Eat Your Veggies!

How many times have you heard that, right?  Or said it?  A million times probably if you have kids (like mine).  Well after weeks/months/years of Rob and I talking about how we are going to start eating better we finally joined a CSA.  If you aren’t familiar with that term it stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it’s essentially a farm share.  So once a week we go to the farm and pick up our box of fruits and veggies.  We are super lucky that the closest CSA to us is FANTASTIC!  I thought I’d like it but I LOVE IT!

Not only do I get the box of fresh picked produce but I can also wander the grounds and cut my own flowers and herbs and pick other produce that they have in abundance like kale and swiss chard.  They also have an area where they have produce that you can buy in addition to your box, today we bought two containers of raspberries.  Not sure why but as soon as the kids saw them they went nuts about them.  OK, so the kids are freaking out about raspberries like it’s candy so am I going to say no?  Heck no!  They had cups of berries for an afternoon snack and they weren’t pestering me for treats.  Hm, things are going well already.

Here’s what we got in our box:

That’s lettuce, romano beans (that stuff that almost looks like pasta), cherry tomatoes, strawberries, summer squash, onions, watermelon, peaches, kohlrabi and beets (I forgot to put the herbs and flowers I cut in the picture).

Let’s take a closer look at those strawberries.

They were the BEST, SWEETEST strawberries EVER!  Seriously, no exaggeration. 

And another great thing about this CSA is that they have amazing recipes on their website.  How else would I have found out what to do with kohlrabi (which is a root vegetable and raw tastes a bit like jicama in case you are a veggie newbie like me).

That was some AMAZING soup, let me tell ya!  Kohlrabi, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes… do I need to continue.  I don’t think so.  yum!

And the farm itself is so beautiful.  I asked the owner if we could come back later and take some pictures and she said sure so we did. But we missed the good light by a few minutes and the sun was already behind the trees.  Still, I got a few… (and we plan to go back tomorrow)

And then on the way home my sis and I were like crazy tornado chasers trying to find a good viewpoint for the gorgeous sun.  Turn here!  Go there!  U-turn!  We stopped in what turned out to be someone’s really long driveway and naturally they came out just after we started shooting.  Drat, had to move and find another spot.  The sun was not waiting for us, what is it’s problem anyway?

This photo does NOT do it justice.  The sun was RED.  Really red. 

I know people always say fresh is better and I always knew it but I just really didn’t understand how much better.  I know the few things we have grown tasted better but still … AMAZING!