I'm so excited! Tomorrow I get my first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) basket. Since I'm trying this out, I ordered 1 Small box every other week for $23.50.
My box contents will be:
1 bunch of celery
1 head of lettuce
1 bunch of mizuna
1 bunch radish
1 bag spinach
1.5 lbs apples
1.5 lbs blood oranges
For those people (like me), mizuna is a green leafy plant that tastes and resembles mustard greens. So...what do I do with it? I google it of course and find a few recipes that simply add it to salads or stir fry. Yay, I can do that.
Radishes, huh? Don't get me wrong I love me some radish, only because I am a Fraggle Rock fan. Unless people somehow sneak it into recipes, I don't think I have had a radish in many, many years. I remember them being spicy in a tangy way. This rules out Princess liking them. She used to love spicy things, now she complains if I put too much black pepper on something. Ugh!
What I am interested in is comparing the cost? Is this at least a good deal? At first glance just looking at the list, if I wasn't interested in the organic side, I would scream, "Oh wow, this is expensive!"
Since I misread my CSA email and didn't think I was getting my basket until next week, I went shopping yesterday...yay, lots of produce this week! This week I actually bought organic apples and bananas. Yes, they were about twice as much. However, the last time I bought organic bananas (2 weeks ago), they lasted longer than the regular bananas I bought 1 week ago. They also had a better texture and tasted better, somehow. The apples tasted just like the ones I remember picking in my backyard as a kid.
The problem I had this week was, my bananas came from Guatemala and all the other produce (except apples) also came from other countries. My previous blog post details why this bothers me (working conditions, quality, pesticide issues, etc). Tomorrow I will pick up a basket full of produce that came from less than an hour away from my house! If anything is spoiled or bruised in my basket, I get to exchange it! I don't get that kind of knowledge (or exchange program) from my local supermarket. Some days it's hard to find apples that don't feel greasy. Why are they greasy anyway? Eeew.
The money I spent on groceries yesterday at Sprouts (just produce, not including tax) was $21.11. My CSA basket costs $23.50.
Wow.
I saved $2.39, by not buying local or organic produce.
After looking at this, I'm sold on this idea. At first I was scared of not knowing what I was going to get on a basket-to-basket basis. However, now I'm looking at this as though someone is saying, "Here, cook with this, this week." It's a way to see the variety as a challenge to add new things to your diet. If they have dessert recipes out there for radishes, I am definitely sold!
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