Who knew the highlight of my weekend would be a plain cardboard box?

That’s because it has all this gorgeous, fresh, organic produce in it!

This is our very first CSA box. What’s that, you ask? Well let me tell you, and please pardon the babbling enthusiasm!

“CSA” is an acronym for “Community-Supported Agriculture.” (I found out about it through Giselle, who had left a comment on one of my earlier vegetable posts.) Through the South Central Los Angeles Farmer’s Coop, $15/week buys me a small share of an organic farm out in Bakersfield. This means a box of locally sourced, in season, picked-fresh, all-organic vegetables!

I can do this as a weekly subscription and get a box of new vegetables every week, delivered to a location close to my home for me to pick up. I can choose to do this every other week instead, if I feel like I’m buried in vegetables. The terms are flexible (you can pay $20 or $25 as well, depending on what you can afford), the money goes directly to my farmer, and I have access to enough vegetables that can feed a family of four for a week or a couple for two weeks.

Part of the charm is that I don’t know what I’m going to get in the box exactly, but what I do know is that everything is picked at their peak. I’m discovering all these new vegetables I wouldn’t think of buying at my local market. The CSA is a great introduction to all these nutritious alternatives, and just in this week’s box, most were vegetables I’ve never cooked with before.

There are many other CSAs for Los Angeles. For more information on those and to find out what CSAs are available in your region elsewhere in the U.S., go HERE.

Lots of healthy cooking up ahead, which should be awesome for my “Eat Your Vegetables” project!