Campus Supported Agriculture

Yesterday after work I went to the introductory meeting for this years CSA program. I decided to join up to support our student organic farm and get fresh fruits and vegetables that are grown right here. For $350 I'll get 16 or more weekly pickups of whatever is looking good that week. They will also have fresh cut flowers and eggs and a few local hormone free meats from the Clemson meatlab thrown in now and then. It will be one or two milkcrates of stuff each pickup - the farm manager said to start making friends with neighbours since we will probably need to give some stuff away once the crops really come in. Yesterday we got the anticipated produce harvesting schedule and they also gave us some mesclun and loose leaf lettuces just for fun. So weekly pickups should be starting in 1 month. Each Wednesday I'll drive the truck out after work to the farm just beside campus and pick up my share. This should make me use more vegetables in our evening meals, and I will also be learning what it means to "eat in season". Last night along with our meal of linguine and clams, we had a big salad of mesclun and cherry tomatoes. I am not sure if I am a fan of mesclun, the mix was quite leafy tasting, and I had a couple of really spicy leaves which took me by surprise - wasn't expecting such heat from a lettuce leaf.