Are We Going to Be Farm Fresh?

Richard and I just had a "discussion" (I'm not sure that we fight like other people, but our discussions can get pretty loaded. This discussion centered around renewing our farm share. As I've blogged about for the last three years, I've really loved the farm share. During the summer, once a week, we get a 1/2 bushel of farm fresh vegetables (which were already washed for us). In the spring and fall, we would get a box every other week.

We knew that we were getting the stuff that was in season. We felt like we knew our farmers and what was going on in their lives. It introduced us to food we hadn't imagined before: kale, chard, fennel, bleeding heart radishes. It also supplied us with familiar food with much better taste: carrots, tomatoes, squash (which I hated as a kid). The food tasted wonderful and kept fresh way longer than anything that I've bought in a store (including organic stuff).

But there was a dark side to the farm share: It had to be picked up on Friday. We had until the end of the day on Friday to get it. If we were out of town, we needed to arrange someone else to get it or just let it go. We also got a lot of food. A lot. Spinach is pretty much always in season, so we continued to get bags and bags of spinach, long after we knew what to do with it. We made salads. We steamed it. We would make a stir-fry (our phrase for throwing a lot of vegetables in a pan). Still, the spinach would come. Same for other foods: asparagus in the early summer, radishes at the end of the year. We would have, what I called, "Vegetable backup" in the fridge. The food did stay fresh, but sometimes we would push it too far and have to throw something away.

So now, we are presented with the option to renew (at a significant discount for being current members). Richard doesn't want to deal with it any more. He thought that trying to get it and eat it caused a lot of stress. I liked it a lot, and would like to continue doing it.

First, what are your thoughts? Is it worth it?

Second, we think that a good compromise would be to share the membership with another home. If you are in our area, would you be open to splitting a farm share with us? If we can find someone else who lives nearby, then we are more likely to keep it. If not, then we'll probably forgo the farm share.

I realize that many of you don't live near me, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the farm share. Let's start a discussion.