Full Diet CSA

January 9, 2013 | No Comments

As most of you know, my family and I are members of an amazing CSA(Community Supported Agriculture), called Oakhill Organics. We have been happily choosing our five produce items at their McMinnville pick up location for a year.

We have signed up to be part of Oakhill Organics “full diet” CSA this year. What is a “full diet” CSA, you ask? That is an awesome question, and up until about a half a year ago, Dominic and I did not know the answer. It is like a regular CSA, but more diversified. Our families CSA share can include seasonal vegetables, fruits, proteins, eggs from pastured laying hens, and raw milk from happy Oregon Cows. Our share will change according to the season but a wide variety of products will be available every week. We will travel 15-20 minutes to Oakhill Organics, for 50 weeks out of the year, and joyfully pick up what’s in season.

This is Oakhill Organics first year doing the full diet, so we will probably only be picking up about 80% of our food from them. We have a list of pantry basics we will need that Oakhill Organics will not provide, I will share that list with you later. Oakhill Organics goal for 2014 is to provide its members most, if not all of their dietary needs.

Meanwhile, as a family goal for 2013, Dominic and I are going to try very hard not to take unnecessary trips to the grocery store. We are still working out where we are going to purchase the other 20%-25% of our diet. More on that later.

With the milk provided we would like to make yogurt, butter, and cheese. I had been making yogurt in the oven, and for the holidays, Dominic got me a really cool yogurt maker. We are going to get eggs, potatoes, and onions tomorrow and I will be making a Spanish Tortilla sometime this week for dinner.

I can’t wait to pick up walnuts in the shell tomorrow, and some fresh ground oat flour. Next week I am going to bake some kind of yummy quick bread for our girls snacks, or even a breakfast on the go. We would also like to add the walnuts to my Swiss Muesli, along with oatmeal, and homemade granola. I might dabble in a little kale pesto, using kale from out garden, and the fresh cracked walnuts. My girls have never cracked a nut before. In fact, I don’t know if we even own a nut cracker, aside for the kind you bring out at Christmas. We will have to remedy that soon.

My family is and has been eating a whole food diet for years, with some exceptions. We are thrilled though, at the new way we will be eating, like our farmers. We are anticipating new culinary possibilities. 2013 is promising to be a very creative, and should be a productive year for our family on many levels. Dominic and I have already made a rough meal plan for next week, and will be heading out to the farm tomorrow as a family at around 5:30 for our first pick up, wish us luck.