Eat local
This will be our third year participating in a local CSA. CSA stands for community supported agriculture. In late January/early February I sent a farm a check to pay for half a year’s worth of fresh vegetables. Starting the first week of June we’ll receive a box of vegetables every week, a small share of fruit every other week, and a dozen eggs every other week. I’m looking forward to our first box of fresh vegetables.
But this year we’ve gone a step further in eating local. Instead of just winging it, buying a few vegetable plants from the garden center, throwing them in pots and hoping for the best, we built three Square Foot Garden boxes. Square Foot Gardening is supposed to be easier and less wasteful than regular gardening. By using a special mix of soil in raised beds sectioned off into square foot plots SFGs are supposed to eliminate weeds, and increase garden productivity.
Our three boxes add up to 48 boxes, half of which have been planted with early spring vegetables. We planted strawberries, peas, spinach, lettuce, and broccolini and started some other seeds indoors. I have a few green bean plants waiting to be transferred outside, basil seeds that have sprouted, and I threw caution to the wind and planted some carrot and onion seeds outdoors, despite the warning to wait until after the last frost, which could be as late as May.
I haven’t figured out what else I want to plant when the summer planting season starts. I know we’ll have some tomatoes, green beans and spaghetti squash but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I don’t want to plant anything I know we’ll get a ton of through the CSA so chard and kale are out. If all goes well it looks like we’ll have plenty to eat and freeze for next winter.
Sam, our three year old, is having a great time digging holes, planting seeds and watching them sprouts. Even if the garden doesn’t work out as well as I hope, I know he’ll have learned about where food comes from and how plants grow.
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August 15th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
That sounds like it was an exciting start to Spring! I love having so many fresh fruits and veggies at hand