CSA Season Reflection for 2012

         

A close-up view of the One Hand of Tomatoes

I Can't handle all of those tomatoes

           













         Joining a CSA farm would be a great thing to do. Not only do you get the freshest food you also have the the chance to help the world. For us we got food all the way from June to December. Nobody would have thought that you would get fresh and local produce in December. But there are multiple ways to do that using Environment friendly methods. For instance using green houses and plant tunnels to grow crops later and earlier into the seasons, allows our CSA farmer to harvest until December. Overall we had a very rewarding year with Earth Dance Farms and then we also had fun in the kitchen making different dishes with the large variety of crops we received. 

             Ever year our CSA Farmer Norm hosts a fall harvest where his members are allowed to come up for half of a day and wander around the farm, take a hay ride to the pumpkin patch, have some nice hot chili, meet some new people, and then get to talk with Norm and ask him questions like he is a celebrity. Our family did not go last year but we did go this year. We had a really fun time. It was a typical fall day in Southern Minnesota, windy, cloudy, and then at the end a little sun which was nice. At the end of the day our whole family came home with 4 very nice pumpkins that we used for Halloween pumpkin carving. Norm’s farm is in a part of Minnesota that is really beautiful every single season of the year. The whole area is very hilly. One thing that I always notice when we go up to Norm’s farm is that there are always many great different skylines. You could be up there for a whole day just studying the skylines and you would not get bored.

With the very warm spring some of Norm’s crops did not grow as much as they have in other years. One crop that did not do as well was his apple crop. The crop was harmed when there was about a week of nice warm weather and all of the beautiful blossoms had come out and then one night a frost landed on his land and all of the blossoms died. Only some of the blossoms survived. Since that frost happened he only had so many apples to give out to his customers. One other crop that did not do as well as he planned were the strawberries. One night an evil group of raccoons decided to come along and eat every single strawberry plant. Not even one plant was left behind. Norm’s wife Laurie found one lucky strawberry but she decided that since all the other strawberry plants were eaten she would enjoy that strawberry all by herself. Hopefully next year that group of evil raccoons will not come back and we will all get to enjoy the strawberries.

 One cool thing that Norm added to his farm where two goats that are really amazing. We got to see them and when we did my brother and I wondered if they like to eat carrot tops, so we gave the carrot tops to them and they were pleased. One other thing that Norm added to his farm is a plant tunnel that allows him to grow plants late into the fall and then he can start growing earlier in the spring. This structure is almost like a greenhouse but instead of planting plants in little cells he can actually plant plants in the ground. 

At one point during the summer, farmer Norm said that he had extra tomatoes and people could purchase an extra hand of tomatoes. My mom did purchase an extra hand of tomatoes thinking that she would be able to handle the amount of tomatoes that came. My mom did not exactly know what an extra hand of tomatoes meant so when the extra hand came she was really surprised. What Norm meant by an “Extra Hand” is that he will send you a whole produce box of tomatoes. With all of these extra tomatoes my mom and I made many tomato sauces, tomato salsas, and a couple of tomato soups. I think that in the future my mom and I will be a little more prepared so when we get a whole produce box of tomatoes. To picture how big the produce boxes are they are about 1-½ feet by 1-½ feet. That’s a lot of tomatoes.

I am so excited for next year and seeing what kinds of new foods we will make with our CSA produce. I will be thinking of Norm as he plans for a new season. I Wonder what our boxes will be full of during 2013. As a family we are committed to support local farmers and eating a healthy diet.