CSA not CIA

herbs from my CSA box

I am finally on board with the CSA, it is my first year, and 2nd week doing it. I am thrilled to be a part of Hungry Gnome Farm's 1st year at CSA. It is a 1st for both of us. Alicia is willing to deliver the food to my door, and Matt and I are going to figure out how to make this work every week. We both work close to home, so at lunch break, one of us can run home and take in our food. So far, we have had a lovely assortment of baby lettuce, braising greens, a few root veggies, and a lovely baggie of herbs and edible flowers. We even got a coveted head of garlic that was cured from last year. I ran out of local garlic mid-winter, so I have been eating conventional garlic since. It is so nice to be back on the path to local organic flavors. Hungry Gnome grows a variety of foods, and are definitely interesting. I am waiting for kolhrabi, a veggie I like from my younger days, and seems to grow well in mid-TN climate, and Hungry Gnome grows it. I am also waiting to see if they might slip me a dozen free range, organic eggs this summer. As a hint, in my empty basket that awaits a trade for a full basket, I put 2 empty egg cartons in there. Hint Hint. This system with Hungry Gnome has freed up so much time for me. I used to get up and go drive to a farmer's market every Saturday morning (and only open on Saturday mornings), and sacrifice my morning jog in the cool morning air just to get wholesome food on my table. I was up and out the door this morning for a jog, knowing that I have a well stock fridge for the week. Thank you for giving me back my Saturday morning jog! This system with Hungry Gnome is as stress free and easy as I could ever hope for. I am loving it so far!

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an appealing way to get fresh local organic veggies to the table. It cuts out the middle man packer, transporter, distributor and sales venue. I think it saves money and the fresh veggies last for a long time. The gig with CSAs is this: pre-pay for a number of weeks for a volume of food (usually 1/2 or whole bushel) from a certain farm or collective, then every week at the same time, go to a meeting spot and pick up your food. So, a lot of CSAs in the area run from 10-15 weeks during the spring, summer and fall growing seasons, and they set up a pick-up day at a set location (usually a church parking lot, farmers market, park, or other common space).

I wanted to do a CSA for years now, but there were a few issues that I had to deal with 1st. 1st, I travel a lot for my work midweek, so most meeting days I am out of town. And Matt too, when he is working with clients, he just cannot drop everything to pick up a box of food. 2nd, some of the CSA I saw grow boring conventional food because they say that is what their clients want. I say, let them try something new, have fun with a new flavor and veggie! I just don't want to be beaten down by having to make yet another squash and green pepper casserole. 3rd the meeting times and places are unreasonable for a working person like me. Many have locations in Green Hills (aka a traffic parking lot) and only have pick up times from noon-5 pm or 3-6 pm, and I often don't get out of work until 5 or 6 pm, and the last thing I want to do is fight Green Hills traffic during rush-hour and stress out, and find that I missed the drop spot time. No thanks.

Hungry Gnome CSA is the solutin to all my CSA issues, and has made my veggie plate just stress free. For those who want Hungry Gnome's food, you can see them on Saturday, 9-11 am at Earthman's General Store on Whites Creek Pike near Old Hickory Blvd, and across the street from Ri'chards and the Whites Creek Post Office. Thank you Hungry Gnome for making local organic foods possible for a working household like mine. I am grateful.