Fresh on the Doorstep

Our first haul from Arganica.

Being more conscious of where our food comes from can be a taxing effort and I'm not even close to pinning down the source on every item I ingest or purchase. However, in an effort to eat more local and support our local/regional farmers we've joined Arganica. A bit of a spin on a CSA, this group gives us what we loved about the easy organic delivery from Washington Green Grocer with a commitment to buying local. 

Oh, and did I mention an awesome list of additional items we can add to our order every week? We did a four week trial run and we're definitely hooked. Yes, we're paying more for vegetables than if we just went to the store. I've read and referred to this myself as a "yuppie tax."

Here is my justification. If we can't increase the demand for locally sourced foods, the supply isn't going to increase and we can't achieve any economies of scale to impact the supply chain in our markets. In addition, it forces me to plan our weekly menus around fresh, seasonal vegetables. This has required me to be open to researching and cooking some veggies I would not readily purchase. No it's not all kale.

In fact there's a delicata squash waiting for me to figure out how to cook next week. Luckily it has a long shelf life so I can tackle the familiar butternut squash this week.

Also, having a magic delivery person leave a box on your front door step on a Sunday morning is a great way to kick off the week. The double smoked bacon, Belgian chocolate milk and local butter we added to our order last week didn't hurt either. It may just be the best bacon we've ever had. Full stop.