I get fruit/veggies/herbs delivered weekly and I love it. The program here is run by a blind woman and is organic. It's a little pricey, but it's for a good cause and it forces me to eat my veggies. Sometimes there are things in the box that I have NO idea what they are.

There are some recipe websites that you can put in ingredients and it will pull recipes. I can't remember the name of them though. I'll look on my home computer and see if I have it saved.

The program I use has a lot of different options for what you get in your box, sometimes I change it up and get more fruit or even farm fresh eggs (yummy).

As far as I know, the CSA I get my stuff from is the only one on Oahu. My one complaint is they don't tell you what it is you are getting, and sometimes there are strange leafy things in the box that I have no idea what they are. I joke that she just pulls stuff from a tree (since she's blind) and didn't realize it wasn't the herbs she thought it was.

Sometimes I'll also get a box of organic fruits and veggies from a local health food store, but most of that stuff is flown in from California. It has a lot more veggies/fruit and can last me a couple weeks. This box is $25 and FULL of stuff that I use regularly and they provide recipes. Plus one of the guys who works at the store is super hot, so that's my motivation to eat all my fruits and veggies from them, so I can go back the next week and flirt.

You're going to love it! I've done CSA's on and off for the past 10 years in California, New York and Oregon. I choose mine mainly based on convenience of pick-up and choice of produce (I like fruit & veggie boxes and if there are flowers as well - SCORE!) We've never had a bad experience with ours - I find if I have an abundance of something, it's not too hard to find someone to give it to.

As far as finding recipes for the "weird veggies" most of the CSA's have a newsletter with recipe suggestions, especially for the weird things. I've also had good luck with Epicurious or even just googling the vegetable and coming up with all sorts of ideas. Alice Water's cookbooks incorporate a lot of unusual produce, so I'd look into those in the library. And when in doubt, I have yet to find a veggie that doesn't taste good sauteed with olive oil and garlic. (Okay, maybe turnips... )

Enjoy your veggies!

M

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The beatings will continue until morale improves

I signed up for an organic fruit/veggie place last fall, but cancelled after a few weeks because I didn't like the quality of what I was getting. They mostly bought organic foods from the US, so I wasn't getting fresh, local stuff.

I have since found a true CSA from a local organic farm and just put the checks in the mail today to pay for my share. I'm pretty excited about it. This place has a full, half and gourmet share. The gourmet share is about a three-quarters share, but has more unusual items. That's what I signed up for, so we'll see what I get. I think we'll start getting stuff in mid-June if I remember correctly.

I have been in one for 2 months.
It's been great, my dinners have become masterpieces, some of the richest and most diverse salads you could imagine.
I chose my CSA depending on where I can pick it up and time. That's it. Pretty easy and has worked well. The CSA's around San Diego have monthly intro price so the commitment is small.

I tried three different services over the years, and have stuck to the third one. They were all 3 a bit different in terms of the kinds and the quality of veggies and fruits that you get; the convenience of the delivery; and how much flexibility they offered in terms of switching things out or skipping a week.

So, if you don't care for the first one, try another.

The result of my CSA addiction (I paid for a full year in advance) is that I'm eating ridiculously healthy meals and I spend a lot less money eating out. The week kind of gets planned around getting my veggies cooked up! Wednesday is delivery day, so "cooking nights" are Thursday, Friday and/or Sunday in order to cook them while still fresh. Or I'll make a huge batch of scrambled eggs with a ton of veggies, and eat it over several days.

Deborah Madison's book, "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone," is my favorite for deciphering what to do with random vegetables. How to store them, how long they stay good, the best ways to cook them.

One thing that can be a bit of a challenge, as a working triathlete, is minimizing cooking time/hassle. Just because I get 8 different veggies in my box, doesn't mean I want to cook 8 dishes. So I try to figure out a way I can cook all the veggies up in just 3 meals. For that, I tend to use the Moosewood Cookbook series, and Jack Bishop's veggie cookbook. The reason? Those books (unlike Madison's) tend to offer up a lot of recipes where you can use up several different veggies all at once. So, I'll look up "fennel" in the book's index, and try to find a fennel recipe that, say, allows me to use up my leeks and a third or fourth ingredient from my box, as well.

It is kind of a fun challenge, and my friends are always making fun of my recipe planning. (But then they'll come over and help me eat it up - in a heartbeat!)

You will still need to go to the store for supplementary stuff. The CSA is not the end of your grocery shopping.

However, it's a great way to eat *very* fresh, nutrient-laden meals. And you will learn to love some veggies you would never have considered before. (I am bummed that the season is over for celeriac.)

Deanna,
We do a CSA and live in Chicago. We participate in the Angelic Organics CSA. The amounts are definitely a lot for 2 people, so we find a friend to split it with. It is great! I would highly recommend it. The fruits and vegetables are always great and you get a variety of items and definitely some items I normally wouldn't buy in the grocery store. What I like about this CSA is they also give you a newsletter and recipes, so for those odd items, you can figure out how to prepare them. Something to think about is if you are finding that you have too much and you can't consume it, freeze it! Many vegetables can be blanched and then frozen. We did this with some of the beets and corn and some others and it was so nice in the winter to have those to pull out of the freezer. Any questions feel free to PM me!

This post got me thinking, and I just signed up to be in the next session of our local CSA.

Thanks ladies!

Have a great weekend!

I love my CSA. I pick up my box 2x/month and can also order coffee and chocolate through them. It is all organic and what they don't grow themselves they work with other farmers to provide. I do it year round and get very yummy stuff in the winter.

You'll love the program!

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Jen

"In order to keep a true perspective on one's importance, everyone should have a dog that worships him and a cat that will ignore him." - Dereke Bruce

we get ours from http://www.monroefarm.com/

at the time we first signed up, it was the only one with a distribution in our neighborhood. Since then we've gotten to know the farmer and family, plus been very happy with the produce and options, so never thought about trying any different ones.
The main thing: the food tastes wonderful, marvellous, like food used to taste when I was a child (those antediluvian days ;-). Even the potatoes taste better than the grocery-store ones. The melons are like paradise.

second the moosewood suggestion for how to deal with strange veggies. They have some receipts online,
http://www.moosewoodrestaurant.com/recipes_archive.html
The veggie lasagna is a good way to cook almost anything..

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and advice. I am so excited to receive my first veggie and fruit box. It should be waiting for me when I return from my long ride in the am. I am not sure that this one is the best fit for me but it does deliver which is helpful. The other two I would like to try have pickup locations. The one I think would be the best culinary fit for me is the worst pickup fit for me on Sat am from 9-11 which is prime long ride/long run time. The second has a longer pickup time of Fri from 1-10 and Sat from 9-5 which is much more manageable. I think I need to stop researching these and see what happens tomorrow!!

Thanks again!
Deanna

We did it for a couple of months, but wasted too much of the stuff and when we have two different farmers' markets locally with the same stuff that we can get when we want (and what we want), it didn't make sense.

clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I plant my own veggies in the summertime along a little strip of fence in the back yard. Amazing how the stuff grows with a little attention! Nothing like picking a fresh ripe tomato in the hot August sun and biting into it. Mmmm! Ditto for the green peppers, string beans, radishes, and lettuce growing there. We also have strawberries growing all along the other fence in the backyard (when the labbies don't eat 'em first, especially Miss Rose. She loves strawberries.) With the high price of gas/food/everything else descending on us, it helps the budget to eat what you pick from your own garden. But if I couldn't do that, CSAs or farmers markets are def the way to go. The stuff they sell in the big-box stores doesn't really resemble real food, IMHO.

Thanks for bringing this up! I looked for CSA's in Nashville and there are tons! I love that some offer fresh eggs and flowers too. Nashville also has a good Farmer's Market but I don't trust myself to make the time every weekend to get there, so this will work out great for me!

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Jessica