Community Supported Agriculture

We had a request from a fan for a post about Community Supported Agriculture – CSA – so here it is! Let us know if there’s a topic you want us to cover in an upcoming post!

What is Community Supported Agriculture?

In a CSA, farmers offer a number of “shares” to local community members at the beginning of the season. When community members purchase a share and join the CSA, they enter into a type of shared risk pool with the farmer and the other members. Throughout the season on a weekly basis, the farmer delivers to the CSA members their share of the week’s produce. Shares usually consist of a variety of vegetables, but in some CSAs farmers give their members the option of receiving fruit, dairy, or even meat with their delivery. The produce is all organic, but because of the lower cost of distribution, the cost of a CSA share is comparable to what you would pay in your grocery store (AND it comes with an added perk – since the food is grown locally, you can feel better about your carbon footprint!). The cost of a share is a few hundred dollars for the entire season (paid up front), and each share could feed a family of two to four people for a week (depending on your vegetable consumption).

What you get in your weekly delivery depends on what’s in season, and changes in type and volume throughout the season. Earlier in the season you might get more leafy greens, while at the end of the season you might find yourself with broccoli, squash, and potatoes. The season is typically 14-20 weeks long and runs from late spring until early fall.

Of course, belonging to a CSA isn’t always peachy keen. One big part of entering a CSA is the risk you share with the other members and the farmer. If production is low one season – due to pests, a draught, or whatever – you share the loss with the other members and won’t get as much in your weekly delivery. Also, in many CSAs members are required to pick up their shares at a certain place and time every week. This allows for less flexibility than buying your veggies at the grocery store. Because all the food is locally grown, you miss out on many produce items that you’re used to buying whenever you want at your grocery store (many CSA members supplement their shares with fruits and vegetables that aren’t available locally). On the flip side, you may find that you incorporate new kinds of veggies into your diet that you wouldn’t normally eat.

Some CSAs require volunteering hours. This may involve volunteering at a farm stand, assisting with deliveries, or even helping out on the farm. While this may seem like a hassle at first, many CSA members find that they feel more connected and involved with the farm when they volunteer. Children especially enjoy visiting the farm to see where their food comes from.

How can I find a CSA in my area?

Here at TBSC we’re a big fan of CSA and we encourage our readers to look into it for themselves. And this blog post comes at just the right time, as the start of the next season is only a few weeks away! To find the CSA nearest you, LocalHarvest.org is a great resource. Eat healthy! Support local business! Save the planet!

Readers, do you have any experience with CSAs? Share them with us in the comments section!

The Bitches are Cooking - Are You?

And we’re back…

The Bitch Stopped Cooking took a little hiatus from blogging. Sorry to keep you waiting. Maria’s challenge to not buy any food out was a hard act to follow! Hopefully you all enjoyed her posts. If you haven't read them, check them out starting here.

We here at TBSC have noticed a bit of irony in our cooking lives. Since starting this little business devoted to the culinary liberation of women, the three of us, all women (a.k.a. bitches), have actually begun to cook MORE! Isn’t this a business to support women who want to cook LESS? What we realized is that our actual purpose, what we really want to do, is get everyone back in the kitchen. Not just women. So, the bitch may not get to completely stop cooking, but hopefully we might help other people in the house begin their own adventure in the kitchen. We want everyone in there – the women, the men, the kids!

Looks like we’re not alone…

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and recently published, Food Rules, was recently interviewed by The Huffington Post. The interview covered a variety of food related topics, such as sugar and high fructose corn syrup, going without meat from feed-lots, and most interesting to us at TBSC – men in the kitchen. Pollan says, “I think it's a big challenge to get men back into the kitchen. There is some evidence that with this generation of young people it’s happening to a greater extent -- the percentage of men who are cooking is up, and if we're going to rehabilitate cooking and recreate a culture of cooking in this country it's going to have to be shared, not just by husbands and wives, but by children as well. “ Yes, Michael, we agree!

Jamie Oliver, celebrity hunk-chef, is fully involved with his Food Revolution movement. He believes that America can beat its obesity problem and a huge component of the solution is, you guessed it, getting everyone back in the kitchen. In his Platform for Change: Why America Needs a Food Revolution – Now, he states that “we have lost cooking skills in the home. “ He continues, “Cooking skills give people a basic knowledge of food and help them make more informed decisions about what to eat. Without these skills, people have no choice but to eat fast food and processed meals.” One of his suggestions for how we, the public, can make a difference is “If you can cook, teach others. If you can’t cook, learn how.” There are so many resources out there for learning how to cook. Local adult education classes, your mother, your friend who is a chef, the neighbor down the street who is a killer (no pun intended) barbecue master. Ask them for tips. Hold a cooking class at your house. Cook together. With friends, with family. It's fun!

It’s exciting being a part of this “food revolution”. We didn’t start TBSC because of it, but we have happily discovered that our timing seems to be just right. We look forward to the future- to seeing the growth of cooking within families. Hopefully we will work ourselves out of a job and in the future the men will do the cooking. But, more importantly, hopefully we will all cook together. What’s next for you? What will you do this week to get yourself back in the kitchen or get someone you love in there with you? What will you learn? What will you teach?

Photo credit: Michael Pollan photo taken by Alia Malley. Check out her website.

Earth Hour 2010

What is this boring picture, you ask?

It's Las Vegas during Earth Hour last year! Two thirds of the The Bitch Stopped Cooking team were there last year to see the entire strip go dark for an hour to save electricity and bring awareness to climate change.

Tonight, March 27 at 8:30pm EST, join the millions of people around the world who are turning off their lights for an hour.

If Vegas can do it, so can you!

For more information, check out www.earthhour.org

Maria's Challenge - The Aftermath

So I finished my challenge and was feeling pretty good about it. I made my own coffee on Monday, brought some lunch, and then things started to taper off. I bought iced coffee on Tuesday, then was at school for 12.5 hours and brought NOTHING to eat... So I ate out. And then Wednesday was my birthday so Dan brought me breakfast and I bought myself iced coffee. THEN we went out to dinner on Wednesday night to the Atlantic Fish Company and right after we sat down, the smoke alarms starting going off. No, not going off, BLARING. So we sat there... and waited... (no one got up! did these people not go to elementary school?!) We finally employed sign language to order some drinks, and then sat there looking over the menu, unable to converse (it was SO loud.) I kept expecting it to just turn off the next minute, which is why we didn't leave, but it went on for FORTY FIVE MINUTES. We realized that it was probably the eating-out gods and goddesses punishing me for trying to eat out. It was pretty funny. We enjoyed our dinner... ate lobster and steak until we couldn't move, and then ate some dessert until we really couldn't move. It was all delicious (although Dan's filet tasted so much like the smell of IKEA that I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to) and despite the sensorineural hearing loss we had a great night.

Another exciting thing is that for my birthday my friend Gina gave me a Dunkin Donuts gift card so that now I can buy REAL iced coffee in REAL cups without being plagued with guilt. Thanks Gina!

Challenging the Bitches: Maria's Challange - Day 7&8

I’m done! After Friday’s mishap, I redeemed myself on Saturday and Sunday. We went down to the Cape on Saturday and in the morning, for the first time ever when going to the Cape, I didn’t get iced coffee in the morning. I MADE iced coffee again! Check out how delicious it looks. I brought some for the ride as well, in those handy Au Bon Pain cups. For breakfast I had some peanut butter and crackers and some dried cranberries. I think they put drugs in the dried cranberries. Crackberries.

When we got to the cape, my mommy made us French toast. She is the best French toast maker in the universe. As you may know, the is the original bitch that stopped cooking, so this was extra special. For dinner we had delicious baked scrod. Again, the bitch momentarily started cooking again. And it was so good. My sister Julia and her boyfriend made the Dr. Pepper chocolate cake from the Dinosaur BBQ cookbook. So good. I was expecting it to taste a lot like Dr. Pepper, but it didn’t. It was so good. My other sister, Hannah, made a berry and custard trifle. So good!

The next morning for breakfast we had a delicious brunch of an egg scramble, crepes, and Belgian waffles and bacon and sausage. So amazing. That also counted as lunch. We left in the evening and were still pretty full from brunch (and the extra pound of trifle I ate in the afternoon). Around 9 we had some frozen pizza. This whole challenge I was wondering whether frozen pizza was acceptable, but I think it is. It is $5 for one, and it feeds two people, so if we had gone out instead we would have spent so much more money.

All in all, this challenge was really interesting and actually not all that hard. Given, much of my motivation came from the idea of the challenge. In real life, I would probably break down at many points. I am now much more aware of how much money I spend on eating out and I think that this challenge will definitely make me cook a whole lot more at home. I think one of the most important things to consider is the amount of money you spend on this food that is so temporary. In a week, you will completely forget your $11 lunch today, and you might as well have brought a peanut butter and jelly.

I am definitely going to continue to try to cook more things at night that I can bring leftovers of the next day. That’s a huge money saver. I am also going to make big batches of soup, lasagna, etc. and freeze them in individual portions for days when I have nothing to bring for lunch.

And I am going to try really hard to cut down on the iced coffee. Really. I am probably not going to bring that ridiculous orange cup with the baggie over it again, but I am going to tone it down on the coffee purchases. You can hold me to that.

Challenging the Bitches: Maria's Challenge - Day 6

It was a challenge, not a promise.

I don't know if you've ever had cheese steak spring rolls from Burtons Grill, but you'd blow it too. More on that later.

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous out again, so I knew iced coffee was inevitable. I still had some left in the fridge from the day before. BUT, my wonderful boyfriend has this horrible tendency to load the dishwasher until it is completely full, and then shut the door. and walk away. So I go over and I'm like, Sweet! the sink is empty! Dan did the dishes! and I open the dishwasher and it's all food-y and dirty-y. Maybe he thinks the dishwasher has a sensor and when it senses it is full it turns on. What he doesn't know is that sensor is named Maria. (Now I will find out if he really reads our blog like he says he does.) So anyways, I have plenty of iced coffee, but those cool iced coffee cups I got from Au Bon Pain are dirty. (I have had a dishwasher my entire life, and it is just occurring to me now that I could have just taken them out and washed them by hand. But then I wouldn't get to show you this silly picture.) Any other day I would have abandoned the idea and gone to Dunkin Donuts for my fix. But you won't let me. So I found this ridiculous plastic orange cup that I probably bought in college and I found a complementary colored elastic and affixed a baggie over the top. I took a yellow straw and poked a hole in the baggie and was on my way. All the other kids laughed at me when I got to school. The coffee was delicious, though! I also had a TJ's greek yogurt for breakfast.

I had TJ's dried cranberries and a Nature Valley peanut butter granola bar for snacks.

For lunch I had leftover pasta and sauce and sauce-age from the night before. It was okay. I either have a cold or allergies, so my appetite and taste buds are shot, so eating was sort of just a chore. If I hadn't brought lunch I don't think I would have bought lunch. I probably would have just not eaten and survived off of post nasal drip.

And there ends the success with my challenge. I went home and then went back into the city to get my hair done. They have complimentary champagne there, which I had, but I don't think that's cheating. Then I went next door at met some friends at Burtons. My boyfriend is a bartender there and he bought my drink*. Then we went and sat down at a table and when it was my turn to look at the waitress and say something, somehow the words, "Philly cheese steak spring rolls and a mojito" came out of my mouth. The previous activities may have been excusable, but I absolutely violated the challenge here. The spring rolls were delicious. And the mojito was PERFECT. And I spent $25. My friends all said they wouldn't tell on me, but this is a challenge, not a look-at-me-I-can-do-everything-enge. So yes, I blew it. BUT, I am going to extend the challenge one extra day to make up for it. Also, what was I expecting, meeting friends at 8pm? NOT to get something to eat?

So then we went down to Game On and Katie bought me a drink and then the second round I wasn't drinking anything** so I bought her drink. Maybe excusable, since my drink was sort of paid for through an IOU?

Our waitress at Game On (yeah, you, grouchy gretta) totally sucked and then she threw our bill at us so we left and took a couple cabs home.

So I was not successful in not eating or drinking anything from a restaurant. But now the challenge will be 8 days instead of 7. Also, I think bringing that ridiculous homemade coffee cup thing to school scored me some challenge points.

One important thing to think about is not only the money I have saved not getting coffee every day, but also the plastic cups. I am definitely going to try to tone down my iced coffee buying.


*Some drink quantities may be altered due to blog's audience.

**Some shots may be omitted due to blog's audience.

Challenging the Bitches: Maria's Challange - Day 5

Yesterday was a good day. I woke up sniffing for java, to no avail. (You all must think I am some kind of idiot for not being able to figure out this coffee maker). As soon as I woke up I went into the bathroom and opened the window. (we just got one of those nightlights in the bathroom with the light sensor so I have been trying to remember to open the bathroom shade so that light comes in and the nightlight doesn’t turn on and so we will save $.02 per year on our electric bill.) When I opened the window, I saw a group of about six landscapers sitting around drinking medium iced dunkin donuts coffees. I am pretty sure they have been reading my blog and were just there to tempt me. It was like a commercial.

My delicious iced coffee dreams were shattered and I trudged downstairs to face that reality. I couldn’t get the image out of my head of their clear cups, dripping with condensation and filled with ecru goodness quenching their thirst while fulfilling their need for caffeine. I bet it smelled like fresh cut grass out there, too.

I decided that hot coffee just wasn’t going to cut it, so I would have to find a way to have iced. Then I realized it was the perfect opportunity to use The New Pitcher.

(When we first moved into our condo, we went to IKEA for a whole bunch of stuff. Of the $1,000 we spent, I was the most excited about this perfect little glass pitcher that was $2.99. It is perfectly constructed and the optimal size. I spent all of last summer coming up with new delicious things to fill it with. Then, in the Great Cupboard Collapse of 2009, we lost The Pitcher, along with All The Dishes and Any Hope of Ever Walking Barefoot in Our Kitchen Again. So for about a month, I tried to find a time to go back to IKEA and get a new one. I finally was able to, and drove the 40 minutes just for a $2.99 pitcher. So, as you may imagine, I use The New Pitcher at every chance I get.)

I put The New Pitcher in the freezer, along with two of these plastic cups that I bought from Au Bon Pain during an iced tea kick last summer. I then brewed some extra strong coffee and then poured it into The (chilled) New Pitcher, and added some ice. It was not as bad as I was expecting. I had two cups, one for the ride in and one for as soon as I got to school. It was quite satisfying. Still didn’t solve my afternoon iced coffee craving, but it was sufficient.

For breakfast I had a TJ's Greek yogurt and a granola bar. I have been really into Nature Valley Peanut Butter granola bars lately. I have also been really into dried cranberries. $1.99/bag at Trader Joes! Much juicier and more delicious than Craisins.

I guess I didn’t have lunch yesterday. I have Neuroanatomy at lunchtime and one time we dissected brains on the desks, so every time I try to eat on them I feel like I am eating oligodendrocytes and drinking cerebrospinal fluid. Grossss. Also we were getting back our midterms so I figured I wouldn’t waste food that I was just going to throw up anyways. Then directly after Neuro I have clients until 5, so there really isn’t any time to eat.

I had to babysit at 6:30, and on any other day I would have stopped somewhere to grab something to eat beforehand. However, the people for whom I was babysitting live just a mile from my house, so I went home first. I decided to make pasta and sauce. I usually leave pasta as a last resort, when all the beans and cereal have been eaten up and we are physically unable to leave the house to get anything else. We had some sausage in our freezer that some friends left, and I decided to cook some of that too. I am just getting out of a ten-year sausage aversion, so this was a big step for me. It turned out to be quite delicious. I had it with grated parmesan and some fancy vodka sauce that was on sale. I was really lucky that this week I was babysitting for this family on Thursdays. Every other Thursday of my life I babysit for a family that lives between my school and my house, so I would never have the opportunity to stop home and make dinner. I suppose I would have had to bring something for dinner to eat in the car on the way over there or something. I lucked out on this one.

That was about it for my day. Had I eaten three actual meals, it would have been a little more difficult, but it worked out the way it was. For some reason I wasn’t that hungry. Must have been all those dried cranberries. However, if it had gotten out of hand I would have probably bought something. All the money you save not eating out is no fun if you starve to death. Then you can’t even use it.

Tonight I am going out with some friends. I think I am definitely just going to play the it’s-almost-my-birthday card and get drinks bought for me. Or just bat my eyelashes. Any suggestions? I’ll let you know how it goes.

I have had a lot of people asking about my lunchbox. I got it from Naturally Felt, a storefront on Etsy.