Kyle and I try to be do-it-yourselfers where we can. Lawn care, painting, small carpentry projects. You know, easy stuff that our schedule allows us to do and ones where if we screwed up we wouldn’t electrocute ourselves or flood the house.
We’re getting into the warmer weather now, so it should be time for us to start planning and planting our vegetable garden. Maybe you followed our Tomato Experiment last year. It was the fifth year of lukewarm results. Disappointing to say the least. This year we needed a better solution.
Back in February someone mentioned to me that they were going to be signing up for their CSA share again and asked if I was interested. What’s a CSA, you ask? Community Supported Agriculture. Essentially it’s a farm where local residents “join” and their membership fees help to cover the cost of running the farm. In return, members receive a weekly distribution of fresh produce grown without the use of toxic chemicals.
I had heard good things about the Holcomb Farm CSA in West Granby before, but never really thought about joining. We had been trying to grow our own vegetables and if I wanted something specific I could just go to the West End Farmers Market right around the corner from where I lived. But after thinking more about our cruddy results in the last 5 years, this year we decided to take the leap.
Kyle and I signed up for a full CSA share with Grow Hartford, which is a project within the Hartford Food System. Grow Hartford promotes a sustainable and equitable food system in Hartford by cultivating youth leadership and civic participation through agriculture. They operate three sites in Hartford’s inner city that serve as outdoor classrooms for hundreds of Hartford young people and families. Sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it?
On Friday we received an update email letting us know that we’ll be picking up our vegetables on a weekly basis at their Laurel Street garden, which is just a mile and a half from our house, starting in mid-July. They’re growing garlic, beets, red cabbage, fava beans, onions, cauliflower, potatoes sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, tomatillos, chard, basil flowers, all sorts of heirloom tomatoes and more.
Can I just tell you that I’m extremely excited about this? I believe we’re helping a good cause, we’re getting a variety of fresh, organic vegetables throughout the summer, and it’s close to our home. Yay! My primary concern is going to be figuring out how exactly to prepare and consume the massive amounts of vegetables that we’ll be getting on a weekly basis. But we already have some friends lining up to take the extras off our hands when we need help. Phew!
Stay tuned in the upcoming months for updates on our CSA adventure. I can’t wait!