My First CSA

So I have a friend named Rachel Sheridan who also happens to be a neighbor here, in Atwater Village, and recently she did an Instagram of a CSA box that had arrived at her doorstep. What's a CSA box? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and the idea is this: you pay a set fee, each week, and as a reward a box arrives at your door full of fresh-from-the-farm produce. I asked Rachel about her CSA and she told me it was called Summerland and that I should check it out. Not only did I check it out, after clicking around for a bit, I signed up too. Cue the trumpets: this box arrived yesterday (Sunday) morning! What was inside? Let's open it up.

Hmmm...what's all that? Let's take it apart piece by piece.

That first layer contains: spring onions, yellow carrots, red romaine, mint, and MIZUNA. (I had to Google Mizuna: it's like arugula, only spicier.)

Next up: a whole head of PURPLE CAULIFLOWER.

Isn't that wild? Wait 'til you see what I did with it (that's coming in the next post).

With Summerland, you choose a ratio of fruit to vegetables: I chose 25 to 75, so 25% fruit, 75% vegetables. Here's the fruit that came:

Oranges, apples, a lemon and something big and round that may be a pomelo? I'll have to investigate.

But the point is, because of my CSA, I have so many fruits and vegetables in my kitchen to play around with all week. The cauliflower (spoiler alert!) made its way into a spaghetti dish that was pretty rad; for Monday night's dinner, I'm thinking chicken with roasted carrots--or maybe a carrot salad. Not sure about the spring onions or the red romaine yet, but most likely a salad.

Excited, though, to get a mystery box every week. It's like being on Chopped except way less stressful; plus it's good for local farms. My name is Adam Roberts and I'm a proud new member of a CSA.