Fun on the Farm!

I am so excited about this post!!  As some of you may know, about two years ago I made my first real 'green' lifestyle choice for my family and I to eat as organically as possible.  This led to an overall healthier diet and later snowballed into other 'green' choices like non-toxic planet friendly household cleaners, and an effort to minimize needless waste my family produces.  You can read about my early thoughts on the subject here.  The decision to eat mostly organic foods has made me more aware of where my produce comes from and the importance of buying locally is always in the back of my mind when picking out those beautiful apples, oranges, and zucchinis, etc.  Most urban areas have pretty good farmer's markets where you can buy from the grower.  But even still, it's not always organic. 

Our current home is seriously in the country.  At least it seems pretty country to some one who grew up in San Diego.  Just about every time I leave my house I literally drive past farms growing great veggies.  I was thrilled to find West Produce soon after moving here, along with their own produce, neighboring farms sell here too.  But I still wanted something even more direct.  In comes my awesome neighbor, Molly.  We have very similar thoughts on this subject and a couple of weeks ago she called me and said 'hey check out the website http://www.localharvest.org/  So I did, and quickly became obsessed with it!  It's basically an AMAZING nationwide database where you can type in your zip code and magically all the local working farms near you pop up.  From there you can find a farm that suits your needs and arrange to meet your farmer and start eating off the farm! 

We immediately agreed to get involved in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.  The way it works is you pay the farmer upfront for a share in their bounty.  (each farm sets their own price and rules for a share)  And then you get a weekly box of seasonal produce for the entire farming season!  How awesome is that?!?  We chose a small family owned and operated farmstead called Lone Pine Sustainable Farmstead.  For the next 20 WEEKS Molly and I are going to be sharing a box, and since both our husbands are currently deployed our farmer, Rob, offered to deliver the box to our doorstep every Wednesday! 

Last Wednesday Molly and I wanted to visit the farm to pick up our first box.  Mainly to meet Rob at his farm and check out just where our veggies were coming from.  When we got there I don't know who was more excited, Molly and I or Kayla and Sam!

Just look at all that fresh organic produce, isn't it beautiful!!

The kids had a blast running after the happy, healthy, free range chickens.  Chickens that will now be providing us with farm fresh eggs :)!

They also loved up on the barn cat....

and visited with the sweet goats....this one was only a week old!  So cute!

It was sooooo hard to get a good photo of these two because they were just to focused on exploring the farm.

Our first box!  Under all those those awesome greens are cucumbers, radishes, zucchini, and two different types of yellow squash. YUM!

I'm telling you, I am so stoked to be doing this.  It's really a splendid feeling to start a relationship my farm and know that my money is going directly to the farmer, no middle man.  In turn I now have the most fresh, organic, and nutrient rich produce on my table every night.  And it didn't travel hundreds of miles to get there!  And it's true with what they say about getting kids involved.  Kayla went to the farm, met farmer Rob and saw the box come home with us.  When I told her the squash on her plate was from the farm she was SO excited and ate EVERY bite! 

I challenge you to check out http://www.localharvest.org/ .  I think you'll be surprised at just how many small local working farms are in your area!