Last year one of my coworkers had a farm share. Usually, the way a farm share (or CSA - community supported agriculture) works is that the customer pays the farm a set amount of money at the beginning of the year (usually before spring), which the farmer uses to buy seeds, pay expenses, and all those good things. Once the veggies start cropping up (no pun intended ;) ), the customers go to a pick-up point once a week and receive a bag or two or a box of vegetables (and fruit and eggs in some cases). Some CSA's require that the members take turns working at the pick-up point during the year.
We decided to buy a farm share this year, so we reserved our spot in March. For a few weeks we forgot about it, but the we started asking each other when it would start - not until June (specifically two weeks ago). The great part about the farm we joined is that we don't have to volunteer AND they deliver a box of veggies to our door. I love this part of New York - almost everywhere delivers. Now that we've started the growing season, we'll receive a box every week all the way through November.
Right now, our box has had a lot of swiss chard and spring garlic, but we've also had some lovely bok choi, fresh radishes, early carrots and GARLIC SCAPES - which I love. They are skinny, curly pieces of garlic, but a lighter version - soooo good. Anyway, we've had to get a little creative with cooking, since it would be a shame to have sauteed swiss chard every night. Tonight I made some orecchiette pasta, and once it was drained, put it back in the pot with some swiss chard, some chunks of goat cheese and some sun-dried tomatoes. I cooked up a few of the chicken sausages we made the other night, sliced them up, and added those to the pasta, too. Yumm!
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