Ever since I first decided to make a serious effort into eating more "real food," I'd been curious about CSAs. Perhaps even longer. So I was surprised when I started talking about them that most people didn't know what I meant. Now, to be fair, we're surrounded by acronyms these days, and throwing out a few letters with little context, "I'm excited about my CSA," would understandably confuse people. After all, it's something in the forefront of my mind, but not of everyone's. But, even after explaining that CSA means "community supported agriculture," I've found more elaboration is required.
Let's back up a little - what is this thing about "real food" anyway? Put simply, many of us, particularly those who like convenience, have moved further and further away from the "source" of our food, or even simply non-chemically-mimicked food. It's becoming harder to know what's in the things you eat (if you don't make them yourself from base ingredients). Look to the recent court case against Taco Bell for an example of that. There are increasing questions about the safety of what's in our food - both in regard to e. coli and similar outbreaks and questions about the effects of commonplace ingredients like high fructose corn syrup. The idea to eat real food is to stay away from processed ingredients and use things that are fresh and/or natural. (This in itself is a complex idea, as "natural" isn't a regulated term.)
The next part of the fresh food search often leads to the conclusion that you should try to "eat local." Why? There's some idea that eating locally grown and locally produced food will help you be more aware of how the food gets to your plate. But, there's also more direct advantages: a reduction in shipping, less confusion about imported food safety, and fresher ingredients to your door. Embracing local eating often means accepting seasons (or at least, modifying your diet to eat locally during peak growing season) - crops are harvested at certain times of the year and generally will not be available during other times. If you're adventurous, this could lead to accepting new foods into your diet as you eat what's available when it is. If you're really committed, this may mean preserving foods during their peak season so you can eat them during off-peak times.
So where do you find locally grown food? Sometimes at your grocer but more often at farmer's markets, roadside stands, and similar locales. Why? Well, that's where the local farmers bring their food to sell it. There's a few reasons for this, but for the moment, let's stay on the idea of the local, small farm. It's not easy to be a farmer, particularly on a small scale. (Particularly if you don't get government subsidies...) If you're income is entirely based on farming, then your livelihood is directly tied to the weather. Too much rain, not enough rain, frost, scorching heat, et al, all determine your yield for the season. Things like insects, fungus, and disease can also ruin a crop. Then there is the market issue on the other side - once you harvest your crops you need to sell them or lose them - and whether consumers will buy your product a particular day can be unpredictable.
Enter CSAs. In a CSA, a group of people come together to support local agriculture - often by supporting a specific farm. They agree to buy the farmer's goods, typically paying in advance. In other words, they invest in shares of the farm before the harvest. The consumer now shares in the risk with the farmer, and helps to guarantee that the farmer will receive income, even in a bad crop year. In return, the consumer is promised a portion of the harvest on a regular schedule. Nice farm fresh vegetables not shipped from too far away. A farm may diversify its crop to meet the demands of its CSA members or it may join with other farms to provide a variety of goods. Consumers are able to prioritize their values when choosing a CSA - picking an organic farm, for example. Many farms will allow their CSA members to visit their fields; a few may even ask members to contribute in some fashion. The CSA delivery is often a surprise - it will be based on whatever crops are ready to harvest.
For us, our farm aims to fill a 48 quart cooler for each of its full share members each week with organic produce. Now that's a lot of veggies!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Trail in Review: Cedar Ridge Preserve
It is my hope to make trail reviews a regular "feature".
Site: Cedar Ridge Preserve, Dallas, TX
Managed by: Audubon Dallas
Cost: $3 donation requested
Time of hike: Early spring afternoon, weekend
Weather: Sunny and warm
I found this site by a simple google search for Dallas hikes and was interested in checking it out on the promise of butterflies and wildflowers. We were a little early for the wildflowers - they were ready to start blooming and there were some patches of bluebonnets decorating the entrance but they just weren't out in full yet. And the butterfly garden did not yet have its blooms. In fact, it looked like it may be in need of some spring maintenance. Still, we were not disappointed! There were plenty of butterflies out along the trails, and there was plenty of trail to fill the afternoon.
The preserve has several miles of trails ranging in difficulty from "easy" to "hard" with most at a moderate level. You can do in-and-outs, loops, or chain several trails together without much (if any) double-tracking. imagine that this will also allow variety across multiple hikes. We chained together the Escarpment Road, Fossil Valley, and Cedar Break trails for a hike that lasted about 2-2.5 hours. The trails were rated moderate to difficult. We were able to manage all bits, although we felt challenged by parts of the difficult Fossil Valley trail. Its trick lies in its steep slopes, but plateaus and gentle slopes between the steeper bits allow time to recover.
Most of this hike is in wooded areas more reminiscent of the Hill Country than the Plains. This offers shade for much of the hike, although some bits are more exposed. There are a few crossings over streams and run-off paths; one we found had a spot to the side with a bench with a short (12") waterfall and a frog or two. A highlight of the preserve is the cattail pond, which is home to fish, ducks, and turtles. There are several look-out points that offer views back toward town and toward Joe Pool Lake. We think we did spot a fossil or two on the Fossil Valley trail - it was an impression of something in a rock, at least.
The trails are very well maintained and marked. (In fact, they have volunteers perform maintenance on the third Saturday of each month.) The trailhead has water fountains, bathrooms, and picnic tables. There's also the butterfly garden I alluded to earlier. Signs warn hikers to stick to the paths due to the presence of snakes in the area, including rattlesnakes, water moccasins, copperheads, and coral snakes. We did not encounter any snakes although another hiker on the trail warned us that he saw a rattler in the middle of the trail. (MJ suggests that he might have been trying to impress the two ladies who crossed his path first.) There were a fair number of people out but the trail never felt crowded - so long as you weren't looking to feel isolated, it was a comfortable balance of solitude and community.
All in all, an excellent hike that we look forward to doing again. A.
(My current "avatar" is a picture from this hike.)
Cedar Ridge Preserve
Site: Cedar Ridge Preserve, Dallas, TX
Managed by: Audubon Dallas
Cost: $3 donation requested
Time of hike: Early spring afternoon, weekend
Weather: Sunny and warm
I found this site by a simple google search for Dallas hikes and was interested in checking it out on the promise of butterflies and wildflowers. We were a little early for the wildflowers - they were ready to start blooming and there were some patches of bluebonnets decorating the entrance but they just weren't out in full yet. And the butterfly garden did not yet have its blooms. In fact, it looked like it may be in need of some spring maintenance. Still, we were not disappointed! There were plenty of butterflies out along the trails, and there was plenty of trail to fill the afternoon.
The preserve has several miles of trails ranging in difficulty from "easy" to "hard" with most at a moderate level. You can do in-and-outs, loops, or chain several trails together without much (if any) double-tracking. imagine that this will also allow variety across multiple hikes. We chained together the Escarpment Road, Fossil Valley, and Cedar Break trails for a hike that lasted about 2-2.5 hours. The trails were rated moderate to difficult. We were able to manage all bits, although we felt challenged by parts of the difficult Fossil Valley trail. Its trick lies in its steep slopes, but plateaus and gentle slopes between the steeper bits allow time to recover.
Most of this hike is in wooded areas more reminiscent of the Hill Country than the Plains. This offers shade for much of the hike, although some bits are more exposed. There are a few crossings over streams and run-off paths; one we found had a spot to the side with a bench with a short (12") waterfall and a frog or two. A highlight of the preserve is the cattail pond, which is home to fish, ducks, and turtles. There are several look-out points that offer views back toward town and toward Joe Pool Lake. We think we did spot a fossil or two on the Fossil Valley trail - it was an impression of something in a rock, at least.
The trails are very well maintained and marked. (In fact, they have volunteers perform maintenance on the third Saturday of each month.) The trailhead has water fountains, bathrooms, and picnic tables. There's also the butterfly garden I alluded to earlier. Signs warn hikers to stick to the paths due to the presence of snakes in the area, including rattlesnakes, water moccasins, copperheads, and coral snakes. We did not encounter any snakes although another hiker on the trail warned us that he saw a rattler in the middle of the trail. (MJ suggests that he might have been trying to impress the two ladies who crossed his path first.) There were a fair number of people out but the trail never felt crowded - so long as you weren't looking to feel isolated, it was a comfortable balance of solitude and community.
All in all, an excellent hike that we look forward to doing again. A.
(My current "avatar" is a picture from this hike.)
Cedar Ridge Preserve
Saturday, April 2, 2011
The Influence of Democracy and Food
This is a hard year for state governments across the country as they look to balance budgets and Texas is no different. Or perhaps we are; the legislature is only in session for five months every two year term. So now is time when most of the work of the state gets done. Your local government practices may differ.
Two years ago, and closer to the end of the session when things are rushed to get them passed, I wrote to several legislators across the state in protest of an addendum to a bill that would limit who could practice lighting design in the state. It was a rather large lobbying effort in a short amount of time that swamped phones in Austin and resulted in the language being dropped. I generally get annoyed by the idea of lobbying groups (so often it's about money and "pork"), but it was truly exciting to be involved. Anyway, because of that, I was added to the mailing list for my state representative. And generally, that's been neat.
My representative sends out a monthly update email of her activities when the legislature is not in session and weekly ones while it is. It's a quick blurb to keep her constituents updates on what's going on and what she, specifically, is involved in. Whether or not I agree with her positions, I appreciate her effort to stay in communication with the folks "back home" and decided to test her claim (in every email) that she wanted to hear back from us, the voters.
I learned about a gathering by the Organic Consumers Association in Austin to spread awareness and raise support for a bill to label food products that use GMOs. It's an interesting issue. A growing number of crops in our country are genetically modified to "improve" them in some fashion - make them more resistant to fungi and diseases, increase yield, make them resistant to specific herbicides for easier weed control, and similar ideas. The difficulty in this is that it's not clear what effect, if any, these modifications have on us when we consume GMO products. (It shouldn't take much web-searching to find arguments saying that these products are safe and are dangerous!) Furthermore, most Americans do not realize how much of their food is affected by GMO use; GMOs are used extensively in soybeans, canola, cotton, and corn crops, and are starting to gain acceptance in things like sugar beats. (Proteins aren't exempt, either.) The campaign is to alert consumers as to what products contain genetically modified organisms so that they can decide whether or not they want to buy them. Companies using GMOs worry that such awareness will decrease sales and be similar to putting a poison sticker on the side of the container. If that's true, doesn't that mean they already know what consumers want? I don't mean to oversimplify; it really is a complicated question and one that quickly moves from "Do I feel this is a safe ingredient for me and my family?" to "Who has the big pockets that are benefiting from this?" and questions of ethics.
So...I decided to send my representative a note about the upcoming event in Austin and encourage her to consider Truth in Labeling legislation as well as GMO labeling. I wanted it to be something on her radar, realizing there are a lot of balls in the air right now (and some of them, like balanced budgets, education, and arts funding pretty important ones, indeed). What I did not expect was a letter in a the mail within a week thanking me for sharing my views. It's a brief six sentences but specific to my topic and shows that at least someone in her office read my email and took the time to let me know. "I will consider your views...Please continue to communicate your thoughts on issues that are important to you." Perhaps a bit of a throw-away sentiment, but not something that needed to be sent to me at all. I doubt that anything will come from this particular contact (there's no such legislation in the works for Texas right now), but it leaves me feeling encouraged to stay engaged. (And the letterhead says "The State of Texas House of Representatives", which is pretty cool.)
So, my hope for what you take away from this - a representative government will only represent you if you take the time to try to let it. Get in contact with your state and federal representatives and learn what they're doing. And, consider letting them know what you'd like them to do, too.
I'll talk more about food in other messages. Here are some resources in the meanwhile:
World Health Organization on GMOs
Organic Consumers Association
FDA on voluntary labeling
Two years ago, and closer to the end of the session when things are rushed to get them passed, I wrote to several legislators across the state in protest of an addendum to a bill that would limit who could practice lighting design in the state. It was a rather large lobbying effort in a short amount of time that swamped phones in Austin and resulted in the language being dropped. I generally get annoyed by the idea of lobbying groups (so often it's about money and "pork"), but it was truly exciting to be involved. Anyway, because of that, I was added to the mailing list for my state representative. And generally, that's been neat.
My representative sends out a monthly update email of her activities when the legislature is not in session and weekly ones while it is. It's a quick blurb to keep her constituents updates on what's going on and what she, specifically, is involved in. Whether or not I agree with her positions, I appreciate her effort to stay in communication with the folks "back home" and decided to test her claim (in every email) that she wanted to hear back from us, the voters.
I learned about a gathering by the Organic Consumers Association in Austin to spread awareness and raise support for a bill to label food products that use GMOs. It's an interesting issue. A growing number of crops in our country are genetically modified to "improve" them in some fashion - make them more resistant to fungi and diseases, increase yield, make them resistant to specific herbicides for easier weed control, and similar ideas. The difficulty in this is that it's not clear what effect, if any, these modifications have on us when we consume GMO products. (It shouldn't take much web-searching to find arguments saying that these products are safe and are dangerous!) Furthermore, most Americans do not realize how much of their food is affected by GMO use; GMOs are used extensively in soybeans, canola, cotton, and corn crops, and are starting to gain acceptance in things like sugar beats. (Proteins aren't exempt, either.) The campaign is to alert consumers as to what products contain genetically modified organisms so that they can decide whether or not they want to buy them. Companies using GMOs worry that such awareness will decrease sales and be similar to putting a poison sticker on the side of the container. If that's true, doesn't that mean they already know what consumers want? I don't mean to oversimplify; it really is a complicated question and one that quickly moves from "Do I feel this is a safe ingredient for me and my family?" to "Who has the big pockets that are benefiting from this?" and questions of ethics.
So...I decided to send my representative a note about the upcoming event in Austin and encourage her to consider Truth in Labeling legislation as well as GMO labeling. I wanted it to be something on her radar, realizing there are a lot of balls in the air right now (and some of them, like balanced budgets, education, and arts funding pretty important ones, indeed). What I did not expect was a letter in a the mail within a week thanking me for sharing my views. It's a brief six sentences but specific to my topic and shows that at least someone in her office read my email and took the time to let me know. "I will consider your views...Please continue to communicate your thoughts on issues that are important to you." Perhaps a bit of a throw-away sentiment, but not something that needed to be sent to me at all. I doubt that anything will come from this particular contact (there's no such legislation in the works for Texas right now), but it leaves me feeling encouraged to stay engaged. (And the letterhead says "The State of Texas House of Representatives", which is pretty cool.)
So, my hope for what you take away from this - a representative government will only represent you if you take the time to try to let it. Get in contact with your state and federal representatives and learn what they're doing. And, consider letting them know what you'd like them to do, too.
I'll talk more about food in other messages. Here are some resources in the meanwhile:
World Health Organization on GMOs
Organic Consumers Association
FDA on voluntary labeling
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