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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Eating What's Inside the Box

A single week's fruits and vegetables from com...Image via Wikipedia

I've taken a plunge in a new direction in my adventures in fibro-friendly cooking and eating. An opportunity presented itself at Robert's work and I got him to buy in after much cajoling. It's got us both eating what's inside the box and we may be healthier for it.

What am I talking about?

We now purchase a bi-weekly organic produce box from South Central Farmer's Cooperative Community Supported Agriculture.

I wanted to do this ever since I watched Huell Howser's California Green episode Organic Farm. Huell visited the organic farm run by the students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and learned about the community supported agriculture program there. I watched them load weekly boxes with just harvested succulent red, orange and yellow bell peppers and my mouth started watering. I learned at the end of the program that they did not deliver their boxes to Los Angeles and was disappointed.

So when Robert told me one of his green-conscious co-workers was looking for participants for a bi-weekly produce box program, I said, "Sign us up!" He balked. I let it go but asked a few weeks later, "Did your co-worker get enough people to sign up for the produce box program?" At this point, he relented, explaining, "I see how much you pay for produce at the grocery store. If you can use all the produce in the box, we can try it out."

I am enjoying the surprise of getting a box every other week and not knowing what will be inside. Last week we got:

  • carrots
  • beets
  • radishes
  • red romaine lettuce
  • Bloomsdale spinach
  • red onions
  • cilantro
  • a whole variety of greens like kale, collard greens and mustard greens

This is, after all, greens season, and I am getting real good at incorporating the greens into dishes like Selena's crockpot chicken soup, broccoli and greens mac 'n' cheese, Venetian veal chops and my crockpot breakfast egg casserole. Of course, I also made a crock full of Southern style greens too. And surprise, surprise, my vegetable phobic hubby actually ate some greens.


Now I guess if I really wanted to, I could have been going to the local farmer's market all along to get produce like this. But the thought of getting up early (most farmer's markets here operate from 9 am to 2 PM), getting there and navigating the crowds with my mobility scooter made the trip daunting. That said, nothing beats having Robert bring a box home with him from work every other week. This is definitely very fibro-friendly for me: I get my organic farmer's market produce without having to go to the farmer's market.

I'll post some more comfort food recipes in the next few weeks with my "add some greens" twist to them so you can try adding more veggies to your diet too. For those of you in the Los Angeles area, check out South Central Farmer's Cooperative Community Supported Agriculture's website for drop off locations from Pasadena to Long Beach. Support them and you too can start eating what's inside the box.

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