The Farm

Thursdays are special this summer. That's the day I pick Edith up from daycare and we head out to "Cherry Gwove." I don't know why it's named that, since as far as we know they don't grow cherries. But they do grow lots of other delicious things, and for six months of the year we get to partake of the goodness...for less than it would cost us to take one overnight getaway anywhere in the U.S.

I've enjoyed having a CSA vegetable farmshare for all the fresh, organic vegetables it brings into our lives. Usually paralyzed by the range of choice in the grocery store and the limitless options in the cookbooks, I like that someone else decides what we get and how much we get of it. Each week the bins are labeled: 10 bell peppers, 6 lbs. tomatoes, 2 bunches toscano kale, 1 bunch red Russian kale, etc. Presented with my array of ingredients, it then becomes an entirely manageable task, even a treasure hunt, to go looking for appealing recipes that use what we have. The manager at the farm once described one's first experience as a CSA member as "the summer one learns what to do with kale."

Some CSAs deliver shares to a central location close to an urban center or even bring them to people's homes. Others pack them into boxes that are waiting for pick-up. Cherry Grove, on the other hand, requires that we come out to the farm not only to pick up our veggies each week but to choose them from the bins, weigh them, and bag them. There are even a number of things we have to go into the fields to harvest for ourselves: peas, beans, and flowers, for example.

But to be honest, that is what I like the best about our farmshare. Picking up a box downtown wouldn't have nearly the appeal for me. The fun is actually going out to the land where the food was grown and gathering it all up. The farm is an open, green, relaxing place, the farmers are low-key and friendly, picking is therapeutic, and so the little trip is a positive pleasure each week.

To my delight, Edith has grown to like this weekly outing, too. She is eager to help me weigh out the loose-leaf salad greens on the big scales, then shovel them into a waiting bag. She likes choosing which zucchinis and squash we should bring home. She loved picking peas at the beginning of the summer. I even let her carry the clippers out to the rows of flowers. (Her mama's daughter, she asks about the flowers first thing when we arrive.)

It is also the one hour of the week when Edith eats vegetables with gusto. Like me, she finds something magically delicious about those tomatoes and peppers right off the vine. Once we've transported them home and stored them in the vegetable bin in the refrigerator for a few days she isn't nearly so keen. But on Thursdays from 5:30-7, she is a fan.

Today Edith polished off two tomatoes...

...and one purple pepper before we left the farm. It's too bad pea season is over: She'd eat a pint of snap peas almost as fast as I could pick it. She still asks for them each week. Part of the fun of having a farmshare is teaching Edith the idea that foods have different seasons...and learning just what those are myself.

Beans, which came in today, were harder to pick than peas--not trained up poles, they were low to the ground and required us to squat and peek under all the broad leaves. There were green beans and a waxy cream-and-purple variegated bean that I think is called a dragon bean, or something like that. Another benefit of the share is learning about the variety of vegetables that exist--far more than ever make it to the grocery store. I'm eager for the heirloom tomato varieties to come in.

As the numbers above suggest, a share includes a lot of food. We split ours with Harry's family and Desi's family, which is another part of the fun. At least, theoretically: While we enjoy meeting weekly out at the farm, it's admittedly a lot harder to gather vegetables and figure out how to split them up while keeping an eye on three toddlers, all apt to head in different directions at once. Today I caught Harry in an uncharacteristically tranquil moment amidst the pepper plants.