In Which We Join A CSA

Friends! I am back from vaca, well-rested, ever so slightly tanned, and demonstrably in one piece.

Soon I'll regail you with stories from North Africa: tales of the Viking's nanny, Berber whisky, our new friend Mohammad Ali, and the totalitarian cumin regime that Morocco calls a cuisine (kidding, kidding, I loved it).

But in the meantime I have an exciting announcement. We signed up for a CSA!

What's a CSA, you may ask? It's community supported agriculture, which means joining a hipster cult. You pay a local farmer a lump sum up-front, and get in return a box of assorted foodstuffs each week (we found a CSA that delivers to one's door, although most do not). Ours lasts 22 weeks and we bought a vegetable share and a fruit share. You can find CSAs for eggs, cheese, and meat as well.

CSAs have lots of community benefits: they cut out of the middle man of a grocery store, support local businesses, and paying for your share of the harvest up front means that you the eater share with the farmer the risks and rewards of that crazy thing we call agriculture. If you thought that carbonating your own water made you feel self-righteous, just you wait. Joining a CSA will practically demolish the towering pillar of your yuppie guilt.

For instance, now I am able to convince myself that I'm kind of growing my own food, because I own a part of a local farm. Sort of. My terrace agricultural scheme is providing me with loads of home-grown herbs, but it looks like this year's fruit and veg harvest is going to consist of approximately three tomatoes, ten broad beans, and seven strawberries. So while I live in New York, at least, a CSA is as good as it gets.

Plus, I'm intrigued by the Iron Chefesque challenge of having vegetables forced upon me and needing to think up ways to use them - especially the vegetables that I always avoid at the farmer's market. Like Bok Choy. There simply must be something delicious you can do with Boy Choy, and I hope I'll be forced to figure it out.

Deliveries for the season start next Wednesday, and will be the inspiration for a new weekly feature: Qu'est-ce que c'est dans ma boite de CSA? (or, "What's that in my CSA box?"), in which I will share with you what's in each week's mystery CSA delivery and how I plan to cook it. Those of you playing along at home can buy your veggies at a farmer's market or grocery store.

I see lots of ratatouille in the Viking's future.