Not your local Safeway

I love to cook. Unfortunately, I hate grocery shopping. My local Safeway - nicknamed the “not-so-Safeway” in the DC tradition of nicknaming grocery stores - resembles the mad rush at Target the day after Thanksgiving just about every weeknight. Don’t even think about trying to find bananas that aren’t some scary shade of fluorescent green after about 6pm. Living on Capitol Hill I am lucky enough to have Eastern Market nearby, but even at the market much of the produce comes from farms as far away as Pennsylvania or is imported from who knows where.

What’s an amateur, fresh veggie loving cook to do? Recently, I have been hearing a lot about Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA.  According to Local Harvest many farms offer produce subscriptions, where buyers receive a weekly or monthly basket of produce, flowers, fruits, eggs, milk, coffee, or any sort of different farm products.

In college in Philadelphia I got interested in the local food movement and volunteered at a community run garden. In the largely low-income neighborhood of West Philly, the garden was one of the few places where local families could get fresh foods.  Also in Philly is perhaps the finest food market in the country - Reading Terminal - where farmers and craftsman from all over southeast Pennslyvania sell everything from grass-fed beef to local apples and giant baked pretzels. Local food is not only tastier and fresher than the imported produce in the grocery store, it also better for the environment. Less shipping means less air and global warming pollution. Small, community supported farms often use less fertilizer, pesticides and other harmful chemicals that seep into our water supply.

Joining a CSA seems like a great way to reconnect with the local food movement, especially as Ryan and I experiment with a vegetable garden of our own. In case the local critters get a hold of our broccoli crop, we can always count on a weekly delivery of veggies from as nearby as Prince Georges County. Joining a CSA can be costly upfront. Most CSA farms ask for payment for the season which is usally late spring through early fall and cost around $600-800. You can cut the cost by sharing. A typical weekly delivery is ideal for a family of 4, so you can go in with your housemates or another couple in your neighborhood. Check out this directory for a CSA that delivers to your neighborhood.

I am already looking forward to thinking up new seasonal recipes and getting to know a local farm.