Slow Food Cape Town CSA

SUMMER 2010 VEGGIE CSA: WEEK 8

Posted by Kate | Filed under Reports, Summer 2010

Dear CSA members

This is week eight of the Summer 2010 CSA.

FARM OUTING: THE DRAMA CONTINUES

When I called Erick last week to confirm the outing last weekend, he was across the country at an agricultural conference. I’m guessing he thought we would cancel the outing again, as we did last time, and accepted an invitation to the conference without mentioning it to me. So we have rescheduled for the last time, for Saturday 27 March, at 1pm. As always, if you’d like to join us… let me know.

BEHIND THE SCENES

This is the fifth CSA we have run, and by far the most stressful for me. I say this because a CSA is a community project, not a business, where consumers have idea of what happens behind the scenes. Well, behind the CSA scenes I have been speaking with Erick almost every week, giving him feedback on the variety, quality and quantity in the weekly bag. I’ve been telling him things like, don’t put rocket and lettuce, or pumpkin and butternut, in the same bag, and over and over again – increase the quantities. But it doesn’t seem to stick, and while initially I was convinced it was a communication problem (Erick is Xhosa and I am English, and we meet halfway in Afrikaans, sometimes less than successfully), I am starting to think it is an attitude problem. So I told Erick last week that I just don’t feel like running another CSA with him immediately after this one. I need a break, and I think he needs a break too, to think about whether he wants to really commit  to a CSA model (where he is paid above-market prices in a lump sum to provide a veggie bag), or rather sell directly to shops and at the Stellenbosch Waldorf market, where he sells each item for a specific price.

But I’m not making longterm decisions in a vacuum, so you will still be asked for your opinion in our usual anonymous online feedback form, probably next week. So think meanwhile about whether you are happy with your CSA bag, and would want to continue in the future.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK: SAUTEED SPINACH WITH CHORIZO AND CHICKPEAS

Yes, I know – meat? It took us eight weeks to get there, but here is the first recipe of this CSA that calls for the non-veggie stuff. For vegetarians, I would obviously skip the chorizo and rather add chunks of cooked butternut at the end for a very different but still delicious dish. For meat eaters who are sadly chorizo-less, I would suggest some pancetta or even decent bacon as a substitute. The recipe is on the blog, here.

Enjoy your veggies!

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Comments (0) | March 16th, 2010