Every Saturday we drive down to Lambertville, NJ, to pick up a box of fresh, organic, locally-grown fruits and vegetables. The produce in the box travels a grand total of about 20 miles from a CSA farm in Hopewell, NJ to our dinner table. (Did you know that food now travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to table?)
I heard about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) a couple of years ago, did a little research and found
Honey Brook Organic Farm, a CSA farm in Hopewell, NJ. At Honey Brook, the fields are certified organic, the staff are paid livable wages and the food is grown in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
In 2001, Honey Brook implemented the "Boxed Share" Program. Here's how it works. In January, familes like us become members by purchasing either an individual share ($322) or a family share ($518). Each week during the 25-week growing season from June to November, members receive a box (or a half box) of seasonal, fresh, organic vegetables. Some members go to the farm and fill their box with the allotted produce (listed on the chalk board) and some, like us, pick up their box from a nearby host site.
In addition to the box of produce members receive, our farm has a weekly list of crops that are available on a pick-your-own basis. For example, this week the website says:
The pick-your-own crops are hot peppers, international eggplant, okra, flowers, sunflowers, heirloom sauce tomatoes, plum dandy sauce tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, specalty basils, chamomile, sage, anise hyssop, marjoram, summer savory, catnip, oregano, thyme, lemon balm and lavender (herbs). Herbs are 1 small bunch each - Individual; 1 large bunch each - Family/Boxed Share, with the exception of catnip, thyme, lavender and lemon balm, which are unlimited. Flower quantities: 100 stems - Family/Boxed; 50 stems - Individual, sunflowers are 2 stems - Family/Boxed; 1 stem - Individual. Hot peppers are 6 pieces - Family/Boxed; 3 pieces - Individual. String beans are 1 quart - Family/Boxed; 1 pint - Individual. Okra is 1 quart - Family/Boxed; Individual - 1 pint (pick at less than 4”) and international eggplant is 6 pieces - Family/Boxed; 3 pieces - Individual. Blackberries are 1 pint - Family/Boxed; 1/2 pint - Individual. Heirloom and plum dandy sauce tomatoes are 2 quarts per variety - Family/Boxed; 1 quart per variety - Individual. Cherry tomatoes are 1 quart - Family/Boxed; 1 pint - Individual. (Please allow yourself at least 1 hour for PYO picking.)
My kids love to go to the farm to pick veggies and fruit. My son eats the green beans right off the vine and my daughter loves the cherry tomatoes. And they both can't get enough of the raspberries and blackberries!
Finding a CSA is easy with the web. Go to the
Center for CSA resources, choose your state, then click Go. New Jersey has 16 CSAs, Pennsylvania has 70, California has 81, New York has 106...
We have been hosting a 8-year-old "Fresh Air" child from New York City for the past week. He leaves on Monday. The Fresh Air fund is a not-for-profit agency that provides summer vacations in the country to thousands of New York City children from disadvantaged communities. We are one of many volunteer host families in 13 states and Canada.When we met with our local representative in May she told us that there are far more Fresh Air kids than Fresh Air host families. We had arranged this initial meeting to find out more information about the program but, after learning about the gap, we signed up. (My husband was quite skeptical.)
It's been really fun showing him the area. He's petted miniature horses at a beautiful farm in Bucks County, PA, swam 7 hours at my children's birthday party, went on a picnic in the country at a lovely, old farm house, bicycled 3 miles to our favorite ice cream shop and, yesterday, took his first horseback riding lesson. He's also seen a snake, 3 frogs, thousands of upside-down hanging bats at the horse farm and spiders and bugs galore and spent a week with 4 lazy Labs at our babysitter's home.
Besides having two, high-energy boys running around the house, there have been no downsides. My kids now have the experience of living with an African-American child from the Upper Eastside and our guest will have had the experience of living with two spoiled brats from the country :-)
POSTED BY Wendy Richardson co-author of Nerdy Books AT 8:20 AM 2 comments
Our power fails 3 or 4 times a year. We had one two nights ago. By now we have a routine. My husband walks in the house, flips on the switch, yells some explicative, then starts hunting for flashlights, candles and matches. I run around reminding everyone not to run the water or flush the toilets or open the refrigerator unless absolutely necessary.Because our well has a water retention tank, there is a small amount of water available. (Don't tell the kids - or my husband.) So, during a blackout, I wash my hands and brush my teeth with just a trickle of water. I use a minimal amount of water to scrub potatoes, carrots and apples. You get the point. When the power is out, I become very conscientious of the water we use.
There are plenty of articles on the global water crisis. In a 2003 article from the BBC's web site, the statistics are grim -- two-fifths of the world's people already face serious water shortages. According to the article, "Water is not running out: it is simply that there are steadily more of us to share it."
There are numerous comments at the bottom of that article. I pulled two that best represent how I feel and one outrageous comment about the lack of running water in homes in Kentucky. That Kentucky comment prompted me to look up statistics on US homes without indoor plumbing. A USA Today article breaks down the states with the highest number of residents without complete plumbing (Alaska wins with 6.3%) and a RCAP article states that the 2000 U.S. Census revealed that .69 percent of the population lacks access to water and/or sanitation. That's more than 670,000 households or 1.95 million people! Wow. What pigs we are here in NJ with our 5 sinks, 3 toilets and 2 outdoor water spigots!
POSTED BY Wendy Richardson co-author of Nerdy Books AT 7:34 AM 1 comments
According to an MSNBC article, bottled water which is mostly consumed away from home, has about a 12% recycling rate. (The picture is from that article.) I can't believe it's that high. I rarely see a recycling bin at parks, parties, restaurants, stores and schools, and when there are bins, they're not always used. We had a street party in front of our office 2 weeks ago and we put a clearly marked, open topped recycling bin right next to our closed lid garbage can. My husband, God bless him, pulled about 50 cans and bottles from the garbage can.
Along those same lines, we recently attended a family birthday party where a giant recycling bin was located next to a giant garbage can. I was so annoyed to watch the 13-year-olds (and adults) throw food in the bin and cans in the can. And this was after I made a little "announcement" to the group about where to put what. (Can these kids read?) Even more shocking was watching a guest from California (no surprise there) actually reach into the muck and MOVE THE CANS INTO THE BIN AND THE GARBAGE INTO THE CAN. I almost fainted.
POSTED BY Wendy Richardson co-author of Nerdy Books AT 8:04 AM 1 comments