Turning lofty ideals into practical meals
I’ve always avoided processed foods and I pride myself on being a good cook, but somehow I’ve ended up with children who think pizza is the ideal meal. It’s the usual conundrum: our busy lives sometimes get in the way of healthy meals.
My kids will dive into fresh berries in the summer, and they love running through an orchard, picking apples, in the fall (and eating as they go)—but I would never describe them as adventurous eaters. As with most kids, getting them to eat vegetables is a challenge. I tend to serve my kids the few veggies they will eat quite often, even when those foods are not in season.
I live in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, so I’m lucky to have access to some locally grown produce year-round, although in the dead of winter that’s largely limited to potatoes and squash. I try to take advantage of that, but, as a tired mummy, I will admit that it is sometimes tempting to take shortcuts. In an effort to avoid those shortcuts, I decided to investigate community shared agriculture, also called community supported agriculture, or CSA.
The CSA concept partners food producers directly with consumers, who buy a share in a farmer’s or fisher’s output; the consumer then receives a regular allocation of that producer’s goods. There are all kinds of CSA options: veggie and fruit shares, eggs, meat, fish and even baked goods and cheeses. Some offer seasonal, 20-week shares, while others ask for a year’s commitment, usually starting in the spring. Goods are often delivered to a central location, where members can pick up their box; sometimes the goods are delivered directly to the home. They may be made available once or twice a week or monthly, depending upon what works best for the producer and shareholder. And the contents of each allocation can vary, depending on what’s available each week, so there can be a certain element of surprise in each box. It’s worth noting that, while there are dozens of CSAs operating around the Atlantic Provinces, deliveries are most easily accessed by those who live near farming or urban centres.
Taking the plunge
The cost of a CSA share can seem high; it generally costs $300 to $600 for a 20-week share, depending on the variety and the volume of the produce, and may include things like fruit, cider and pickles as well as vegetables. This kind of share is only available during the growing season and is the most common option in Atlantic Canada. Some farms offer full 52-week shares, which can run upwards of $1,000.
My research took me to TapRoot Farms, based in Port Williams, NS. Owned by Josh Oulton and Patricia Bishop—parents of three kids themselves—the farm grows “ethically produced foods” and follows environmentally sustainable practices; TapRoot’s products include organic and in transition to organic produce. In addition, Oulton and Bishop offer meat shares that include products from other small local producers. The farm’s goal is to provide a year-round supply of fresh, local food to its 440 CSA members.
Understanding the cost of a CSA requires that you think like a farmer. The farm needs a commitment so they can be sure they will be able to cover the cost of planting, growing and harvesting the food. I did some calculations and realized that my weekly vegetable budget was about the same as the cost of the CSA share. The CSA cost might be slightly higher, but the variety and organic nature of the food justifies the difference. The challenge for me would be to stop buying the usual vegetables and rely on the weekly boxes for my meal planning; even though TapRoot Farms usually lets me know a few days in advance what to expect in my box, that doesn’t mean I’ll know how to cook what I get—or that my kids will like it.
I held my breath and committed. I opted for a veggie box and a dozen free-range organic eggs each week.
My kids, Eric, 5, Isaac, 7, and Samantha, 18, all joined me for the CSA season kick-off potluck. I was nervous about introducing so many new vegetables to the family diet, but it was the ideal way to start our shares. The boys ran free through the farm, chasing chickens and learning about stinging nettle (which we would later receive in our share boxes). Both boys cried when it was time to leave. At dinner that night, Isaac announced that the three best days of the year were Christmas, his birthday and farm-visit day.
Delivery day
The high note of the potluck was fresh in our minds when our first box arrived. The rainbow carrots were an immediate hit. The boys had never seen yellow carrots before, and they polished them off quickly. The beets were another challenge. I have never liked beets. Who would have known that an Internet search for “beet recipes for people who don’t like beets” would yield so many ideas? I did the same the next week with cabbage, and discovered a number of recipes that the boys and I all liked.
Over the weeks that followed, the boys’ excitement over the weekly box stayed high. Often, they accompanied me to the pick-up location, and insisted on getting out of the van to see what was on offer that week.
My youngest discovered that he loved raw peas still in the shell, and spent one trip home stuffing himself, and nearly polishing off the bag. On another trip, he decided to try a raw Jerusalem artichoke, something even I wasn’t willing to do.
Upsides and downsides
Lizon Richard, from Wolfville, NS, chose to join a CSA network because she was unhappy with buying organic produce from California and wanted to buy locally. But, like many CSA members, she has discovered that it can be difficult to feed her two young girls solely on the weekly boxes, because the veggies are sometimes out of her kids’ comfort zones.
She has found herself running to the grocery store for broccoli, because it’s a vegetable she knows they will eat. Still, she is pleased the CSA is helping her offer new foods to her kids. Beet greens are her best example: she says she probably would never have bought them, but she and her husband now put the greens in salads and the girls eat the stems. “I call them our sticks. I steam them with butter and they love them.”
Another downside that I discovered was “vegetable fatigue.” Vegetables were starting to go bad for lack of attention in my kitchen. Managing work and solo parenting while my military husband was away sometimes took its toll. A few offerings from the box, unfortunately, were ultimately tossed into the green bin. However, I am learning tricks for freezing the produce that I don’t have time to cook during a busy week—let’s just say that my freezer currently contains a lot of pesto.
TapRoot owner Patricia Bishop says this kind of fatigue is normal with new CSA members. People are excited at the beginning of the process and ready to experiment, then they move into a stage where it doesn’t seem as fun anymore.
“Then you get past that hurdle,” says Bishop, “and it starts to get more normal.” She recommends, and even sells, some good cookbooks about cooking in season, and, of course, there’s always the Internet when it comes to searching for recipe ideas.
Bishop says part of the challenge is to get past our preconceptions about food, and about vegetables in particular. Planning menus with vegetables doesn’t have to be as hard as many people make it seem. Bishop says every meal doesn’t have to be complicated or take hours to prepare. As a busy mother herself, she often resorts to sautéed vegetables served over couscous, with perhaps some almonds or a beaten egg thrown in for protein.
Thinking of veggies in a new way
Having that conversation with Bishop was good for me. I grew up in a meat-and-potatoes household and, while I’ve expanded my food horizons substantially since then, I was still thinking of vegetables as a side dish. Since that conversation, I’ve started to seriously consider frittatas and risottos and even simple fried rice as really great meals, in terms of time, taste and nutrition (see my Taproot Frittata recipe, below).
I’m no expert on CSA cooking, but I am learning a whole lot, and I’m proud to say that so are my kids, who now eat a lot more vegetables than they used to. We also visit the farm regularly now to see where our food comes from, to guess which free-range chicken laid our breakfast, and, sometimes, to help to pull a few weeds.
I still struggle with what to do with some of my weekly food allocation from the farm (like the three cucumbers currently in the fridge) but I now eat a healthier diet, I support local farmers and the food security of Nova Scotians, and I teach my kids a little about food along the way.
That’s a pretty good payoff for a bit of commitment.
There are CSAs in every province in Atlantic Canada. Find a CSA near you through the Atlantic Canada Organic Regional Network, at acornorganic.org.