welcome to csa!

for those unaware, csa is the acronym for community-supported agriculture. depending on the situation, you basically pay a membership fee or contribute labor or work costs to support a local farm, and the farm, in turn, supports you with the fruits & veggies produced. for a while now we have been wanting to grow our own vegetables, but time has not permitted it (or we haven't made the time; priorities, ya know?). after watching dirt! the movie we both felt pretty convicted about our relationship with earth (in the specific instance, earth = dirt) (it's on netflix instant play, you should watch it if you haven't yet). a little while later i was reading the weekly newsletter issued by my employer, advertising a community-supported agricultural system via pinckney's produce, located in beaufort. j. and i signed up and will pay about $21 per week for 12 weeks of delivered farm-fresh produce. this week we received our first share. exciting!!

i have to tell ya, pinckney's produce is great about communication. from the time we signed up we have been receiving weekly newsletters informing us of crop conditions, any obstacles they have run into, and what to expect in our share boxes. now that we are receiving our shares we should receive an e-mail each monday with what veggies & fruits to expect so we can plan our meals. and on wednesday we pick up our box! it's pretty awesome. i was so giddy when i picked up our share today. look at this thing, overflowing with fresh bounty:

this is the breakdown of what we received:

italian eggplant (2)
sweet potato (5)
bell pepper (4)
okra (14)
pickling cucumbers (3)
yellow squash (8)
zucchini (4)
banana pepper (5)
poblano pepper (2)

and these are some of the meals we are having this week:

eggplant parmesan
bacon/sun-dried tomato stuffed peppers, brown rice & black beans
sausage stuffed zucchini boats
bacon-wrapped pepper poppers, roasted squash + okra
falafels with sauteed squash and carrots

have you ever thought about participating in a csa?