I will shock you now, and post about something that isn't about the girls. A couple of months ago I started to rethink the way we do veggies. When I say do, I mean buy them. Of course in a perfect world we would be growing all that we need. But our world is not perfect. Far from it in fact. We both work, look after the girls, throw in looking after the household chores etc I admit we don't have lot of time to spend in our veggie garden. Not as much as Rob would like. Also Rob would be the first to admit that his garden is for more ornamental pleasure than sustaining our family of four per se.
Last summer was so dry and hot. We had to stop watering everything but the most precious plants as we still haven't set up a pump from the dam. Buying in tankfuls of water just seemed a bit extravagant. We did have a few great crops; the cherries and raspberries, a lone eggplant that was surprisingly prolific and basil. But we have to supplement our home grown produce with shop bought vegetables and fruit.
I was starting to feel a little guilty about the provenance of the vegetables I was buying. Our weekends are precious, and whilst I would love to head to a produce market every weekend, the time and effort with the two girls was just not an option. That's when I remembered a local co-op
Channel Living. They have a weekly veggie box subscription. In mid-June we joined up and now I can't imagine our sourcing our veggies in any other way. We pick up our box on Friday at the co-op (they do offer delivery to a few places in the Channel) and it has fast become our favourite day of the week. Looking forward to the fresh produce in the box and working out how we are going to cook and eat them.
We have tried new vegetables that we would never have bought if they hadn't been in the box. The food is fresh, locally grown and either certified organic or grown by those with organic methods. I feel so much better knowing we are supporting local producers and that our veggies haven't travelled a long way to us. Whilst I admit we still buy the occasional veggie from elsewhere if we feel we really need something that wasn't in the box, I don't really like to do it. It has to be a very specific and needed ingredient or craving!
Rob and I have been taking photos of our weekly boxes and sharing them on the Channel Living Facebook and my Instagram feed. In doing so I have come across a hashtag community supported agriculture, or CSA for short. What a fantastic concept of sourcing local vegetables from reputable growers.
I will try to share our photos more often, but here are our favourites so far.
