Are they simply veggies in your refrigerator? Think again as Madeline Brumberg ’18 reflects on the learning, networking, and self-management opportunities in her fall CSA.
By the end of the week, I am usually ready to catch up on missed sleep or take off to the woods with my dog. The sight of my fridge, however, chock full of vegetables waiting to be cooked, tells me I better stay inside and cook.
This was the weekly struggle this semester as I attempted to keep up with classwork, teamwork, and a community supported agriculture (CSA) share. My share, paid for at the beginning of the season to provide farmers a more stable income and seed start up costs, got delivered weekly to a campus drop off spot. (For more information about CSAs please see this blog post from a local farm.) As the seasons changed, my share changed from bags of lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes, to bags of potatoes, squash, and kale. The share which I chose was very abundant and I had to be very diligent in cooking to minimize my food waste.
A number of other students in the program also had CSAs and we swapped ideas for getting through seemingly endless amounts of carrots and cabbage. We all depended heavily of veggie stir fries with a side of rice or quinoa, but this got dull after a couple of weeks and we had to branch out. A favorite recipe to emerge out of desperation to use up cabbage and potatoes was a stir fry of those two with ground sausage from Vermont Salumi, whole-grain mustard, and pepitas. The excess CSA veggies brought some of the students together for homemade dinners. We used the opportunity to collaborate on recipes, talk through assignments, study for exams, and unwind after a long week of classes.
Managing to use vegetables before they went bad and getting my homework done provided me with an excellent opportunity to practice time management. I depended on my crockpot and roasting so that I could cook and do assignments at the same time. Sometimes, though, I would take the evening off to go through my whole fridge and cook up anything and everything in there. Those nights were an opportunity for me to reflect on what I was learning in this program. With the break neck speed of this program, finding moments like these have been paramount. Getting through CSA vegetables has been a good excuse to do just that.
So is it possible to get through your CSA and your semester? Yes, it just takes a little planning and some teamwork.