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My haul from Stanley's, $18 total in early June 2008. No organic food whatsoever.

Australia spoiled me. Over the year and a half I lived in South Australia, I had the joy of eating the freshest, most delicious and colorful produce ever. There was a giant, covered farmers market in the center of Adelaide called the Central Market, so I not only had amazing produce close by all year round, but I had choices! I could compare and contrast who had the best asparagus one day, or the freshest figs the next, and I even had a plethora of winter produce because it didn't snow in South Australia! Life couldn't be any better if I found a field of bacon and pancake syrup that I could run through with my mouth open.

Follow up:

Shortly after I arrived back in Chicago, I went to one of my favorite vegetable and fruit stands, Stanley's on the corner of North Avenue and Elston, to buy my first produce of the summer. The opening picture shows what I got--a decent amount of food for around $18. None of it was organic, but it was fresh, and most of it was locally sourced, so I was pretty happy.

Stanley's...good, cheap vegetal matter.

Chicago has its fair share of farmers markets, but most are not open in the winter, and there is certainly nothing like the Central Market. If you've never seen Chicago in the winter, rent the movie Alive and you'll have a pretty good idea, minus the cannibalism...unless one of the elevated trains break down during rush hour. Then, all rules are off.

But then I read an article about CSAs. CSAs are short for community supported agriculture, which basically means you can buy a share of a farm at the beginning of a growing season, and have fresh vegetables, fruits, and even eggs and artisan cheeses delivered to you every week of that season. In Chicago, there are heaps of CSAs available down from central Illinois all the way up to southern Wisconsin.

Oh sure, I've heard horror stories about CSAs before...farms are a slave to Mother Nature and the weather, so if the weather only wants to make corn grow, you run the risk of getting stuck with fifty ears of corn to use each week. If the weather is really bad, you may not get very much food at all, because you can only get what the farm grows. But at the same time, you get to support local small farms, many of them organic, and you are pretty much forced to be creative, since you don't get to decide what produce you get each week. Plus, if you search hard enough, you can find CSAs that run in the fall and winter, and that go out of their way to ensure you don't get stuck with 20 pounds of asparagus in May. You can also choose how much food you want by picking a half share (feeds 1-2 people) or a full share (usually feeds a family of 4-5).

Meet my new CSA: Harvest Moon Farms. This is an organic farm in southern Wisconsin, and their summer CSA is 20 weeks long for around $695 for a full share for the summer. That works out to be $34.75 a week, and I am splitting my full share three ways--two parts for myself and my husband, and one part for my brother. So for just over $20 a week, only a few dollars more than I spent at Stanley's, I am getting a variety of organic veggies and the occasional fruit. Not too bad if you ask me.

So lets look at my first week's CSA. This is approximately two-thirds of a full share from week one.

Harvest Moon Farms Summer CSA 2008 week one.

Not very much, huh? Apparently, our farm suffered the affects of all the rain and flooding that went through the Midwest. As a result, not a lot of food. Just some asparagus, green onions, garlic scapes and lettuce. To bulk out the share, they threw in some organic eggs, locally made artisan goat cheese, and a baked good: carrot cake cookies with cream cheese frosting (freaking awesome). I wasn't exactly thrilled that the CSA was so small the first week, but I knew the risks of a CSA, and I was appreciative that they threw in the dairy.

The goat cheese was sooooooooo awesome. It wasn't dry and crumbly, like most goat cheese I've tasted. It was buttery and soft and creamy, almost like a brie or a Camembert.

Unexpected goat cheese that rocked my world a bit.

Did you know one the main ingredients was love? I thought it was puppy tails and kitten meows.

This is 2/3 of a full share from week two:

Harvest Moon Farms Summer CSA 2008 week two: still pretty small.

Again, still pretty small, but it's a farm, not Walmart. I knew I couldn't expect them to bounce back from the floods instantly. I got asparagus, lettuce, mint, basil, strawberries, feta cheese, and chocolate chip cookie bars. Again, I was happy for the cheese and even happier for the strawberries, because neither cheese nor fruit is mandatory in this CSA. The cookie bars rocked, and I am starting to look forward to the weekly baked good!

Week three was even better, but I forgot to take a picture. I just know that we got spinach, swiss chard, kale, and garlic scapes, among other things. The size of the CSA grew steadily from the week before, but they no longer seem to be adding cheese or baked goods. From the weekly newsletter, I learned that their oven is not working due to the flood, so baked goods will be gone for a few weeks:(

Week four was better still...no baked good, but more variety and some new veggies popping their way in there. This is the full share, before I split it up for my brother.

Harvest Moon Farms Summer CSA 2008 week four: much better, but missing the cheese, fruit and baked goods.

Lettuce, cabbage, corn, garlic scapes, swiss chard, asparagus, green onion looking things, and beets. Now, Harvest Moon Farms did not promise to give us cheese and fruit every week, but there are CSAs that do include them, or at least offer a separate cheese and fruit share for purchase. I wish I could have gone with one of those CSAs, but perhaps that can happen next year.

And finally, this week. Week five, again, a full share not split up:

Harvest Moon Farms Summer CSA 2008 week five.

I totally didn't "style" this photo well. There are four ears of corn, swiss chard, spinach, green onions with the onion still attached, broccoli, zucchini, cabbage, red potatoes and green beans. Again, I am so happy with the variety, because I never would have bought some of this produce on my own, but I'm still missing the bakery item, cheese and fruit. I like variety, what can I say?

More updates on the CSA to come. So far, I am pretty happy with what I've been getting, but I also know that Harvest Moon is one of the more expensive CSAs out there. I may research other CSAs to join for the fall and winter that include more variety, at least a bit more fruit, and an option for a cheese share. When Chicago gets so cold, people are considering cannibalism, a little cheese never hurt anybody.

~LTG