Eating with the seaons offers plenty of plusses
It’s taken me a few months, but I’m finally learning to pick up
my vegetables on time.
Or close to it, anyway.
Eating with the seaons offers plenty of plusses
It’s taken me a few months, but I’m finally learning to pick up my vegetables on time.
Or close to it, anyway.
This year, after vowing for years that I was going to buy organic veggies, I finally did it. I signed up for a share in a CSA (community-supported agriculture) business. For $22 a week, I get a bag full of really fresh, wonderful produce, delivered to a location near my home in Aromas.
The CSA that I signed up with is called Eating With the Seasons, based at the Herbert family farm in Hollister. Some of the produce used to be grown at the Herbert farm, but now the Herberts are the organizers of getting an assortment of fruits and vegetables to their subscribers. Everything comes from little organic farms within a 150-mile radius of Hollister.
That’s pretty great, considering that when you get produce from a typical grocery store, it may have traveled thousands of miles to get there. When you sign up with a CSA, you save on what this transportation is doing to the environment, as well as helping organic farms flourish.
This week, I got zucchini, strawberries, baby broccoli, avocados and nectarines. I order it all online, through the Eating With the Seasons Web site (ews.localharvest.org). Several days later, it magically appears at the drop-off point in Aromas.
All I have to do is remember to pick it up. Which, for me, is not always easy.
Going organic is not something I was always hung up on, but I’ve come around to it mainly because it tastes so much better than a lot of what you get in regular grocery stores.
And I like the idea of supporting a local business and local farmers. It’s great to eat things that were grown in Hollister, or San Juan Bautista, or Watsonville, or one of the other locations that supply produce to this CSA.
Eating With the Seasons is delivering to many different locations these days, including San Jose, Gilroy, Hollister, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Pacifica, Palo Alto, San Francisco and Morgan Hill, among about 40 other places. Home delivery is also available for an extra charge in Hollister and Palo Alto.
Their trucks also drop off at a number of Bay Area companies so that the employees can pick up their veggies at work. So if you work at Google, Save the Redwoods, the Sierra Club, Sunpower or SFMOMA, you’re one of these lucky people.
It’s pretty amazing, what the Herberts have done. It’s wonderful that the produce comes to you, rather than you having to go out and hunt for it.
Monday is my drop-off day, but I have had a terrible time remembering when to go pick up my order. This I cannot blame on anyone but myself.
But today, to my surprise, I did it right on time.
I have to admit that in past weeks, I’ve slunk in on Tuesday – even, once, on a Wednesday – to snag my bag.
Luckily, it has been there each time, patiently waiting for me.
It’s really gratifying and fun to get my produce this way. Plus there are many extras that can be ordered if anyone wants them – eggs, jam, seasonings, coffee, honey and pickles, for instance. Everything’s organic and pretty wonderful.
I wasn’t sure it was going to work for me, but I’m slowly getting used to it. I love the convenience. I’m still dealing with the fact that I am “eating with the seasons” now and can’t get everything I want at every moment in time.
Another big plus is the Herberts. All of them are nice, and when you have a question or any issue at all, they always call back. And that’s down-to-earth service.
