Week 3: Health, Food and our Environment

I can never remember if the old saying is “feed a cold and starve a fever” or vice versa. Happily I won’t need to remember anymore – I just need to remember where I’ve filed Patricia’s wonderful recipe for Roasted Squash Risotto. What a heavenly dish! I have to admit I come from a long line of cooks who can’t follow a recipe exactly so I added an extra onion and a little more garlic. And I just happened to have herbed goat cheese so I used that and also minimized the salt. This recipe will top the list of comfort foods – and probably the list for entertaining, pot-luck dinners, etc.

Preparing and eating this dish made be reflect on the role our food choices play in our health – and how the production and growth of our food also impacts our health and the health of our whole community. I KNOW where this food comes from and Patricia keeps us up to date on planting, nurturing and harvesting. I’m not only getting good, nutritious food but I know it is produced in a sustainable manner and I know that I am supporting members of my own community in purchasing from them. One step at a time everyone who is participating in CSA is doing their own part in improving health in all its many contexts.

A final note about these healthy food choices. As a household of one, I am finding that I have to be ever vigilant in my “meal planning” to keep up with my weekly half share. My 5 (yes FIVE) Labrador Retrievers love carrots and apples as treats – and I’m going to have to follow their lead. No more popping upstairs to the Café at work for a quick fix from a muffin or cookie. There’s no reason – other than pure laziness – that I can’t take a container of carrot sticks, apples, radishes, and whatever else I find in my basket to work with me. I know I’ll feel better for it. And there’s nothing quite like surprising the host/hostess of a dinner party with a lovely bouquet of…radishes!

Wednesday is only 2 days away and I still have potatoes and parsnips!

Week Two - Wonderful Winter Veggies

After the promise of spring and some warm weather, the temperature has turned cold again this week. But my 2nd food box contained just the right ingredients for a tasty feed of Roasted Winter Vegetables. I had invited my senior students over for a meal on Friday and they all but inhaled the Roasted Veggies, the Vegetable Biryani, the fresh green salad and of course the carrot cake. I found it a challenge to wait and plan my menu until after I saw what was in my box - but the success was well worth the few moments of "out of control" panic.

I think this "new" way of planning menus is just another one of those things that our grandparents did as a matter of course - you plan around what you HAVE; not around the myriad of things you can get at the local grocery store. It forces us to focus on what we have and not to become dependant on goods from other places that all too often come to us at great environmental, human and financial cost. Of course for the "controllers" in out midst - it may take a while to be totally comfortable with letting the weekly goodies be the guide.

While I was browsing through the Seedy Saturday displays at the Wolfville Farmer's Market I realized I had made a "mistake" in my first post to this blog. I used the S in CSA to mean Ssustainable but I see it really stands for Shared. But I think maybe I'll leave it as a "multipurpose" S - it can mean different things: shared, sustainable, supported, or in the oft quoted words of my Grade 8 Math teacher from many decades ago - Scrumptilicious!

I'm looking forward to the Farm outing tomorrow!

Week One - the very first hamper

For some weeks now I've been following Patricia's posts and pictures and watching the progress of things at the Farm. Progress that takes on a whole new meaning when I know I will have a close connection with this food. As I travelled to Church Street to pick up my first hamper I was reminded of the anticipation I used to feel when my friend Susan and I traded lunch bags back in the '70's at the University of Alberta. Tired of having the same uninspired brown bag lunch day after day, we decided to make lunch for each other instead. How much more fun it was to pack a lunch for someone else and lunchtime was more eagerly anticipated knowing that lunch would be a complete surprise.

And so too, my first hamper. I was like a kid at Christmas -well really just like myself at Christmas! I couldn't wait to see what was in the hamper. And I was not disappointed! Fresh greens, sprouts and tomatoes, apples and pears, and mushrooms, squash and carrots. All foods I love. It was probably a mistake having my Labrador Retriever Webber in the car with me - they were all foods he loves too!

The planning begins - I have company for the weekend so will try the pear/squash soup recipe; have a pot-luck dinner to attend so will take a big salad with lots of fresh extras, and may even make a carrot cake.

Fresh and local produce aside, its very fulfilling to know that I am part of a Community Sustainable Agriculture project.