What's Cooking?
noyomoco
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
CSA/Meat Shares?
I'm thinking of biting the bullet and getting a meat share (and possibly a produce share) from a local farm (that coordinates with other farms in the area). I love the idea of supporting local farms, getting humanely raised meat, and they conveniently deliver to my workplace. I don't think we will save a lot of money, but that is not really the point. But, I am worried about the planning aspect of it and possible waste. Does anyone participate in a CSA? Do you find it difficult to prepare a menu around what you receive? Any other thoughts? Thanks!
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
Re: CSA/Meat Shares?
We were part of a CSA last year and while I enjoyed the variety and playing around with thins I wouldn't normally buy, it definitely was tougher to meal plan, and I also got sick of certain things. So, this year we're just planning on doing most of our produce buying at farmer's markets so we're still getting local/organic food but we can decide what to buy.
For meat, we're actually debating this right now. Rather than go with a CSA I *think* what we'll go with is a farm that comes to the city once per month. A couple weeks before they come, you can place your order online, and they bring it with them. So, again it's supporting the farmers but you get what you want. We also have a good local butcher with decent prices, so that's another option if we miss a deadline for the farmer, or just don't feel like doing it one month or whatever.
The alternative to the meat share sounds fantastic! I live in a very small city though, so I'm not sure we have something like that. But, what a wonderful idea! We do have a nice farmer's market, but it is quite small and far from our home.
Thanks for your thoughts on the produce share - this is exactly what I was worried about! I think we're leaning more towards the meat share, but may pass on the produce share this year.
I was part of vegetable CSAs for 5 years, then this year the one we were a part of decided to take a sabbatical to open a new restaurant. I didn't find it hard to plan meals around it, some did go to waste but I was also able to freeze extras. As for meat, that is easily frozen so no worries there :-)
Here's a post I wrote about what to ask yourself before joining a CSA:
http://thelocalcook.com/2011/03/31/top-10-questions-to-ask-before-joining-a-csa/
Fabulous - thanks, Wendy! Off to read your post
I just joined a CSA for the first time this year. I think our first basket pick up will be next week. I am excited to see how it turns out, and also a little nervous about getting a ton of something we don't like, or don't know what to do with. Both my husband and I love all food though, and I love creating new things in the kitchen, so I kind of see it as a challenge to make something good using new ingredients.
I'd be interested to see what everyone else gets each week with their individual CSA. Do you think we could start a weekly CSA thread where people can put what the basket contained and what they plan to make/did make with each ingredient? I'm sure we could all use the ideas, and should be getting similar items throughout the spring/summer. Just a thought
I think this is a lovely idea! What does everyone else think? I imagine there are a number of regulars who participate in a CSA.
We belong to a meat CSA where we get to pick what we want each week. I usually get the items on special and freeze them if we do not use them all that week.
I also wrote a post on how to choose a CSA.
Ours is no longer a CSA, but we get produce delivered from a farm and it's partners every other week.
One reason I like ours is we can go online and customize our box with whatever they have available. And since I do this a week out, it gives me time to meal plan to use up the items. We've tried lots of new things this way.
We joined a produce CSA for the first time this year as well. The farm that will be delivering to us had a list of all the items that they planned to grown this season and they asked that you check each item and say Like, Like a Lot or Don't like. The like alot's are used to substitute for an item you don't like. I thought it was a really nice feature. They also take requests and will attempt to grow those items.
I think that the weekly CSA basket post would be a lot of fun and helpful too
Looking back, I am pretty disappointed in our meat CSA experience. At the time, I thought it was great. It was uplifting to support local growth and an organic, humanely-raised product. But it was more difficult to meal plan and I ended up with several cuts that are still hiding in the bottom of my deep freezer because I just don't know what to do with them.
If I could customize an order, I'd think about re-joining. But for now, I just shop the meat depts of Whole Foods and the organic shelves of HEB - because it costs about the same and I get exactly what I want.