First CSA box

Our first CSA box of the year!!! Yay! Picking were a little slim due to the earliness of the season, but we got radishes, turnip greens, green garlic, parsley and mint. Looking forward to next week already!

Field Day at Green Man Farm

Despite cold temperatures and the threat of rain, on Saturday we trekked out to Green Man Farm, which is the CSA which we belong to. We haven't been out there since last year at this time and there have definitely been some changes. The biggest change is the livestock. There are chickens, pigs, cows and sheep. The pigs and cows are for their own consumption.











The chickens are meant to produce eggs for sale. The sheep are breeders and they are planning on selling the lambs. We got to feed the chickens and the pigs.












Of course there's not much growing at this time of year, but they do have some cover crops and a few cold hardy species like broccoli rhab and cabbage.









Here's Eric, one of the owners of the CSA describing his vision for next year and beyond!









Nicholas had a good time chasing the other kids around the fields.













And Megan enjoyed harrassing her father!









If you have a chance to join a CSA, I highly recommend it! It's a great way to support your local economy, reduce carbon emmissions and get great tasting, extremely nutritious organic food. Here's a link to Green Man Farm if you're in the Knoxville area.

Anyone in the Knoxville area interested in a CSA membership?

As some of you may know, we belonged to a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, this past year. Basically, you pay up front for a regular supply of fresh, organic, locally grown produce, which is supplied on a weekly basis throughout the growing season. We had a WIDE variety of fresh vegetables ranging from several types of greens to beans, watermelon, tomatoes, chard, and much, much more. My favorite part was opening the box each week, it was like Christmas!
And I really like the challenge of trying some new ingredients which are often not even available in grocery stores. There were a few items which we found not as tasty as their commercially grown cousins (cauliflower, broccoli and celery come to mind), but for the most part, the food was delicious and very fresh. All summer long, my kids would ask at dinner, "Was this grown locally? Did this come from our farm?" I was always very happy when I could say yes.

The amounts were generous and the value almost always exceeded what the produce would have cost to buy a la cart. Here is one week's vegetables:









We are going back up to Green Man Farm next weekend for a field day and to help feed the pigs some of the thousands of acorns we have in our yard. We are definitely going to renew our membership. I think we'll be able to take even better advantage of the bounty after having a year of experience under our belts. We will have a better idea what to expect, and we already have some tried and true recipes to go to. Eric, the farmer, informed us that there are still membership slots available, so for anyone in the Knoxville area who is interested (or if you know someone who is), please check out Green Man Farm and come to the Field Day, November 15 at 2 pm. The address is 875 Clinchview Lane, Washburn, TN 37888.

CSA

We belong to a CSA which stands for community supported agriculture. The way it works is that the consumer pays the farmer a set fee at the beginning of the season and the farmer provides the goods (in our case a variety of fresh, organic, in-season locally grown vegetables) each week during the growing season. The benefit to the farmer is improved cash flow and a more predictable market for his produce. The benefit for the consumer is, well, obvious: beautiful produce which has not been contaminated with pesticides or trucked across the country (or the world). Often we get heirloom varieties which were bred for TASTE not portability. And supporting the local economy is a bonus.

We began this endeavor because we were trying to reduce the distance our food travels (at least some of our food, for part of the year). On average, food in our grocery stores has traveled 1500 miles to get to us. This produce from our CSA has just come down the pike from Grainger county. Although we won't achieve the admirable goal of eating 100% locally outlined in Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, we have definitely improved over last year, including (other than our CSA produce) some meat and dairy products. 

We visited our CSA, Green Man Farm, last fall and got to see their beautiful setup.

Megan and Nicholas had a great time. That's Gabriel, below, on the left, he's the farmer's son and he really took a shine to Megan.