Community Supported Agriculture & Certified Organic

So we have heard about these community farms for some time. And about co-ops and such. A good friend of ours, Suzann Leininger, was a member of a Community Supported Agriculture Program in northern San Diego called Be Wise Ranch.

We were always concerned we'd get food we didn't like, or that we wouldn't be able to eat it all, etc. You know, excuses.

Well, I started looking at it again, this time in more detail. There are a number of options available - I think that's a great idea - which help make it more flexible to fit what a family wants/needs. You can choose between the Large and Small boxes (actually I was quite surprised to see how close in size the boxes are). And they have added another option - every-other-week pickup.

We checked in with Suzann. She and her husband Bill get the Small box every-other-week. We decided to go for it, and selected the Large box, every-other-week. Oh ya, and if you find you want the other size, or to pickup every week, you can switch.

So Thursday we picked up our first box!

Too bad you can't see the carrots in the photo. It's really quite a haul. Hard to see it all in the photo. Here's a list of what was in the box this week...

Arugula
Apples
Bok Choy
Carrots
Celery
Kale
Lettuce
Mizuna - this one is totally new to us!
Mustard Greens
Oranges
Radishes
Basil
Spring Mix

The hope is that this will help us to be better about eating our fruits and veggies, and eat more greens. So far so good. Now we need to work on getting creative with all this bounty and work it into our cooking.

Be Wise helps here too, with a page of recipes from other members. We will have to be good citizens and add some recipes there too!