CSA - What is it?

I’d love to tell you all about CSAs, but first, I should tell you what the acronym stands for. It stands for Community Supported Agriculture which is exactly what it is.  The Palmentieros (as part of the community) support (with an upfront payment before the growing season) our local farmers.   By purchasing these "shares" in the farm, it gives the farmer some cash flow before the growing season.  For the past few years, we have been a part of two different CSAs.  Most CSAs work the same way.  In January or February, a payment is made to the farmer for a share in the bounty of the farm that year. 

Once the farmer begins harvesting vegetables, most CSAs will provide a weekly basket full of fresh vegetables and/or fruits that are picked that week.  The baskets are either picked up or delivered to a central location. 

The two CSAs, that my family have been a part of, are a little different than the norm.  The first one allowed everyone to pick the vegetables that went into the basket.  We were e-mailed a list of available vegetables on Sunday night and then we would return a list of the vegetables to be in our basket at pick-up.

One of the complaints about traditional CSAs is that there is no choice as to what is in the basket.  So if your family doesn’t like kohlrabi or you don’t know what to do with it (I didn’t know what to do with it either before I joined a CSA), you were stuck.  Who wants vegetables that you are not going to use?

The second CSA is very different.  At the beginning of the year, we make a payment to our farmer, Patti Popp of  Sport Hill Farm, for her Cash Crop program.  She then gives us a credit, to use in her marketplace on the farm, which is slightly more than what we originally paid.  She uses our money for her upfront expenses but the credit allows us to buy more fruits and vegetables.  I'd call that a win-win.

Benefits of a CSA:

• Going to the farm - By picking up my share from the farm, it gives me a chance to ask about how the produce is grown.  The produce person at the supermarket can't answer that.  
• Getting children excited about food - My children love going to the farm. One of the farms had cows, and the second one has chickens. They are learning where their food comes from. Sometimes they get to feed the animals.  It's fun and educational!  

• Trying new vegetables - As I mentioned before, it was certainly interesting to try new vegetables. This year I have used kale, both as a chip as well as in my smoothie. How about that for a new use!  
• Cash flow - For the farmer, it is a great way for them to raise some funds at the beginning of their growing season, especially when they haven't sold much for a few months.  
• Meeting new people - For both the farmer and the community, it's a great way to meet new people who are interested in where their food is coming from.
• Cost effective - Even though you may be in for sticker shock when you buy produce from a farm, you have to realize the value you are getting for those fruits and vegetables.  Since it doesn't have to travel from far away to arrive in your local supermarket, the produce lasts longer! It has probably been picked the day you bought it.  

By supporting your local farms through their CSA programs, you are keeping farms alive. There is a bumper sticker that I have seen recently that sums up the purpose of supporting farms, which says, "No farms, no food." By actively purchasing produce from a farm, you are increasing the chances of that farm staying financially viable.  That in turn, helps to ensure that there is a place where you can get healthy, nutritious food without GMOs.    And when we do that, it helps keep the earth healthy by supporting farms that are farming sustainably.  Isn't that what you want in order to have a fertile lifestyle?  I know I do.  

If you are interested in finding a CSA near you, check out this link to Local Harvest: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

  

5 Great Reasons to Grab a Smoothie

In "For me, gluten-free is the way to be", I mentioned how I had begun drinking smoothies for breakfast. It is 3 months later and I am still drinking one smoothie a day.   Here are a few great reasons that I began drinking them.   Maybe one or two will be your reason to start.

1)     CONVENIENCE

The reason I love smoothies is that they are so darn convenient.  Mix ingredients up in a blender, put it in a cup and drink it on the go.  I bring mine all over the house as I get the kids ready for school.  I can even bring it in the car with me as I drive my son to school.  What breakfast is so healthy and convenient?  Omelets don't travel well, neither does cereal.  Toast gets crumbs everywhere. Oatmeal is sticky.  Another convenience is that you can prepare dry ingredients the night before to save even more time. And yet one more convenience factor is seasonal fruits and vegetables.  You can have different smoothies year round if you buy seasonally fresh fruits and vegetables.

P.S. Recently I saw a blender that doubles as the smoothie cup.  Once you mix all the ingredients together in the blender, it has a lid to take the smoothie to go.  No more pouring the smoothie into a separate cup.  And we all know how time is precious so why waste it pouring your smoothie into another cup.  It's all about the convenience!

2)     NUTRITIONAL VALUE

How can smoothies not be nutritious with all the great fruits, vegetables, protein powders, etc. that you can put in them?  I love adding protein powder for an extra nutritional punch.   However, some of the ingredients can be quite high in calories but this is not about the calories.  It's about the nutritional impact.  Smoothies pack quite a punch.

Some very healthy ingredients that I have used are:

• Berries
• Pineapples
• Mango
• Carrots
• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Old-fashioned Oats
• Nonfat or low-fat plain yogurt and milk

Some ingredients that I would suggest that you avoid would be:

• Sugar-sweetened fruit juice or concentrate
• Ice cream or sherbert
• Fruit in a can

3)     VARIETY

You can make a smoothie out of almost any fruits or vegetables (or both), some ice (or not), some kind of liquid (or not).  On My Fertile Lifestyle's Pinterest Board, called Smoothies, I have an infographic on "How to make a smoothie."  It tells what fruits you can add, how to choose a base, how to thicken it up, what to flavor it with and suggestions for some power boosts.  With that kind of chart, who needs a recipe?


4)     WASTE NOT, WANT NOT 

If you ever have a fruit or a vegetable that is overripe, don't throw it away.  Freeze it.  My sister taught me this one with an overripe cantaloupe.  She cut it into chunks and I used it in one of my very first smoothies.  At the moment, I have several different, overripe fruits in my freezer, waiting to be used for my next homemade fruit smoothie.  That's my fertile lifestyle!


5)     LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Smoothies have become quite popular in recent years.  If you don't feel like making one, you can always buy one from places like Jamba Juice, Robeks, and Red Mango, just to name a few.  So there is no excuse not to pick up a smoothie when you feel the urge.

So, if you have ever wondered why the buzz about smoothies, these are some of my reasons for drinking one every day.  I'd love to hear from you, especially if you are a smoothie fanatic like me.

Okra: Failure with the vegetable that's a fruit

This week on My Fertile Lifestyle's Facebook page, I asked everyone to try a new vegetable.  I said I would try one too.  While shopping at my local Whole Foods, I bought okra.  I had heard of it but had never even seen one before.  If you're like me and don’t know what it looks like, here it is:

For fun, I did a little research about okra.  I was hoping that, with some information, I would be able to “sell” it to my kids, mostly my daughter.  Did you know that in some countries it is called lady’s finger, bhindi or gumbo?   I can sell lady’s fingers.   It is grown in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate climates around the world.   Okra has health benefits such as high fiber, vitamin C and folate content.  It is also known for being high in antioxidants, calcium and potassium.  I am all for anti-oxidants! What's not to love about okra, I thought.

There are several different ways okra can be cooked.  A word of caution: the seed pods turn into goo or slime when cooked.   In Malawi, it is actually cooked with sodium bicarbonate to make it more slimy.  There is no way that my kids are eating slime.   Okra has also been used in gumbos, stews and soups.  It's quite popular in the southern part of the United States where it is usually served fried. Another way to cook okra is to stir-fry it.  My kids like stir-fry so I set off to find a recipe on Pinterest.  The one I found was an okra stir-fry with sweet potatoes.  If my kids didn't like the okra, at least, they would eat the sweet potatoes.

After telling my kids that I was writing this article to encourage people to try new vegetables, I began to cook.  My daughter helped me cut the okra.  She said that the seeds looked like tiny pearls.  They did! (Those "tiny pearls" make it a fruit.)   After everything was cut up, I began to cook the sweet potatoes.  I added the seasonings and then finally, the okra.  Well, that's when the recipe started going awry.  The okra got slimy.  There was no way they were going to eat it and quite frankly, I didn't like the looks of it either.   We had chicken and rice that night.  

Apparently, this is one fruit/vegetable that should be handled by an expert and not an amateur, like me. I will wait until my local farm, Sport Hill, opens up again.  Our farmer always has something new that I have never heard of.  I will make another attempt at trying a new vegetable soon.  If anyone wants to cook okra for me, I am open to trying it.  Did you try a new vegetable this week?  I'd love to hear about it.