More local food

Despite the lack of a physical organic farmer's market in Conway, there is an on-line market. You log in, order what you want from the available products, and then go pick it up at the set time. The pick ups are available every other week, for now, although the organizers hope to go to weekly deliveries in the spring. It is like a CSA, except that you can choose what you want to buy, instead of just getting what is given to you. Thanks to one of Benjamin's co-workers, we discovered it in time to order last week, and this is what we got:

• Natural ground beef
• Buffalo summer sausage
• Raw milk cheddar
• Green beans
• Squash
• Eggs
• Purple potatoes
• Buffalo hot dogs
• Heirloom tomatoes
  

I could also have ordered honey (but we have plenty of that at the moment), raw milk, a deposit on a natural, heritage turkey for Thanksgiving, whole chicken roasters, okra, grapes, and buffalo roast, and more. So, for now, we seem to have figured out where to get good food. We will get the basket once a month - have to see if it continues to be worth it during the winter - and order from this group every other week. And I have a lead on a local fruit farm that is currently picking peaches and apples! Don't worry, there will be pictures when I go.

Food, glorious food!

We picked up our first of (at least) three monthly baskets today. We are hoping that it makes us enjoy cooking again, and helps us be more creative in the kitchen than we have become lately. Everything in the basket looks great, and we have already planned our weekly menu around all the great produce. Here is the complete list of what was in our basket:

• Milk, 1/2 gallon (organic, low-fat)
  
• Raw-milk Colby cheese
• Bacon
• Rice
• Shiitake mushrooms
• 3 bags of purple hull peas (like black eyed peas, but with a purple bit instead of black)
• A bag of basil
• A bag of spring salad mix
• 3 smallish Japanese eggplants
• 1 or 2 pint box of grapes
• 1 or 2 pint box of peppers, several varieties
• 5 sweet potatoes
• Loaf multi-grain bread
• Watermelon
• 1 jar grape jelly
• 1 jar honey

The basket is $60/month, which breaks down to $15/week. This is a little bit steep, perhaps, but I know that we would spend more than $15/week if we could go to the Austin/Sunset Valley farmer's market, or the Seattle University District Market. Now, most of what is in the basket will be gone at the end of this week, but not all of it. We are putting two of the bags of peas in the freezer for use at a later date. I might put the bacon away too, if I can resist its lure at breakfast time. The honey and jelly will last for quite a while. And we can supplement with the other CSA-type program I found, which is delivered every other week. Anything to make cooking (and eating) fun again!

Oh my gosh!

I got a comment from Julie Zickefoose! I feel like I have had a brush with a celebrity - seriously! I love her blog - the writing is great, the pictures are awesome...and she commented on my last post!

Hoo. Now that I have calmed down a little bit, on with the regular business of this blog - talking about me . In our search for local, organic food here in Conway, we have had some great suggestions from various members of Benjamin's new department. As a result, while we don't have a really good farmer's market, we have found not one but two CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) groups. One provides subscribers with a mixed basket once a month, and another lets subscribers order from the products on hand and then delivers them every other week. I have signed us up for both, and we will be picking up our first basket this weekend. I am really excited about it. The basket comes from the same people who do the one organic market in Little Rock, but we don't have to spend an hour driving there and back (in our poor car with no A/C), and it is steady support. That is what these small, local groups need - our support. Critics argue that there is no way organic agriculture can support the entire population, and that such programs are elitist and out of reach for the poor among us. Yes, they are a bit more pricey than going to the grocery store, but the produce and other food tastes so much better for not having been trucked to Arkansas from California. And no, such small local movements cannot, as they are now, support large numbers of people - but with our support, the amount of land and food devoted to such causes can grow, and the number of people that can be fed can grow, and the prices can come down. No product or business can reach its maximum potential unless it has support. Do you think Whole Foods could have gotten so big without people using and buying its products? Of course not. Not that I want all these little local producers to get as big as Whole Foods - that isn't the point (and it ruins some of the joy of it), but I would like the farmers to be able to support themselves with their labors, and I would like the amount of land that is farmed in sustainable ways to increase. I realize that I am mostly preaching to the choir here, since y'all who read this tend to agree with me about such things, but it never hurts to repeat such sentiments for the few people who stumble across my blog and don't know such things.