Six months ago I paid about $200 to a farm about an hour outside of the city. On Wednesday, I walked into the Church of All Nations on 57th street and, without paying anything, I walked out with a pound of mixed greens, a head of bok choy, six scallions, six heads of green garlic, six radishes, and six turnips. I get to do this every Wednesday afternoon for the rest of the 22 week growing season.
It's like Christmas every week because I never really know what exactly I'm going to get. It all depends on what the farm produces that week. I also don't really know if by the end of the 22-week period I will have gotten more or less that $200 worth of food. But here's what I do know:
The vegetables were all less than one week out of the dirt
The food used a relatively small amount of fossil fuels to be transported to me
The vegetables were grown using organic methods wherever practical
The workers who grew the vegetables were all fairly paid for their labor in advance of the harvest
All of the excess food is donated to the local soup kitchen for the Church of All Nations
Is that not cool? After I can figure out how to cook turnips and bok choy, it will be even cooler.
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2 comments:
I haven't cooked turnips but I once visited an aunt of yours who served it for dinner. She cooked them and mashed them like potatoes. It didn't taste like potatoes --and it is important to remind yourself not to expect it to. Still, I remember thinking, "Hey. Not bad. Maybe I'll try this at home." But I didn't.
Let me know what you decide to do with the lowly turnips. There are lots of fashionable recipes for bok choy, but I haven't seen turnips on restaurant menus, that I recall.
Very cool. We do something similar in Provo and I love that we get to try all the local greens (many of which I've never heard of) all summer. They have such interesting and often strong flavors.
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