Because I was in Scottsdale, I was unable to pick up my Tucson community supported agriculture share for week 8  so I offered it to my friend Jodi Goalstone.

Here’s what she said: We got spring mix lettuce, chard, radishes, indigenous green onions, butternut squash, cucumber, roasted/marinated red and green chiles, green tomatoes and jalapeno goat cheese.
She made a salad with the spring mix, radishes, and green onions and all were wonderfully fresh and delicious. The indigenous green onions were especially good–more pungent/stronger than the green onions from the grocery store. The radishes were outstanding–very crisp and extremely flavorful.

Later in the week Jodi mentioned making lasagne with chard.

Hmmm, I should’ve been invited to dinner.

If you want to sign up for the winter CSA share, check out the specifics here. For winter, the cost is $209 for 11 weeks vs. $247 for 13 weeks. You can split the shares with a friend or they will pair you with a person who wants to split. (I split my share and go every other week.)

Some CSA advantages are you get amazing fresh fruits and vegetables just picked; you try new produce that you might not find or choose if you went to the grocery store;  the produce is pesticide free but not labeled organic which comes with a hefty price tag for both the farmer and the consumer; you can go visit the farmer at designated hours; and best of all you’re directly supporting local hard working farmers who have sustainable practices.

CSA disadvantages are few: You have to prepay either in full or make an initial payment and then pay again at the halfway mark. Personally, I find this a positive that I can go pick up glorious produce and it’s already paid for.  Another disadvantage is you have to go pick up at the Historic Y which is slightly west of 4th Avenue @ University. I guess it depends on where you live but could also be turned in to a positive if this gets you out or have coffee at Epic Cafe.

Here’s the Tucson CSA’s list of pros and cons

(photo:  Tom Erwin)

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm and is filed under A Tisket, A Tasket, Desert Locavore, Health. Tags for this post: community supported agriculture, pesticide free produce, Tucson CSA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.