The Great Utah CSA Experiment - Week 18!

This share came with the very sad news that it would be the last of the season for the East Farms CSA. This was just as well - this week also brought the first big snowfall of the season! Not much more was going to be growing after that. In fact, the produce in the share was all hardy root vegetables or winter squash - the only things that could have survived intact for delivery. This was by far the heaviest load of the year, at over 20 lb of total food:

CSA SHARE		Price (Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
8.81 lb Butternut Squash (2)						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$8.72
2.20 lb Buttercup Squash						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$2.18
3.75 lb Carnival Squash (2)						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$3.71
3.71 lb Spaghetti Squash						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$3.67
1.73 lb Yellow Potatoes						1.49/lb	$2.58

It's a good thing this share was full of winter squash, because my refrigerator is still overflowing with more perishable produce. In fact, despite my best efforts, I am ashamed to admit I've already lost 1 cucumber, 2 eggplants, and 5 roma tomatoes to time. I should have given them away faster! Or frozen them. Oh, well.

Because I'm still struggling to eat the other produce, I'm going to have to add an addendum or two as I eat the winter squash over the next few months. We'll see how it goes! Included at right is a photo of one of the new squash varieties I received with this share: a carnival squash. At bottom is a recipe for butternut squash fries, as inspired by my local bakery's sweet potato fries. Unfortunately I don't have a picture - they were all eaten before I could buy a new set of batteries for my camera!

This share came with a newsletter announcing not only the end of the season, but also including an invitation to visit the East Farms pumpkin patch on Saturday and pick up one pumpkin per family member. We were excited about the prospect of pumpkin patching, and since the farm is close to the Borski Farms produce stand we figured we'd visit both over the weekend. We hopped in the car early Saturday morning for our field trip and easily found both the farm and the stand.

The pumpkin patch was full of both pumpkins and pickers, as well as Andrew, the manager of the East Farms program. He was kind enough to talk with us for a bit about the program in general and the year specifically - East Farms was hoping to add some fruit to its shares from a family orchard, but the fruit was mealy and lacked flavor, even though it looked good. This was likely the result of our unusually cool spring and early summer, and possibly some frost damage; but I was impressed that they didn't go on and include it anyways - I sure know the grocery chains don't think twice about selling mealy and flavorless produce!

Andrew also directed us to the back of the patch where the really big pumpkins were. He kindly agreed to let us take two extra pumpkins for our neighbors, which we did. Our four pumpkins were almost perfectly round, very handsome, and together weighed in at over 90 lbs! (Individual weights were 29.75 lb, 23.5 lb, 19.75 lb, 17.6 lb.)


At the grocery store price of .19/lb each, they all added up to a $17.21 value. But mostly I was proud of the size and regularity of the squash (pictured below). I did indeed deliver one each to both of my immediate neighbors, and another one was given to my cousin. Since I haven't actually used mine yet (it will meet the same fate as the other winter squash in my cold storage - eventually) I can't post what I did with it, but I will when I cook it!

We stopped by the Borski stand on the way out, and found that it's actually a cooperative stand run by a few farms in the area. As a result the produce may or may not be organic, and it may or may not be completely local - though the stand operator at the time could tell us which was which. They had a great selection of winter squash, potatoes, onions, garlic, and even boxes of peaches (in mid-October!!), all at fair value.

Since I have more food than I know what to do with spoiling, I couldn't justify purchasing more. Regardless, it was nice to see the location and what produce was available. As the year has worn on, I've found that I've really craved produce from weeks prior - but the grocery store versions are so flavorless. I have had extra produce I could have stored, but to make food storage worth my while I feel I need to work with more than just two weekly shares. Now I know where to go to grab the produce I want to store in bulk so I can put it up for the rest of the year and not crave it for months without relief (ahh arugula, how I miss thee!)

Overall, I found this share provided a great variety of vegetables, the share distribution was flexible, the pickup times worked very well for my schedule (both when I was working and when I wasn't), and the location was very convenient. It also provided the best value overall value: for the total spread of 18 weeks, the conservative estimated value adds up to $334.64. That is of course treating most of the produce as non-organic grocery store fare. Even so, I paid a price of 205.00 for this share on April 23rd (the late price - earlier comers paid slightly less), and I've been exceptionally pleased with the results. I would highly recommend this CSA to anybody who doesn't mind a glut of vegetables every week.

Looking back, the biggest highlight of the East Farms season for me was learning how to use the overabundance of vegetables in ways I've never done before, including bitter mediterranean greens - which I have been craving for the past month - eggplant, beets, peas, kohl rabi, green beans, and summer squash. Mostly this was all new because I've never had to cook these vegetables on this scale before - I can manage to use one package of green beans a year but several pounds in two months meant searching out good recipes and learning new cooking and/or storing techniques. Additionally, I found it incredibly fun to give extra produce to neighbors, friends, and some acquaintances (which made more friends!) I am grateful that everybody was so excited to help me with my project and to learn more about it - or at least, they were tolerant of my eccentricities and if they thought I was really weird, they didn't let it show.

Overall, I have very much enjoyed both of the CSAs, and would be hard pressed to say which I would pick, if I had to pick just one. Craig says we should just get both again - and I'm tempted to do so!

An additional perk of the project that I hadn't really anticipated was our near independence from grocery stores. We rarely needed to shop for anything other than milk and bread, and some meats and cheeses. Our grocery store runs were quick and to the point - and included very little side-spending on things we normally would have purchased while 'browsing' the aisles. Though it may or may not have helped our overall costs, I feel it helped us cut back on unnecessary spending and it certainly saved me a lot of time shopping. Exact numbers follow!

Quicken reports to me that for the 18 week duration of the experiment, including the costs of both shares, Craig and I spent $55.54/week on groceries - this is our bill for all grocery items, food and nonfood (like toilet paper and toothpaste) but not household (like linens and clothing). If we had only opted for one share (the recommended amount, meaning we would have given away less food) our bill would have been $44.15/week. I'll be honest in saying that's a little bit more than our usual grocery bill, which was for the 7 months prior to the project an average of $150/month; but it's difficult to tell whether the increase came from the CSA, or from several other changes in buying habits I've made in recent months, including buying eggs from cage-free hens and raw milk (more on that subject another time.)

Recipe for week 18:

-----Oven-Roasted Butternut Squash Fries-----

1 whole Butternut Squash
1/2 t. salt
3 T. butter

Peel the squash with a knife or a vegetable peeler, cut and deseed. Cut the flesh into slices - thin if you like shoestring fries, and thick if you like potato wedges. Melt butter and salt, and coat the squash fries. Bake at 425 F until done, ~20 minutes for shoestrings and up to 1 hour for wedges. Be sure to turn them occasionally!