T vegetable oil

8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 pounds (about 1 full sized) bok choy, chopped, leaves and stems separate

2 tsp. toasted sesame oil

1/2 tsp. salt (I omitted this)

Directions: Stir together broth, soy sauce, cornstarch and salt until cornstarch has dissolved; set aside. Heat a 14" wok (or heavy bottomed pan) over high heat until a drop of water evaporates instantly. Pour the oil down the side of wok and swirl to coat the sides. Add garlic and stir-fry, 5-10 seconds until pale golden. Add bok choy stems and stir fry until bright green and tender (a few minutes) and then add the leaves and stir-fry for 2 minutes longer until limp. Stir the broth mixture, then pour into the wok and cook for another 15 seconds. Turn the ehat down a bit, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until veggies are crisp tender (2-4 minutes). Stir in sesame oil and gransfer to a serving dish.

Bon Appetit!

Extras from the CSA

Yesterday, Ms. Sotorrific Twins asked a question about what you should do with stuff you get from a CSA that you don't want. I was going to just email her, but then I decided this could be part two of my CSA decision making series. Whoa, don't get me going, I might just post once every 6 months about CSAs!

The fact of the matter is, with many CSAs, you end up with vegetables you don't want. Some CSAs are structured where you get to choose what you want, but many just give you a box of whatever is ripe on the farm that week. So what do you do with the vegetables you don't like?

The first thing I'd suggest is TRY THEM! Search around for a different recipe that uses the vegetable in a way you've never tried. You're getting the most fresh of the vegetables...it hasn't been trucked across the country or sat in a warehouse for a week. You might be pleasantly surprised by a vegetable you thought you didn't like.

But, there's probably no way you're going to like everything. Kohlrabi is my veggie I don't want anywhere near me...I tried it a few times last year, and never liked it. I'm not sure yet if I'll even bother taking it at this year's CSA pickups. Icky! So here some ideas of what to do with those extras:

• Talk to your CSA about setting up a "trade table", where people leave things they don't want and take something they do want. I mean, you're probably never going to find the popular veggies on the trade table, but you may be able to swap out your kale for kohlrabi or something. The CSA I belonged to tried this one week last year, and unfortunately, at least when I was there, the "trade table" just became filled with kohlrabi. I guess I'm not the only one who isn't a fan! But in theory this might work.
• Talk to your CSA about the possibility of organizing a donation to a local food pantry or hunger relief agency (if any can use fresh veggies). People can just leave whatever they get too much of, or don't want, and then a volunteer (probably you, if it's your idea!) can deliver it to the charity. Our CSA donates to hunger relief agencies, and I absolutely LOVE this about them, and it was one of the main reasons I chose them. If there's stuff in our pickup I don't want or know I won't be able to use, most times I just don't take it and know it'll go to good use.
• Offer the vegetable(s) you don't want to someone else who is there picking up at the same time. One week last summer, a family with a child with soy allergies offered us their edamame. I love edamame, so was quite excited! That vegetable you hate may be a favorite of the person standing next to you.
• Bring the vegetables home and offer them to friends/neighbors/coworkers/family. Someone will probably want it.
• Use the veggies to make stock, which can be frozen or used to make some yummy soup (thanks to the suggestion from Small Footprints. I've always been scared from some unknown reason of making stock, but I think I'll give it a try this summer!)
  
• If all else fails, start composting. I mean, I would never take veggies with the intent of just throwing them on the compost pile, but if all else fails, and despite your best efforts you can't get rid of them and just can't eat them before they go bad, well at least with a compost bin/pile, it's not a complete and total waste.

One of the things I love about a CSA is getting to try all different veggies and getting a big variety. I think a traditional CSA works best for people who aren't overly picky about their vegetables. If you and your family are exceedingly picky, then a CSA that offers you choices of what to take would probably be the best bet for you. Or shopping the farmers' markets, where you have total control of selection and quantity.

What other suggestions do you have for using up those unwanted veggies?

So who else is CSA'ing this summer? Or farmers' market'ing? Yay, I love summer!

___________________

I'm going to be moving some of my posts from last year over to this site, to try to get related content all in one area, instead of spread out between different blogs :) This is my first try!

CSA decision making

It's hard to believe, but it's that time of year to make a decision about joining a CSA for the summer season. At least in this area, the CSA shares sell out FAST...you can't put off deciding until April.

We plan on rejoining our CSA again this year. For you faithful readers from last summer, I'm sure you're not surprised as my blog devolved into "local produce, all the time" for a month or so there as I got so overly excited about the whole thing. I'll try to have more balance this summer, though no promises!

Anyway, I thought I'd share my "pros and cons" list for anyone on the CSA fence. These are *my* pros and cons...some of you may think my pros are actually cons, or vice versa :) So take it for what it's worth.

Pros of a CSA:

• Supporting local farming (and all that goes with it, such as more sustainable agriculture, green space in the area, ability of farmers to grow a diversity of vegetables, training new farmers, etc.)
• Getting a lot of veggies, especially varieties I haven't tried before.
• Potential environmental benefit (I'm not convinced about fuel savings for shipping, and on a totally personal level, we drive A LOT further to go to the CSA than to the supermarket. I know that's not the same as a truck driving from California to MA, or a plane flying from South America, but I do kind of feel like my own personal contribution to fuel savings is at least partially offset by the long distance we have to drive to the CSA).
• Okay, here's a true environmental benefit: little to no packaging materials. Sometimes we'd pick things into a reusable pint container, or use a plastic veggie bag, but most of it goes directly into a reusable grocery bag with absolutely no packaging at all. There's also no food refrigeration storage costs as it goes right from the field to us!
• Giving my kids a better understanding of where food comes from and how it is grown.
• Getting organic (or in our case, organically grown but not certified organic) vegetables.
• This is personal to our specific CSA, but I love that our CSA is big into hunger relief efforts on a local level.
• Eating healthier. We ate a lot more veggies and vegetarian meals during the summer.
• The fun of the you-pick component. I mean, there's one local farm that charges $8 a person just to get on their farm to pick strawberries (you have to pay for the strawberries on top of it!) We got to do the picking for free each week, which was the boys' favorite part. B-man especially loved picking basil (I think because he was totally entranced with the fact that there was PURPLE basil!), and N-man would sometimes be willing to try a bite of something in the field (husk cherries were a hit!). Going to the CSA pick up was an event each week...a fun activity for the boys that I felt really good about. We'd also sometime pack a picnic dinner, or bump into some friends with their twins. It wasn't just an errand to go to pickup, but something fun for the family each week.
  

Neutral facts about a CSA:

• Expense: I was suprised to find there was little, if no, difference in cost. I thought we'd save money, and we certainly did on vegetables. But we made up for it in other weird ingredients I bought to try new recipes. I also became focused on sourcing many other local (or local-ish) ingredients, which became especially spendy for meat (which we cut way back on, so I probably didn't spend any extra on meat than before), and cheese (which I bought a TON of, and is probably responsible for a large portion of the additional food expenses ;)
• Getting the boys to eat more vegetables/try new foods: Yeah, this didn't work at all. They loved to pick things like fava beans, or green beans, or edamame, but they still didn't want to eat it! Oh well, they were no worse off than before!

Cons of a CSA:

• The long drive to the pick up
• Having little control over what, how much, and when you'll get things. For example, I think over the whole summer, we got THREE zucchinis. Three, that's it! How is that possible, when zucchinis are the poster child for summer plenty? And we got pretty sick of the endless non-zucchini summer squash (though I'm missing it now!) Sometimes we got too much of something, sometimes not enough.
  
• Food acquisition and preparation took a huge portion of my time during the CSA...there was little "convenience" food. By the time the CSA was over, I was a bit desperate for a frozen pizza. During the CSA, I never wanted to waste any of our food by using up a meal on something that didn't require me to use any CSA ingredients.
• The inherent risk of a CSA, in that you pay a flat fee and then get a share of the harvest, which may be small if it's not a good year (this past year wasn't great here due to the excessive rain, though I still felt like we got a fair amount for the price).
• Having to pay a lump sum up front before the growing season begins. Sure, it's nice in July, August, and September when you've already paid, but you still need to have the cash upfront.
• Being tied to specific pick-up times. The CSA we joined is one of the more convenient in that you don't have to pick a specific pick up date/time...you can show up during any of the pick up times available during the week. But even with that allowance, it's still far less convenient than a supermarket where you can pop in at pretty much any time of the day or night! For example, morning pickups would have worked best for us, but our CSA only offered late afternoon/early evening pickups so I always had to fight the afternoon rush hour.
  
• You pay for the whole season, even if you're going to be away on vacation and miss a week or two. Last year we were able to plan our travel around our CSA, but I doubt we'll be able to again this year (it's funny, since we don't even "vacation" officially, but we do take advantage of the summer to visit family).
• Did I mention the phenomenal amount of cooking and prep work? I even had to spend a lot of time looking for recipes for vegetables I'd never tried before, or new ways of preparing familiar veggies.
• The weather doesn't always cooperate...we picked up in extreme heat and extreme wet (including one insane day where we got COMPLETELY soaked just walking for the car to the pick up stand, so we decided to pick green beans despite the torrential downpour. We were, without exaggeration, as wet as we would have been if we had just jumped in a swimming pool!)
• Sometimes, especially the weeks when TK didn't come with me, it was hard to corral the boys. I mean, the farm was safe and there were always kids running around, but some weeks I spent more time trying to keep the kids entertained/away from trampling the plants/in eyesight than I did picking up the veggies!
  

As I said at the beginning of this (LONG) post, I loved our CSA and we're almost sure to do it again this year (I have nightmares about getting shutout...in fact, I have to call tomorrow if our sign up info isn't in today's mail). But I don't think a CSA is for everyone.

Who do I think would enjoy a CSA?

• People who would view large (or small) amounts of different vegetables, which you may never have used before, as a fun challenge rather than a terrible burden.
• People who are excited at the possibility of new and unusual varieties of vegetables. It's not just heirloom tomatoes you'll get, but odd varieties of squash, and different colored cauliflower, unusual cabbage, etc.
• People who have the time and inclination to commit to a weekly supply of fresh veggies. It gets a bit overwhelming, let me tell you, when you're barely finishing up last week's pick up and it's already time to go get some new stuff!
• People who don't have extensive vacations planned over the summer. If you're going to be away every other week, it's not worth it!

Going to farmers' markets are a great option, either as an alternative to a CSA, or in addition to the CSA. I still shopped at farmers' markets plenty this summer, though often for things like eggs and cheese, or to supplement our veggie pick ups (like if we only got one small eggplant, and I wanted to try a recipe that needed more eggplant). For people who don't want the commitment of time, money, or quantity that a CSA entails, shopping the farmers' markets is probably the better choice.

And for those of you still relying on the supermarket for veggies in the summer, I encourage you to check out your local farmers' markets...you'll be surprised at how much more delicious fresh vegetables can be!