Bean and Larry

We are super lucky to have a local farm.  And not just any farm a farm that is dedicated to all things organic, natural and from the earth.  We live in a time when organic is tossed around like a catch phrase.  Everywhere you go you hear it, there is no escaping it.  But to go to a farm and chat with the farmer (Karla) and get to know her on a personal level is something way more than ‘organic’!

We have been part of the Simmons Farm CSA for about 5 years now.  CSA stands for ‘community shared agriculture’, the way it works is that you ‘invest’ in the farm by giving them money up front for their operating expenses (and a farm has more operating expenses that the Beyoncé-Jay Z household) and in return they give you a share of their bounty.  Win-Win!!!!  You support a local farm (let’s face it, we need more of those) and in return you get to eat local, organic food.

Bean on Halloween…at the farm

For our portion of the CSA we get both the veggie and meat share.  We all know where the veggies come from, but I had a bit of a hard time with the meat…at first!  It was pretty hard feeding the baby goats and lambs knowing that one day you were going to open up that cooler and see that today there was ground lamb or goat for stewing.  However, I would rather know that the animal I was about to consume lived a GREAT life.  I mean, they were hand feed by all the visitors, all the CSA members stopped by to feed them their green tops, and free to roam the HUGE property.  Knowing all this made it much easier, and to say the meat tastes amazing is the understatement on the century.  The meat tastes like meat is supposed to taste.  For such a long time I forgot how beef was actually supposed to taste like, I mean fresh beef.  Because of the CSA, we have stopped buying 99% of our meat at the grocery store.

Bean and the baby goats

There is something uber rewarding talking to the farm and getting to know her and the whole family.  Bean is obsessed with feeding the animals every time we go pick up our share.  last year when it started to get cold, all the goats were inside the barn and not outside.  I happen to mention this to Karla and next thing I know we are in the barn with all the goats, sheep and cows just petting them and watching them play.  Amazing experience…can’t get that from a grocery store!  On Monday we went to the farm and there was a week old piglet, not only did we get to see it, we got to pet it and hang out with it for a while.  Seriously…Seriously!!!!!!  Last fall we went to their pig roast (first time at a pig roast for me) and I had such a great time not only was the food was to die for, but we got to meet a bunch of other wonderful CSA members and farm supporters. It really is a community that shares in this!!!!