Why I Support CSA

By Alexis Markowitz

As we receive our first box of the season, I’d like to share with you the reason I support CSA:  what my family eats is really important to me. One of my favorite quotes is by Hippocrates, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Being a part of CSA helps me nourish my family with the best possible organic, local and seasonal foods, free of the pesticides, genetic engineering and carbon footprint that are so prevalent in our food supply today.

Both my husband and I work in the kitchen professionally and have the privilege of working directly with farmers and using amazing ingredients all the time. We want that same experience when cooking at home. Just like in the restaurant, when you start with quality ingredients, you don’t have to work as hard to make them taste good. A tomato that was picked that morning, traveled only a couple of hours, then sat on your countertop for a day or two is divine with only a sprinkling of sea salt and a beautiful olive oil. A tomato that was picked before its peak so that it could travel halfway around the world under refrigeration tastes like cardboard and needs a lot more help to become delicious. We also want our children to grow up with an appreciation for real food. We want them to eagerly anticipate the first peach of the season or late summer ratatouille, and to understand that they may not be able to eat cherries all year round.

There are less romantic reasons why I support CSA as well.  Getting a box of goodies once a week is easy. Going to the market with 2 small children is not easy. I’ve sworn to my husband countless times that I would never go food shopping again after a particularly harrowing trip through the aisles, so anything that alleviates that is welcome to me. It’s also fun to anticipate what will be in the box. I love how a meal takes shape based around ingredients we have to use. It gets us out of the routine that is so easily fallen into.

We also feel it’s important to support the farmers that work so hard for such little reward to bring us this food. CSA is a huge part of what allows them to keep doing what they do.

Lastly, we are excited for the Community part of it all. I look forward to meeting all of the members and learning their reasons for supporting CSA.