Jumped on the CSA Wagon Yesterday

I have been researching CSAs for the last two years and took the plunge and bought a share for the 2008 season. 20 weeks to be exact. I split it 3ways to lower the cost and am pretty exited about it; less than $12/wk is hardly going to break the bank for some quality produce. I spoke with one of the farmers for about 20min and it was a pretty interesting conversation. With gas prices through the roof and an overall unsavory and far from local food supply, I am happy to support a local economy and feel good about the implications of spending a little bit more, but getting a much better product.

Here's the farm I went with.

Almost stepped on the bugger...

It was a close call for this warty amphibian. I was walking to the backyard to put some trash in the can and as I just happen to glance down, I see this thing jump...."Woah!" says I and I pivot out of its way and jet back inside and grab my cam and run back and the thing is on its way into the street. I crouch and shoot. My neighbors probably thought I was out of my mind. I let it hop away and into the night it disappeared.

The bag lady was right all along....

In an effort to reduce my contribution to adding plastic trash to the earth, I have been utilizing 2-3 medium-sized cloth bags on my weekly shopping trips for groceries for the last month. I have already slashed the amount of plastic bags in the house by a significant amount. The bags are useful for small trash cans we have in the basement and under the kitchen sink, but I have not needed to add to the large amount that I have accumulated for the last few years and kept hidden since I never wanted to throw them away. I should have converted to reusable bags much earlier, but since I was just lazy in that respect, I failed to do so, but now that I am doing that, I don't know why more people don't do the same. Some stores already charge for using them and since Euros are much more concerned about the environment than the average american, you find higher usage of reusable bags for shopping. Whole Foods will eliminate plastic bags in about two weeks. Think of the implications to the earth if Walmart or Best Lie (thanks D; I still laugh using that description) had a policy like this in place.

Once again, americans need to wake up and think about tomorrow....