Normally, Scott picks up the farm share at around 3:00 on Friday at Roxbury Farm. He left early yesterday for a bachelor party, so I had to pick it up after work at around 6.
The farm share veggies are kept in a barn. There’s a large chalk board that indicates how many of each type of veggie you can take.
Along with the veggies, you can pick a handful of flower blooms. Unfortunately, with the heat I think they’re all about spent.
You can walk around and see what they’re growing – there is still loads of corn. We’ve been getting 6 ears a week.
You’re also encouraged to go visit the animals. The little black spots are cows, grazing in the field.
After I get the farm share home, I lay everything out and take inventory of what I’ve got. Since we’re feeding only two people on a full farm share, oftentimes we have a few items leftover from last week.
We use veggie bags that promise that they will keep our veggies fresh longer than had they not been placed in the bags. These are called Peak Fresh Re-Usable Produce Bags.
They’ve kept lettuce fresh and crispy for two weeks, so I think it’s working.
When I’m meal planning for the week, I make a list of what we’ve got and the quantity, and cross things off after planning each meal. That way, I can keep track of what we’ve got, and I can make sure we use as many of the veggies as possible.
Looking at this list, it looks like I’ve totally forgotten about the eggplant. Maybe that’ll go in the catch-all chili. I think some of the peppers are going to end up canned. Corn tends to get eaten – either grilled or roasted, or cut right off the cob and put into just about every dish. They’re not hard to use. Chili and salads tend to take care of everything else.
The number one cmplaint I hear about farm sharing is not knowing what to do with the veggies you get. Obviously, getting a farm share might mean that you will need to switch to a more plant-heavy diet. For us, it wasn’t a change at all, so I think it’s been easier for us to accommodate all the veggies. Also, learning how to can/preserve/freeze veggies will help when you’re utterly sick of eating the same veggies week after week (see: zucchini). My point is that you can’t just let everything languish in the fridge, or else you might as well throw your money out the window. Sit down after you get your veggies, take stock, and figure out what you’re going to do with everything.
