I heart vegetables

The other day I was checking my bank balance and I became confused when I saw a check for $250 on my statement. These days I never, ever write checks. Pretty much the only checks I write are to Steven for my “rent” (aka, my share of Steven’s mortgage), and that is definitely more than $250 a month. Then I remembered that I had the brilliant idea, like every other young yuppie in Madison, to join a CSA, and that the check I had sent off the farm at the beginning of March had been cashed. Yes, I am the proud owner of a half-share in a farm located in Belmont, WI.

I knew that I wanted to join a CSA this summer, but I also know Steven and me, and we have a tendency to get busy and let our produce go bad. From what I’ve read about farm shares, I knew a full share was going to be way, way too much produce for the two of us. I did a lot of research about what my options were. Living in Madison makes this an incredibly easy thing to do. All I had to do was go to the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC) and find the list of farms participating. I knew that I definitely wanted a farm that had half-shares, and that would also have a convenient location for us to pick up the goods. I narrowed my choices down to one or two farms and decided that Two Onions Farms was my best bet. So every other week from June to November, Steven and I will be swinging by Atlas Deli on Whitney Way to pick up our share.

I cannot wait to have a bunch of awesome, locally grown produce to use in my kitchen. No more staring at the disgusting selection of produce available at the Pick ‘n Save, not knowing where the hell it came from (my best guess is probably somewhere I don’t want to know the details about). Instead I know that it will come from Belmont, from people who care.

Last summer I also built myself a little garden bed in the backyard to grow some of my own vegetables. It had a less than stellar turn out, but I blame that on the fact that I bought my plants way before I was ready to put them in the ground and I seriously stunted my peppers by doing so. My two tomato plants did wonderfully, and my basil plant also did very well. This summer I think I’m going to grow my herbs in containers on the deck and reserve the garden bed for tomatoes, peppers, radishes, carrots, and salad greens. I have to build some sort of contraption to keep the birds away from my salad greens because they definitely had a field day with those last year. I’m hoping that I learn from my mistakes this time around, and therefore this year will have the awesomest vegetable garden on the street. This will probably be pretty easy, since I think it’s the only vegetable garden on the street.

My other produce/garden related goal for the summer is to get a compost bin going. I have no excuse not to. I just need to figure out what will work best for me and Steven.

Seriously, Spring and Summer? Get here as fast as you can! Love, Julia.