One Woman Farm

This week we started a new relationship with a local CSA.  I love the idea of a CSA (community supported agriculture) but always fear I won't be able to finish all of the veggies and will end up wasting (not ok!) or that I will end up with 3 lbs of kale each week - and there's only so much I can do with kale!  This second fear comes from probably a "misremembering" (I think this is actually a word, but shouldn't be, however I give thanks to Sarah Palin for allowing me to make up my own vocabulary from here on out) when we got a CSA as kids- I feel like all we ate was kale for 3 months!  I think my mother would say this isn't true, but as I said, it's how I remember that time.  Although, I probably just wanted to eat pizza!

My friend Adrianna asked if we wanted to split a CSA with her.  She found a local farm she liked, and the price was right (comes to about $12/week per family) so we decided we were in!

The farm is called One Woman Farm.  I think it's a farm with a great story, not least of which being that the farmer is only 25 years old!  I like that it's small and personal.  When we picked up our bounty on Monday (at a great local farmer's market in East Liberty) we picked it up from the farmer herself!  She recognized our names when we arrived and high-fived us!  You gotta love high-fiving the farmer who picked your gourds!  The personal aspect of buying your food is so wonderful in a world that is so rushed and dominated by coupon shopping and express-lane checkouts!

One of our new year's resolutions was to eat more responsibly, and we have been trying to prioritize local above organic.  One of the things I've learned from reading authors like Michael Pollan, and from our trip to farms in Costa Rica, is that organic is expensive.  Not for the consumer- for the farmer!  It costs a premium to be certified organic, even if your farming practices are organic, which keeps a lot of small farms from being specifically certified as organic.  By picking local that isn't certified organic you can go on the farm's website, or ask the farmer about her pesticide use, barn conditions, etc.  Which, to me, seems so much better than some bag of frozen organic tofu shipped from California, or an organic banana from chile. What's the point? Sure, you aren't eating pesticides and you are supporting farming without harming the earth- but then you ship it in a freezer on a jet. might as well use pesticides but get it from your neighbor! Obviously,close by and no pesticides would be best, but if I had to choose, I'd choose close.  Plus, I'd love to support more local Pittsburgh businesses...perhaps that will be the topic of a future "things I love about Pittsburgh" post?