The First Month

A month has passed. For the last four weeks, we have been using up what we had in our household food pantry and freezer. We received a box each week from our CSA farm share and have gotten a fish share from the local fishermen's co-op. At this time we have run out of, or run low on, many items. We need to decide what to buy more of and what we are going to do without. This needs to be a family decision.

After the first month I wanted to go over what we had received from our shares and see if the price we pay each week is comparable to what I would pay if I had just gone out and bought all the stuff. First off, I will say that I am very happy with our fish share. The fish is fresh, of a different variety each week and there is plenty of it. They often give us more than two pounds.The fish always arrives by the time they say it will, packed in plenty of ice in well-labeled bags. signing up for the fish was a good value. I could not get the same thing at the store. This costs us twenty dollars a week.

The CSA from Brookford Farm has been a different story. I will list below what we have received from them this month.

Meat

• 1 rib steak
• 1 small rib steak
• 1 shoulder steak
• 2 lbs. hamburger
• 1 lb. bacon
• 1 lb. pork sausage
• 1 lb. ground pork
• 1 lb. beef short ribs
• 2 small pork chops
• 1 country sparerib piece

Vegetables

• 7 heads green lettuce
• 3 bunches garlic scapes
• 2 bags of lettuce mix
• 2 quarts strawberries
• 4 6-ounce bags spinach
• 4 summer squash
• 3 zucchini
• 2 bunches swiss chard
• 4 beets
• 1 small bag peas
• 8 bunches of mixed herbs

Dairy and Flour

• 10 6-oz. blocks of cheddar
• 1 6-oz. block bleu cheese
• 1 6-oz. tub butter
• 4 doz. eggs

• 9 lbs. flour
• 8 loaves of bread

All this food is organically produced, and the meat and dairy from grass fed animals. The wheat for the flour is grown by the farm. I have estimated what I would have paid, if I was buying the equivalent at a farm stand.

Meat and bread $151.00  

Veggies  $107.00

Dairy and Flour $159.00  

This comes to $417.00. I have to say I made the prices quite high. I know that I could get some of the things we received for quite a bit less. So what we actually paid for this food this month was $472.00, that is our share price which is $118 a week. Some of the vegetables were not usable. I threw out about half the peas because the were so old and gone by that no one would eat them. I would in no way have bought them in that condition at a farm stand. Some of the strawberries were rotten and some were under ripe. The farm did say that they were having staff problems and it has been a very wet year. All the farms around us are having trouble with their growing conditions. The second bag of lettuce mix was mostly yellow and slimy. Once again nothing I ever would have bought. The squashes were over handled but edible. My husband had a sneaking suspicion that some of this produce had gone out to market and came back unsold, and then went into CSA boxes. Seriously, what are you going to do if you get it in your box, take it back?  The dairy and meat is excellent. We were supposed to get some broiler chickens. Two per month I believe, but we have not received any yet. The eggs are good. The flour works for us. The bread we get with our share is just okay, and I must say I have started to resent it because it is something that I need to find a way to use up. I don't want to eat it and neither does anyone else in the family, but we are stuck with it. I realize that this is a matter of taste, but this bread could be so much better. Yesterday I received an email from the farm in which they went over the problems they were having with their harvests. I know that these things happen, and that is part of the deal of signing up with a CSA. I hope the weather improves and they are able to offer better quality produce. I also hope that they will be more careful with their quality control. After having talked to the farm now a few times, I think they are trying harder, and are aware of the problems.

For us the food bill was paid for a month ago. We went into this with the idea that we would stick out the twenty weeks. Some people have asked why don't we ask for our money back and I have considered this more than once. At this time I consider it an experiment, a project, something we can talk and laugh about. I have already learned so much about us as a family. One of those things is that we have it good. We know how to produce much of our own food. We are lucky to have a farm and be able to eat really well, fairly cheaply. Another is that if we are trying all sorts of new things. New vegetables, different recipes, and we are liking most of them. Tristan has been especially good about trying new things and eating what I ask him to without complaints (not many, anyway). We have all taken this seriously and I think we are all interested to see how it goes for us. I have days when I want to quit. I want to go shopping and get the familiar foods we all want and that are easy.  I know if I do we will go back to our old ways quickly. I want us to change, and not rely on the store so much. I can now see how much money I was wasting by popping into the store  every time I wanted something. I would go in and spend fifty dollars each time. I would try not to, but it just seemed to always happen. In our inventory of food we were overstocked. That’s no way to run a business, and what is a household, but a kind of small business?