June 14th: CSA

For a few years, I have been wanting to sign up with a CSA program. CSA – Community Supported Agriculture – works like this: in the spring, members buy a share with a local farm. In return, the farm provides a basket of produce, generally weekly throughout the growing season. There are two catches: 1) it is a relatively expensive up-front cost, in the range of $500-$700 and 2) if the farm has a bad year and produce is not abundant, no refunds are provided. The share cost is for good or bad, vegetables or not.

I've wanted to do this for years, but money is always tight for us in the spring and I’ve never been able to get enough together to follow through. This year, I swore, come hell or high water, I was doing it. So I wrote a cheque, crossed my fingers, and thanked TD Canada Trust for the overdraft on our account; my cheque didn’t bounce. Today, I got my first basket of vegetables from Covenant Farm. Here is catch number three: for an extra payment, vegetables can be delivered to your door or to a central pick up location. I didn’t have the money for that, so now, every Tuesday, Olivia and I have a 1 hour round trip to Clarence (east of Ottawa) to get our vegetables directly from the farm. The gas I will put in my car will eventually cost more than the delivery would have. Ah well, as I can afford gas over the summer as Greg makes money, and I look forward to exposing my city girl daughter to the country.

In a way, catch number four is, you end up with a basket of vegetables you might not know what to do with; however, I see that not so much as a catch but as an exciting challenge. This week, I need to figure out what I am going to do with collard greens, komatsuna and hakurei turnips, among other vegetables. Good times.

Olivia looks hesitant, but loved the bok choy flowers!