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CSA = Community Shared Agriculture

Since I never seem to eat enough veggies I thought I would try something different this year.

Someone at my office posted a flyer for a group close to where I live called SunRoot Farm (a community shared agriculture organization). For a fixed price, depending on how much produce you want to buy, SunRoot will provide me with a box of fresh, seasonal organic* veggies for 16 weeks. They also offer a variety of herbs as well. I opted for the veggies and the only thing I have to do is pay and pick up.

*Crops are grown using organic methods. Producing organically means using compost, mulching, crop rotation, biodiversity and companion planting to promote soil fertility and plant growth. No synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or genetically modified seeds or seed stock.

Here is a listing of what is available:

Beans, beets and greens, carrots, peas, onions, squash, tomatoes, potatoes (I'll be trading those in for more of something else), lettuce, spinach, salad mix, garlic, radishes, kale, Swiss chard, broccoli, turnip, cabbage and cucumber (obviously different items will be available different months depending on growing season).

Now I did the math on this and I figure I’m pretty much a winner.

I ordered a half-share for $300 which will supply enough produce for 1-2 people (but I have heard from those in the know that you get lots from half a share). So I split my order with someone else and I’m only paying $150.00

So here is the math:

$300 ÷ 2 people = $150.00 (that's two payments of $75.00 - one in April one in July)

$150 ÷ 16 weeks = $9.37 a week

I just can’t go wrong that that price!!

So get out there and check around….see if your community has CSA. It’s a great way to support local farming and eat healthy.

We’re still not eating our veggies
Canadians munching lots of fatty foods, not enough healthy stuff
By HELEN BRANSWELL The Canadian Press

TORONTO — The amount of fat most Canadians eat on a daily basis has declined over the past 30 years, but about one in five still get too many of their calories from fat, the first national snapshot of Canadian dietary habits in nearly 35 years reveals.

Preliminary data from the study, conducted in 2004 and released Thursday, also show many Canadians — especially children — aren’t eating nearly enough vegetables and fruit and also aren’t meeting the daily recommended intake for calcium-rich dairy products.

"We certainly see that we have room for lots of improvement in our food intake," Rena Mendelson, a nutrition professor at Toronto’s Ryerson University, said after studying the first, eagerly awaited data from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey on nutrition.

"The dietary results explain why we’re seeing I think the kinds of obesity issues that we’re seeing."

The first analysis of what is expected to be a rich vein of national nutritional data shows that over a quarter of Canadian adults in their 30s and 40s may be getting more than 35 per cent of their daily caloric intake from fat. The figure is considered a threshold beyond which diet-induced health problems are likely to develop.

On average, Canadians were getting about 31 per cent of their daily calories from fats. On first blush, that looks high. But it’s actually a drop from the last time a national nutritional sounding was taken, in the early 1970s.

"I’m happy that the fat level has come down . . . from what it was in the late ’60s and early ’70s," said Len Piche, a profession of nutritional sciences at the University of Western Ontario’s Brescia University College.

Piche also noted that all fats aren’t created equal — or equally bad. So until analysts at Statistics Canada break down which kinds of fat are making up that 31 per cent, it’s hard to know what to make of the figure. He pointed out that people who follow the so-called Mediterranean diet — which is known to be linked to a lower risk of heart disease — typically get about 40 per cent of daily calories from healthy fats such as olive oil.

Still, others said it’s clear there’s progress to be made in reducing the fat intake in the average Canadian diet.

"It’s better than it was the last time we had this national data, but we still have some work to do," said Helen Haresign, vice-president of development for Dietitians of Canada.

Didier Garriguet, the author of this report, said detailed analysis of the types of fats in the average Canadian diet will be broken out in later publications. The first of these reports is expected before the end of the year.

In fact, nutrition experts who pounced on the new national data said that while the report was welcome, the kind of detail that will really shape public policy and dietary recommendations is yet to come.

Still, most said a couple of things are clear from this initial release. The Canadian diet is still lacking in fruits, vegetables and dairy products. And that holds true for both children and adults.

Garriguet said 37 per cent of children aged four to nine don’t consume the minimum recommendation of two servings of milk products (milk, cheese or yogurt) a day. Among 10-to-16 year olds, 61 per cent of boys and 83 per cent of girls don’t consume the three servings recommended for that age group.

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Got my second order of veggies last night. Since I'm the type of person who hates to throw out/waste food, I'm being forced to eat them and it's not really much of a force - it's pretty amazing how good farm-fresh food tastes. Next week I've ordered a 4-6 lb. free-range chicken ready for the eating.

My boyfriend and I just joined a CSA program this year at Land's Sake farm in Weston, MA (about 20 minutes outside of Boston). We go to pick up once a week and have the option of picking our own vegetables throughout in limited quantities. So far we have gotten the same vegetables as you, minus the potatoes and chicken options and with the addition of fennel, peppers, herbs, strawberries, raspberries (2 quarts a week for the past 3 weeks - so awesome), and blueberries, and we've been promised pumpkins and apples. We get a share of the flowers grown on the farm, too. Land's Sake doesn't offer half shares, but they don't mind if you arrange to split it on your own. We split it with his mother and paid $350 (20 weeks) for our half.

My favorite aspects of a CSA:
-Picking my own vegetables. It's nice to spend a half hour or so a week in the summer out in a field.
-Knowing my vegetables haven't flown the average 1500 miles to get to me.
-Supporting local agriculture
-Getting cucumbers without the wax! Man, I hate that stuff!
-Being part of a community (there are occasional pot-lucks and the staff is wonderful)
-Recipe/tip handouts highlighting a specific vegetable (I'd never eaten kale, collard greens or fennel before, so those recipes and tips came in handy)
-Knowing if I don't take part of my share, it's okay - whatever's left over gets donated to a local food shelter along with the food already set aside for them
-Getting that extra push to eat fresh food more often (and to make dinner at all - it's easy to be lazy in the summer) because I don't want to waste the food

I love the program. I think everyone who loves good food should try one out. I don't have children, but I think it would be great for those who do. Show them where food really comes from - a farm, not your local grocery store.


--Amanda Lohnes