Eat your vegetables!

This week, we finally got off the waiting list to join our local CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture). I've been dying to join one for the past two years, but not having a steady location throughout a season made it difficult. Since I didn't move into my apartment until July 1, I was worried that I'd lost out and would once again have to wait until next year. So when Mary from Norwich Farms emailed me with the opportunity to buy a share in this season's crop, I jumped on it gleefully. Check out the goods I picked up last night!!

We got carrots, onions, garlic, beets, fava beans, mixed baby greens and kale. The most valuable part of the CSA, I think, will be that it encourages experimentation with vegetables that you may not usually (or ever!) cook with. While I do enjoy a good beet and goat cheese salad at a restaurant, I've never actually cooked them in my house--and the same with fava beans! After laying everything out on my counter, I immediately started tearing into my cookbooks to mark recipes for some of these more interesting vegetables.

Don't worry, I won't inundate my blog posts with bizarre experimentations with vegetables, but I do think this is an exciting adventure that will lead to a healthier diet and more adventurous cooking.

For more information on CSAs or to find one near you, check out www.localharvest.org. And don't be deterred if your local CSA is full - you may be able to jump in late like we did!