Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA)

For All CSA Recipes, Click Here

The Queens County Farm Museum is a historic institution in the borough of Queens, New York City. They started offering what is known as a CSA - community-supported agriculture - subscription this summer for produce and I was lucky enough to be able to sign up. You pay to receive produce the entire season long and you receive a box each week with in-season, fresh produce. It is...incredible!

One of the challenges and benefits of a CSA is that you don't know what you're going to get each week - there is a risk that this could lead to waste - if you don't know what to cook with some ingredient, will it languish in the fridge? Maybe. That's why I'm here to help and walk through what I'm doing with this season's ingredients!

CSAs, or buying from farm stands or local farmers, are also incredible opportunities to get in touch with the seasonality of our vegetables - actually recognizing that in the world where we can get anything at any time from the supermarket, this is not locally realistic. It challenges us to test out ingredients we may not yet know we like, and get produce at their peak freshness. I can't tell you enough how different the flavor is from a fresh vegetable or fruit compared to one I might get at the store shipped from far away. It might make even familiar recipes new again!

It also helps support local agriculture. I was so excited to sign up for the QCFM CSA and will be posting recipes about what I'm making with each of the produce boxes each week. I can't wait!

Update: here are some pics of my first box - just GORGEOUS!!

Rose was very curious about the produce boxes...too cute!

Box one in June:

The first box of produce - bursting with amazing greenery! Many of the new salad recipes were inspired by these verdant examples.

The first produce box had a veritable embarrassment of riches! Parsley, dill, kale, lettuce, red lettuce, carrots, thyme, rainbow chart, nasturtium (edible, decorative flowers), snap peas, and more!

Gorgeous rainbow chard! I helped keep them from wilting for a few days by putting the cut stems in a jar of water, like you would a bouquet of flowers. I don't have a recipe with these posted, because I just used them in some simple breakfast eggs I made with some cheddar and avocado. It was...really good.