Pre-Season

When I first heard at a MOPS meeting and they said the guest speaker for the next meeting owned a CSA (cummunity Supported Agriculture) farm, the first thing I did when I got home was to look them up and talk to Scott about getting a share.  We had been tossing around the idea of buying a share when we lived in the Detroit area, but with the abundance of farmers markets (with a really nice one in our city of Royal Oak) we decided that for our money, it was best to get what we wanted each week at the Farmers Market.  Although Marinette and Menominee do have farmers markets, last year we found that usually the best selection could be found at the various farmer stands set up throuought the cities. 

I was excited to find out we had CSA farmers locally, and we had a share before Bridget and Mike Paquette gave their presentation about organic gardening at the Mops meeting.  It was fun and informative, and I found out about square foot gardening, which we will be constructing this summer and hopefully get a fall crop of lettuce, spinach, and cabbage. 

Each full-season, 17 week share is $200, or $11.76 a week for a half bushel box (14"x10.5"x7").  I think that once the growing season really gets going that this will be a good value, especially since they are grown using organic means (they can't claim organic this year since they are renting farmland from a neighbor who had used chemical fertilizer). 

In early April the winter garden the Paquettes had set up for their personal use was so successful that that they offered anyone willing to stop by some kale, bok choy, and spinach.  I headed over after a Mops meeting and picked up a couple plastic grocery bags full.  They had started to wilt a little when I got home, so taking a few tricks I learned from Alton Brown I put them (roots and all) in containers of water in the fridge with plastic bags over them.  They took up over half a shelf in the fridge, and we had the bok-choy with some stir-fry, I made  Kale Chips (which are best eaten fresh, after a couple days they're not as crunchy), and we had kale and spinach salads for dinner for about a week.  I couldn't wait for the regular season to start!