(smaller button below)

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe.

If you want, you could simply tell us if you’ve had asparagus yet—I’m told it’s the first vegetable to emerge in the spring. I had some already in my CSA box. Yum.

My point is that we’re pretty relaxed over here, and posts like that are as welcome as menus and recipes.

When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.

Food on Fridays with Ann

For years I’d considered signing up for a CSA or food co-op of some kind. I went back and forth on the idea, dragging my feet, afraid to commit.

Then, at some point in the book club discussions over at TheHighCalling.org—during the beet discussion, I think—I just did it. I signed up with Green Bean Delivery (available in Indiana and Ohio). The first-ever delivery was quite exciting, especially because I was anticipating a bag of beets. When we got the bin, the kids asked what each item was as I held it up to examine it.

We’ve been in the system for a few weeks, and delivery day is still exciting. Once a week I just set on the porch their empty green plastic tub from the previous week. Later that day, the delivery guy shows up with a matching tub filled with my order.

If the kids are home, they work with me to drag it into the kitchen and unpack the treasures within. Even though it’s not that different than coming home from the store with bags of groceries, something about the tub appearing on the front porch turns the mundane into mystery: what’s in the box?

My son loves to help.

Voila! Fruits and vegetables!

Packed full: lettuce, oranges, strawberries on top

Hey, look: limes! And feta cheese!

Avocados and in the bags, mushrooms.

Full bowl

Green Bean tries to buy local whenever possible, though they offer produce from all over (obviously the oranges, kiwi and strawberries were from far away). And they offer organic, sustainable and conventionally grown produce—I can choose. I have until about two days before they bring the tub to change my order, swapping items in or out of the bin. The flexibility is nice. And I find that I kind of like sitting at my computer to make those decisions.

The strangest thing about buying food this way is that instead of examining my own avocados to evaluate ripeness, for example, or filling a bag with apples that I’ve inspected, I have to trust Green Bean to choose top quality produce on my behalf.

So far, they’ve chosen very well.