Taproot Farm CSA

I signed up for the core (smallest) vegetable share from Taproom Farm, PA’s CSA for Summer/Fall 2016, an accompanying mushroom share, cheese share, fruit share and bread share. I thought that my family could simplify our grocery shopping while expanding our palettes to include a variety of veggies, mushrooms and cheeses and whole grains. It is also a good followup to my healthy cooking on a budget class from last Spring.

Even though I could probably live off cheddar and mozzarella 4eva, I have enjoyed the varieties of cheeses that come in my CSA share from Valley Milkhouse. The bread is preservative free, whole grain loafs from The Daily Loaf. The mushrooms come as one variety a week from Primordia Mushroom Farm. The fruit share from County Line Orchard is abundant.

I have to admit that CSA shares are not cheap and they are quite limiting since you can’t pick what you want to eat. It’s an exercise in letting the harvest pick for you – which is what should probably be done for maximum health benefits. I found that by adding the extras to my small veggie share, I end up getting a variety of items to round out my grocery list and it comes in under budget. I end up getting most of the ingredients in the excellent recipes that Taproot Farm shares via email each week to go with their harvest, and I still have a few dollars left a week for can’t live without goodies from the supermarket.

Although we only get 5 vegetable varieties a week, we don’t even eat that many! There were growing pains in the beginning of this CSA adventure to get myself and the family to eat more vegetables and whole grains. The recipes that Taproot shares with their CSA members are very helpful!!! And I have also ventured into fermenting the excess. More on that later.