DC Harvest

He was Pushed!

The perils of CSA deliveries.

We had seedless sugar baby watermelons last week. I managed to drop only one of them; I opened the back of the van and it escaped. For the delivery I laid all of them out on the grass and let people pick theirs. One shareholder came around with, as he usually does, his five-year-old son. Paul had a good deal of fun rolling them around in the grass, which I did not mind at all. But then he picked one up and hurled it. Without my having to say a word about it the boy’s father scolded him, “We do not throw the watermelons! That one’s ours now.” he said picking up the cracked fruit. I felt relieved; the dad did not ask if there were any extra he could take instead of the damaged one. A small example of a responsible shareholder and parent.

No more sweet potatoes!

Our fruit share is not grown on the farm; Leigh goes out once or twice a week to the orchards and farms in his area and purchases peaches, apples, and such from them. It is still local fruit, and still community supported agriculture and he is upfront about the arrangement when people sign on.

So he and his wife, Wenonah, were out at one of these orchards when Wenonah noticed that the farmer had crates and crates of potatoes. She asked what he was planning on doing with them. “I’ve got so many, I don’t know where I’m going to sell them” he said. It has, I believe, been a banner year for potatoes in Virginia. My sister-in-law’s CSA has given her so many potatoes that she is pretty much sick of them, ‘I’m potatoes everyday. Sometimes twice a day. Potato soup, potato salad….” she went on a while, suffice it to say, she has been getting a LOT of potatoes in her share.

Wenonah decided that these potatoes might be a good addition to the shares this week, so they drove off with a few crates. They’re relatively small, but tasty, sort of like new potatoes, and boil up quite quickly.

They are also a welcome departure from the sweet potatoes which have been a staple of OUR shares the past few weeks!