Tag Archives: value of CSA

CSA Week 13, The Second Half of the Season

Posted on August 3, 2012 by AnnieRie

We have crossed over the hump. Week 13 of the CSA. Twelve left until the fall season. It must be a great summer in PA, as we are getting slammed with pounds of vegetables. The haul:

Week 13 Sandy Spring CSA Full Share

1 Bag Green Beans
1 Bag Garden Peach Heirloom Tomatoes
1 Italian Eggplant
1 Bunch Red Beets
1 Pint Blackberries
4 White Bell Peppers
2 White Garlic
1 Bag Mixed Specialty Squash
1 Bag Mixed Tomatoes
1 Young Fennel Bulb
1 Bag Red Flesh/Red Skin Potatoes
1 Bunch Rhubarb

Twelve items again. And, yes, we got blackberries and we got rhubarb. Some baking and some fruit salads are in the planning stages with these goodies.

As for the financial aspect, this is getting difficult as depending on where you look, the prices are all over the place. How do you reconcile heirloom tomatoes. I have seen them for $5 a pound at MOM’s, and $4 a pound at Roots, and $2.50 each for large ones at the farmer’s markets. I could get them cheapest at the market, and by running all over town find the other items. I know I was $100 ahead two weeks ago.

What it would cost me in gasoline to chase down organic veggies would negate savings by buying at one place. But, try finding rhubarb at the markets right now. Difficult.

I know the cheapest that I could buy organically grown (but maybe not always certified) veggies would be at Love Dove on Fridays and Breezy Willow on Saturdays. Add Zahradka to the mix, or go to Olney for Our House Farms and I could get most of what is in the CSA. Again, lots of driving. I do go to the markets, but it is convenient to get the bulk of my veggies all together with the advance email of what seasonal goodies are coming home with me.

As for some of these heirlooms, they are incredible. The peach tomatoes have a taste that is fantastic, and so different. I couldn’t stop eating them when I got home.

Garden Peach Heirloom Tomatoes

The red flesh potatoes were this amazing pink color inside, so now between the purple, white and pink potatoes I can make an extremely colorful potato salad, and use some of the green beans in it as well.

Red Flesh/Red Skin Potatoes

There were three pounds of potatoes and four pounds of heirloom tomatoes this week. Using a rough cost estimate for the tomatoes gives me $20 and the potatoes $6. The eggplant at Roots would have cost me $4. So, not worrying about finding out the rest, like rhubarb, I already came out ahead again this week, way ahead considering what you can pay for organic blackberries, if you can find them. The eggplant weighed over a pound and a half. It looks like another eggplant parmesan will be made next week. I made one last week with the eggplants and some of my tomatoes.

Eggplant Parmesan

Off to do menu planning and get ready to take the veggies to the fair for registration tonight. Hope the weather stays clear.

hocofood@@@

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CSA’s, MOM’s, Wegmans, Roots, David’s or Farmer’s Markets

Posted on July 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

As I continue my value of CSA posts to record what we spend on organic veggies in a CSA, I find myself looking at prices around the area. Lots of choices these days in Howard County to eat fresh organic foods. I wonder in the future are there too many, and what may be the fallout? Will some of them fail? Will the surge in interest in eating organic whole foods sustain all these choices?

Yesterday we needed to go to Elkridge library to pick up a book not on the shelves anywhere else in the county. So, I requested two detours on this trip. Tacos at R&R. And, a visit to MOM’S. MOM’s carries a crispbread that I love to take on picnics and spread some good Bowling Green Farms Chesapeake cheese on top of them.

Crispbreads bought at MOM’s organic

I got prices of organic veggies while in the market to compare to what we saw at Wegmans, what we pay for Love Dove Farm, or Breezy Willow at the county farmers markets, and the value of our Sandy Spring CSA veggies that we have prepaid a year’s worth with a set fee.

My value of CSA posts go all over the place to try and compare my savings, but since pricing changes weekly and the sources have vastly different pricing, it is pretty tough to stay on top of what organic veggies cost week to week.

This week I used the pricing from MOM’s to compare. It was a huge savings to belong to a CSA. If one lived in Eastern HoCo, MOM’s and Wegmans are the closest sources of organic foods, and most Wegmans prices were cheaper for produce than MOM’s. Will that difference drive people to shop at Wegmans? Only time will tell.

As for CSA value this week, here is the breakout. I decided to round up by a penny for all the items ending in 99 cents to simplify my accounting. I did not include the holy basil (tulsi) as I have no idea what to use to compare it. So, my total is for eleven of the twelve items in the previous post I wrote Thursday when I picked up the box. The one difficult item in the box is lemon cucumbers, not something you find in stores often.

lemon cucumbers from CSA box

Potatoes $2 a pound. We got 3 pounds, total $6. This is more than they cost at Wegmans for organic.
Red Onion $3 a pound. We received a pound bag, total $3.
Mixed specialty squashes, use zucchini price of $3 a pound and we had one and a half pound, total $4.50.
Cucumbers, $2 a pound, we got 1 1/2 pounds, so $3.
Beets $3 a bunch, total $3.
Italian eggplant, $3 a pound, ours was 12 ounces, so $2.25 total.
Japanese eggplant, these were $4 a pound, and our three totaled a pound, $4.
Heirloom tomatoes were $6 a pound there, I know we find them for $5 at markets, but to use MOM’s, they totaled $6.
White Bell Peppers, MOM’s only had purple for $4 a pound, we got a pound so $4.
Pint of grape tomatoes, $4.
Heirloom carrots $3 a bunch.

Total cost at MOM’s to buy approximately what I received in the CSA box minus the holy basil was $42.75. We pay $29.75 a week. This week’s difference would be $13.00 more if I went to MOM’s to shop.

Cumulative total value saved by joining the CSA is now at $102.80 after eleven weeks, with fourteen to go.

The important question is whether we are actually eating all the things we get, and the answer is yes, for about 90-95% of the items, we either process them for freezing, eat them in two weeks or less, or can them. This week I will be blanching and freezing the remains of the green beans from last week, and making bread and butter pickles from the last of the cucumbers.

I also learned that I can grate, then blanch, then freeze little zucchini packages to use in the winter for chocolate zucchini muffins, or for zucchini fritters. The rest of the zucchini will meet this fate.

The tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and two of the white peppers will make a gazpacho. The other peppers will be blanched and frozen. I know this is time consuming, but definitely cheaper, and healthier than buying ready made processed foods. And cheaper than shopping at the organic markets.

hocofood@@@

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CSA Value Assessment

Posted on July 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

I didn’t post my savings until I got some updated numbers from local markets and vendors. Week Ten CSA was delivered Thursday. It looked like this

Sandy Spring CSA Delivery Week Ten

and I wrote about it here.

With this week’s savings, of $9.65 over weekly cost of $29.75, I am now $89.80 ahead in total for being 40% through the 25 week season. If anyone doubts the value of joining an organic CSA, they just need to look at what organic foods cost in stores, markets and at farm stands.

The breakout from week ten is this:

Corn, 5 ears, 50 cents an ear, $2.50
Carrots, $3.50 a bunch for heirloom varieties
Fennel $1.69 each for 2 of them, rounded to $3.40
Pickling cukes, white variety, a bargain at 2/$1, there were 8 of them, so $4
Slicing cukes, 3 large ones, $4.50 total
Garlic, two heads, $2 each at market, so $4 total
Heirloom red radishes, $2.50 a bunch
Blue Viking potatoes, 3 lbs at $1.50 a pound, $4.50
Zucchini, one very large, over a pound, so $2
Green beans and Rattlesnake beans, $3 each basket, so $6 total
Jalapenos, 5 medium to large size, $.50 each, so $2.50

What is missing in all this number crunching is that intrinsic value. That freshness of taste. That discovery of a new and interesting variety of vegetable not encountered before. For me this week, rattlesnake beans are a new addition. I read up on them and found that young and tender, treat them like green beans, older with heavily developed beans, take them out of their pods and cook them.

Young rattlesnake beans

As for the garlic, I love getting organic garlic, and later this year, I will put aside a few heads in order to plant them this fall. Victoria over at The Soffrito planted hers in pots and heavily mulched them over the winter and got lovely garlic, including scapes prior to digging up the garlic to cure. Supermarket garlic won’t sprout; it is treated with an anti-sprouting agent.

Organic garlic, perfect for planting in October

This week with my other CSA goodies, I will be making potato salad, pickling some cukes, and also making tzatziki using some of Wegmans Greek yogurt and their organic lemons and mint from my garden. And, yes, I will be grilling some corn. I love it when corn season arrives.

Oh, and if I get a few more large tomatoes in the next two or three days, there will be gazpacho on the menu. Maybe on one of those hundred degree days that might come next week.

hocofood@@@

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The Attack of the Monster Zucchini

Posted on July 6, 2012 by AnnieRie

CSA Week Nine. Five more monsters in the box. It is officially zucchini season.

Ratatouille is baking as we speak, although I had to get an eggplant and some tomatoes to do it. None yet from the CSA. This is the list. The green beans were MIA, so there were only nine items, not ten. It happens occasionally that an item won’t get selected for some reason, and not get packed.

The haul spread out on the counter looked like this. I saw a red cabbage in the swap box, so made a swap of the huge green cabbage for this more compact red one. Cabbage three weeks in a row. Cole slawed and sauerkrauted out at the moment, so this will make a cabbage apple slaw next week sometime.

The price analysis continues, using some Wegmans organic pricing I saw today. And, yes, we left before the fire in the kitchen caused an evacuation. Must have been interesting, although they were not that crowded at 10 am.

Red cabbage, two pound head, cost $2.49 a pound, which is $4.98. Yellow squash, $2.49 each, so $4.98 there. Zucchini, $1.69 a pound. My five weighed four pounds total, so $6.76. Cucumbers were $2 each for large ones. I have seen them for $1.50 each for the smaller ones, so my three should total $5. Leaf lettuces $3 each, but half the size of mine makes $6. Kale and Chard were $2.69 each at Wegmans, for stalks half the size, so four times that will total $10.76. Beets $3 a bunch, smaller so let’s say $4 for the large ones we got. Heirloom carrots, again, but more of them, $3.50 let’s say, since I can’t find these anywhere. Total this week in value for equivalent organic veggies would be approximately $46 for the whole haul. $16.25 more than my weekly tab for the CSA from Sandy Spring.

Add that to my surplus from the previous eight weeks and it totals $80.15 that I am ahead after nine weeks. I knew last year that this was a great value for organic foods, but didn’t take the time to look at prices in stores and at farmers markets. This is such a great deal for getting organics, and getting some very unique ones as well.

I will be linking up with the linky party at In Her Chucks, what’s in the box. Check it out to see what people make from all over the USA, and in other countries with their CSA veggies.

Gotta go. My ratatouille is smelling wonderful, and I need to grill those local Italian beef sausages for dinner. And find a local red wine, as this is my weekly local meal. Only the tomatoes and eggplant aren’t local in this dinner. Posting about it later.

hocofood@@@

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It’s CSA Thursday, and It is Out of Control

Posted on June 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

I should know that eating out more than staying home messes up the CSA share. Way too many veggies to eat when you aren’t having dinner at home.

Field Day weekend and a couple of dinner dates with friends put us deep in the hole for clearing out the fridge. Then, we get the notice from Sandy Spring that there will be 12 items this week. We haven’t finished six from last week.

I may have to get a wider angle lens to fit it all in the picture. Here is the list. I was all “kaled” out, so I swapped it for some extra pickling cucumbers. I know I can use them. I haven’t used last week’s kale.

The swap box is a wonderful thing. You may swap one item that you don’t want. There are two boxes at our pick up site, since there are 45 of us.

So, what have I done and what am I planning with all these veggies? I made rhubar-b-que sauce last week, which I haven’t used yet. Got the idea from our link up party of CSA members. They made pizza with it. The sauce is awesome.

Today I made pesto from the basil. I also roasted all the beets, this weeks and last weeks.

Two of the beets ended up in tonight’s dinner, along with last week’s Yukon gold potatoes, some greens, a pear and some Marcona almonds in the salad. This meal did not need meat to make it complete. It was pretty satisfying with just the veggies.

I drizzled some butter over the potatoes. We also had four ears of corn from a local farm stand. The wine. A Pearmund Petit Manseng.

Tomorrow I will be making some cole slaw with the cabbage and carrots. Maybe another frittata this weekend with all those lovely greens.

Analysis, all comparing to organic veggies: Cabbage $3. 12 Pickling cukes $6. 3 pounds red potatoes $4.50. 1 Pound young chard $5. Heirloom carrots $3. Heirloom beets, $3. Boatload of basil $3. Two large cukes, $3. Pak Choy $3.50. Radicchio $3. Five large zucchini $3.75. This week: $40.75. Cost $29.75. Excess is 11.00. Added to cumulative savings makes it $63.90 more than I spent to purchase CSA share. Seventeen weeks to go.

Check out this week’s link party to see what people from all over are doing with their CSA shares. In Her Chucks has created an amazing link up party that highlights what is in all our CSA boxes, plus what great recipes we have to use all this great stuff. My link will be there in a few minutes.

Lots of great CSA’s here in our part of the world.

hocofood@@@

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The CSA Box, Week Seven. Get It Before It Wilts

Posted on June 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

Boy, it’s hot. Getting that CSA box early is a smart thing. The Lancaster Farm Fresh refrigerated truck was there when we arrived a few minutes before 1 PM. Lots of people arriving right after we did. Don’t want those veggies to wilt, do we?

The haul. It keeps getting harder to take the picture. I am glad I have lots of counter space to clean and prep it all. It takes about 20 minutes to process all of it.

I did one swap. Dandelion greens to get another bag of pickling cukes. The list.

The analysis. Based on organic pricing. Green Kale $3. Yellow Chard $3. Pickling cukes, eleven of them at 2/$1 is $5.50. Heirloom carrots (priceless 😉 ) where else do you find this sort of carrot — $3. Onions $3. Fennel $3.50. Zucchini $3. Two slicing cukes $2. A pound of rhubarb $3. Large green cabbage $3. Total is $32. $3.25 more than the weekly cost of the CSA. Running cumulative total is $51.90, with eighteen weeks to go and so much goodness coming into the house.

As for all these cukes, I am busy doing easy refrigerator and crock dill pickles. Check out the crock at the moment after I added new cukes to the mix. This is what my mom and my husband’s mom always did. Keep a crock of pickles “dilling” in a cool place in the kitchen.

You can see differences in the older pickles and the new brighter green ones, as well as some of those white cucumbers from last week’s CSA. I bought a food grade white bucket, sterilized it in the dishwasher and for these, used a prepared dilling mix that my husband wanted me to try. He thought my original pickling spice mix wasn’t like his mom’s, so we tried this one. It is OK, but I will be experimenting with fresh spices I grind myself to change it a bit. This is Mrs. Wages, bought at Butler’s Orchard in their canning section.

I just use a 2:1 water/vinegar mix and use the appropriate amount of spice, boil it quickly, cool it and cover the cucumbers. Put a plate on top and a clean dish towel and leave it alone in a corner. There is also a bowl full of sauerkraut fermenting next to it from the cabbage two weeks ago. It is coming along nicely and I will probably grill kielbasa and serve it over some sauerkraut next week. Another staple from my mom’s and my grandmom’s German influenced kitchens.

The sauerkraut is really easy. Cut up cabbage. Pack it into container layering it with salt and caraway. Get enough water in it to cover it. Add salted water if needed. Put a plate on it. Weight it down. Let it ferment its little self silly.

OK, all this talk of food has made me hungry. Time to go up and find my crock pot soup made with greens and bacon, using up all of last week’s leftover CSA greens. Veggie stock from the freezer. Greens, beans, bacon and onions. Herbs, salt and pepper. Two or three dinners. We may look like we are drowning in veggies but we do make a huge dent in them every week. Check out our What’s In The Box linkytools party to see how dozens of us are using our CSA deliveries. Bon Appetit!

hocofood@@@

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OK, I Caved and Went to Wegmans

Posted on June 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

I admit it. I just had to go and see the place, even if it was super crowded. Just to compare it to Frederick and Hunt Valley while picking up a few things I needed before Amateur Radio Field Day. And some things for canning and pickling.

This is my first grocery run this month. I really only wanted coffee creamer, vitamin water, plain yogurt to make tzatziki with my cucumbers, hoagie rolls and fixings to make lunches for the better half as he sets up Friday and Saturday for field day, and white distilled vinegar for pickling. Oh, and fresh dill because I didn’t plant dill this year.

I got there before the noon rush. Not hard to get to the top deck and park near the clock.

Inside a little confusing as things are laid out a bit differently than at Frederick, but I got my hoagie rolls, some good whole grain bread, and headed back past the cheese aisle where I knew I could find The Wild Pea hummus. I resisted spending money on cheese, as I use my local sources for it.

Got a pic of some of the organic prices to use to compare to my CSA organic veggies. I may need to go back and adjust my savings as this price for baby bok choy was higher than I have been using for my cost analysis.

Bought no fruit or produce, as again, I use the local farmers for these items. Same with meat. Only got some deli sliced turkey to make the hoagies. Could not believe it, they were sold out of the large bottles of distilled white vinegar. They even went into the back to look. At $0.62 a quart for the gallon jug, I wasn’t going to buy four quart bottles for twice the unit price, so I guess it’s off to Costco to pick up vinegar. I will be out of it when pickling things Thursday.

I got a really bad picture through the glass of my cart coming up the escalator behind me. Too much glare to get it. I did walk right up to a checkout counter mid store that had one person paying as I placed my items on it. The next register was the same, and there were employees directing us to open registers along that long row.

Out to my car, and here is the time. Less than an hour, including running all over the bulk aisles looking for the vitamin waters. And, getting the fish department to select some large diver scallops to grill for dinner tonight. Stay tuned for the dinner posts sometime later.

My haul, a bit more than I went in to buy. But, much of it prep stuff for Friday at Field Day, and I did pick up the K Cup sampler I like. And, Chobani at $1 is a deal. I needed the plain Greek yogurt to make tzatziki and their prices are better than anywhere for Chobani.

I also grabbed a large bottle of their olive oil to use to make berry vinaigrettes.

And, yes, as I was leaving, it was getting crazy. Long lines of cars to get up to the parking garage.

Lots of people eating outside of the Market Cafe.

As others have said, avoid the food court and the prepared food section, and you can get in and shop fairly efficiently. I will probably be using them for all my grocery needs that can’t be filled by Roots and Boarman’s. Definitely for fish. The bakery may tempt me, but I still love Atwater’s breads. Wegmans may be a once or twice a month visit to get staples and some really good seafood. Oh, and sushi. None today because I am making the scallops tonight, but I do like to treat myself to their sushi.

hocofood@@@

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Summer CSA Week Six

Posted on June 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

Week Six from Sandy Spring. Another huge haul. Too big for the picture again.

Here is the official list at pick up.

I swapped the green cabbage. I am using most of last week’s to make sauerkraut, and some for cole slaw with the lovely carrots we got this week. I picked a second bag of these precious sweeties. I ended up with a dozen miniature white cucumbers. This variety is very sweet. We loved them last year. This year I am making sweet pickles with them.

The carrots and onions were gorgeous. Who knew you could get excited over vegetables?

And, this green oak leaf lettuce. Yum! I was eating it while rinsing and spinning it. It is such a great tasting lettuce.

Now, the dandelion greens and kale. I need to get creative this week. Might be steaming and freezing to use in soups this winter. As for the analysis.

Kale $2.50. Chard $3 for this size. Three pounds potatoes $4.50. A dozen cukes $6 at 2/$1 the going price at the market last week, and these are more exotic. Carrots $2. Onions $3. Dandelion greens $2. Lettuces $3 each for these two varieties. Scallions $2. Zucchini $3. These prices reflect organic pricing, and not the cheapest prices for veggies found that aren’t organic. Total for the twelve items, $34. Running total for six weeks. $48.65 ahead of what we pay for the CSA.

On a closing note, as I drove down through Dayton on the way to pick up in Columbia, I spied the bunny by the old general store and post office. He sums it up perfectly.

hocofood@@@

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CSA Week 4 from Sandy Spring CSA

Posted on May 31, 2012 by AnnieRie

Down to Columbia this afternoon to pick up my bounty. It gets harder and harder to fit it all in the picture.

Notice the large amount of green things. Not too many other colors other than the potatoes, and the stalks of the chards. Here is the official list of what was in the box.

I did one swap. Spearmint went into the swap box, and a broccoli came home with me. The veggies are so fresh, and so good to munch on right out of the box. The snow peas were the first victims of my munchies, but other things like the broccoli don’t get put away without me munching on them for my lunch. The mini bok choy are a treat too.

I am glad I have lots of colanders and a spinner, for all these greens. Right now the broccoli is up on the stove in the steamer basket waiting for me to turn it on, to have with salmon and potatoes for dinner.

More garlic scapes and more kale. I am going to try a vinegar, sea salt and pepper version of kale chips this weekend. Also going to make a garlic scape hummus using cannellini beans.

Price analysis a little tougher this week, as some things aren’t easy to find.

Spearmint worth at least $6, as there was enough in the bunch to fill at least three of those packages found at the store. The pound of baby chard, and the pound of mini bok choy, each would cost $9 at Roots, for packaged fancy greens. They would cost more from Our House Farm at Olney. There, they are $14 a pound. I will use the $9 number, so $18 for both. The deer tongue lettuces would cost $2.50 each for organic. Total now up to $29, and not quite halfway done. Collards, kale and yellow chard $3 each at markets. Garlic scapes, 10 of them so two bunches at $2 a bunch to compare to market price. Snow peas, $3 a container at Olney. Yukon Gold New Potatoes, a pound and a half, for about $1.75, or a bit more. Broccoli, count only one, since spearmint was in the box, even though I didn’t take it. Broccoli is $2 at the market.

Grand Total this week: $48.75. Cost of a share $29.75 a week. Savings this week, at least $19. This was a huge week, as the mini bok choy and chard alone are premium greens when sold by organic farmers at the markets.

Total savings to date: $40.15 after only four weeks. If you are vegetarian, or have a large family, this haul is more than enough to sustain you a week. If you are two crazy people like us, you eat all you can, and freeze the rest. I am getting good at making things that go in the freezer for later.

Our weekly trip down to the pick up point off Cedar Lane is well worth it.

hocofood@@@

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A Day at the Farm

Posted on May 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

Today was the first CSA picnic of the season. I took off this morning to drive up US 1 over the Conowingo Dam to visit one of the organic Amish farms that supply the Sandy Spring CSA, which delivers on Thursdays to Columbia. This is our second year of this CSA and a visit to the farms is a monthly treat in the summertime.

This organic farm is 12 acres of produce and 12 acres of pasture. There were baby chicks and ducks for the children to see, and lots of good food, brought by CSA members and cooked by the Amish families who supply us with our produce. Out of respect for the preference to not be photographed, I only took pics where the families were not present. So, no food pics or pics from the tour. We got lovely homemade ice cream from a farm up the road served with the berries from this farm. We all brought potluck to share.

This pic shows the kitchen garden that CSA members from as far away as Brooklyn NY were checking out. Notice the buggy that transported one of the neighbor families over to the farm for our picnic. We toured the barn and got baskets to go pick strawberries after touring the fields.

The view down the hill showing all the cars parked in a meadow. There were about a hundred of us there today. The CSA has 3500 member families in the Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop, about 500 of them are in Sandy Spring with us.

Strawberry picking on the hillside above the house and fields.

The strawberries are grown completely without sprays or treatments, all organic. That means little critters chew on the leaves but isn’t ugly fruit the best fruit?