Well this weekend we get our last CSA box of the year. It's really a miracle that Harmony Valley manages to get us vegetables so late in the year! These "extended season shares" that we get in December and January are truly amazing. The boxes weigh a ton and are chock full of delicious (and long-keeping) vegetables like cabbage, onions, garlic, root vegetables (radishes, celariac, parsnips, carrots, beets, and turnips) and of course squashes and sweet potatoes. As a bonus we also get some dried beans and peppers that will keep for even longer than the hearty vegetables.
As we finish up our first full year of CSA membership, I'll just say a few words about the benefits that Paul and I feel like we get from being a part of Harmony Valley's family:
Health Benefits
Some of you may remember that when we first signed up for the CSA, one of the motivating factors was the realization that our health insurance would reimburse us up to $100 per person for a CSA membership. When we first signed up for the CSA in 2011, I truly felt like we were ripping GHC off by taking their money for these vegetables. However, only after a full year of membership do I realize the extent to which Paul and I eat more healthfully than we did before. We rarely cook meat at home any more, and almost all of our meals are veggie-centric. We are getting so many more nutrients from this wide variety of vegetables than we got when we simply picked our own vegetables out at the grocery store.
Fun & Adventure
When we go to get our box each time, it's like Christmas for me. I open the boxes and take out the fruits and vegetables, exclaiming about their beauty, size, color, and more. Then when we get home, I get to use my problem-solving skills to figure out how to use all of these unique and beautiful veggies. There are some vegetables that I simply had never eaten in my adult life before our CSA membership: beets, celariac, jerusalem artichokes, fennel, lemongrass, and more. What an adventure!
Even before we were married, I loved to poke fun at Paul for the way he cooked. To him, a recipe might as well have been etched in stone. He couldn't depart from a recipe (even a little). One of the side benefits of our CSA is that both Paul and I have learned to focus on techniques for cooking and have had quite a few recipe-inventing (or tweaking) expeditions. Most have turned out great. A few have turned out inedible.
Being Local
The money that we give to Harmony Valley stays in the south-central Wisconsin community. It enriches schools, institutions, and other local businesses. It gets paid forward in places that benefit us. Moreover, the vegetables that we buy from Harmony Valley are in nearby Viroqua, and so we are consuming fewer fossil fuels than we would by eating non locally sourced food. All of this makes me feel proud of what we're doing.
Accountability
The fact that we know about the people who run our farm, the way they treat their staff and their land, and that we hear from them on a regular basis through newsletters and emails makes me know that I am doing a good thing by supporting them. For me, the fact that our fruits and vegetables are certified organic isn't a huge deal, but I do like that this knowledge too provides accountability about the farming practices are being used to make our food.
There are probably even more things that I'm forgetting to mention - but that's probably enough for now.
Just know this - by eating local, healthy, sustainable food, I am participating in God's vision for our world.
What a blessing!
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