Our first CSA

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We've recently signed up for a CSA share at the Shaker Mountain Canning Co. in New Lebanon, NY. I totally underestimated how much fun this would be. Not only is it healthy to have a large basket of vegetables to be forced to figure out what to do with, and is it good economics to support local farms, but it forces the kind of brainstorming of recipes that is really a good time. Instead of looking up a recipe and then going to the store to buy the ingredients, it is quite literally what is in season and what can we figure out what to do with these things? Last week we got okra, collard greens, herbs, green beans, lettuce, onions, beats, summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers. We made a variety of foods including summer squash soup, stir fry, cold beet soup, roasted okra with the green beans, and jambalaya, among other things. It is so fun, and I can't wait to see what we get today. Getting ingredients you weren't planning on is a great way to force yourself to try new preparations and recipes. Good for us, and good for the farm to have community support. It is a win-win.

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