Loving the weekly fresh produce

On June 10, 2009 by Tricia

My husband and I absolutely LOVE fresh produce in the summer. It just feels like summer when you can go to the back yard and pick a tomato off the vine and make a great salad. BUT. I don’t exactly have the best yard for gardening. Two years ago we tried a square foot garden in our back yard. Hubs made a GREAT garden complete with a fence to keep out our many rodents but it just didn’t get enough sunlight and was too far away from the water supply. [singlepic=241,320,240,,left]Last year I started a smaller version in our front flower bed (aka close to water and more sunlight) and we produced several great looking tomato plants. And we had some amazing BLT’s. BUT. It isn’t very big and I can’t take advantage of the complete growing season. So last year someone told me about Community Support Agriculture (CSA) programs and how through a local farmers market I could have organic produce delivered to my front door. Weekly. Wow! I was so excited and couldn’t wait until this spring. Well, I am happy to report that we have received our Happy Box from Fulton Farms for 3 weeks now and it is so awesome to have fresh produce again. (And without ever weeding a garden). [singlepic=239,320,240,,right]For $25 a week they deliver a box of newly ripened produce to my front door. All I have to do is unpack it, wash it, and clean out the containers. Then next week I leave the empty containers on the porch and they exchange it with a full box of produce. Now, my husband and I could never eat a whole box of produce in one week so we are sharing with Cortney and her family (this surprises you, I know). It has worked out near perfect thus far. We have a little too much every week but it has challenged us to eat more healthy and to include greens with each of our meals. [singlepic=240,320,240,,left]One of the other great things about it is that I receive produce that I wouldn’t normally purchase at the store. So the program has me searching the web to learn about new produce I am seeing and find great ways to use up all of my goods. It is so much fun. If you have a local CSA program in your area I encourage you to look into it. If you live in the area surrounding Troy, Ohio, you should check out the Happy Box program and whether they deliver to your area. I have included a coupon that you can use for $10 off your first month’s order. And I promise it is worth it. . .tomatoes are coming SOON!