2-23-10

GROUP LUNCH

JEN WEIGHS BASIL

AARON BAGS CABBAGE

LAURIE AND TRAVIS REVIEW CSA ORDERS

THIS WEEK'S $20 FARMER PICK CSA BOX


Despite not working in the fields today, it was quite a busy and "produc"tful day (sort of a bad pun). Tuesdays and Wednesdays are very busy here at Moore Farms because Wednesdays and Thursdays are CSA drop-off days in Atlanta. The members of this Community Supported Agriculture can pick and choose specialty items or opt for the farmers pick each week. Moore Farms is different than other CSAs because they collaborate with other farmers in their region, sometimes out of state, to distribute the best organic produce they can to mostly Atlanta-based residents. By teaming up with surrounding farms, CSA members are able to have a wider range of produce and sometimes get foods not typically available in a standard CSA. For instance, this week CSA members will receive oranges and tangerines from Florida and those who added specialty items will even get basil grown in nearby greenhouses. Typically, a winter CSA, even in Alabama, would consist of squash, root vegetables, and greens. Foods vary greatly depending on seasonality.

After produce is dropped off (or picked up) early in the morning by neighboring farmers, a typical packing day has two elements: first, the produce must be counted, weighed, and bagged individually. The second part of the day is dedicated to packing and boxing all orders. This morning we weighed out and bagged basil, cabbage, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, collard greens, mushrooms, apples, pears, tangerines, oranges, rosemary, broccoli, and potatoes. This doesn't even include sweet potatoes and squash, which require no bags, nor the meat and cheese which gets packed separately into coolers. This week's orders totaled 218. Moore Farms offers two standard "farmers pick" boxes, one for $20 and one for $30. This week, the $20 box included: two butternut squashes, a container of cherry tomatoes, a head of cabbage, three oranges, two tangerines, two bags of lettuce, and one green bell pepper. The $30 box included all of the above, plus, three sweet potatoes, two vine-ripened tomatoes and an extra head of lettuce. Though this may not sound like a steal, everything is organic and as fresh as can be. Summer's bounty provides much more bang for your buck, so it all evens out throughout the year. On top of all this, many members choose to customize their boxes al la carte style at an additional cost. These items may include: eggs (both chicken and duck), a wide variety of local cheeses and meats, honey, herbs, tomato sauce, chili peppers, fair trade, locally roasted coffee, locally crafted jams and chutneys, and marinades. Packing all this delicious produce made us hungry all day!

Being a WWOOFer and a WWOOF host presents opportunities and obstacles alike. In our brief experience as WWOOFers, we have noticed we get along with some hosts better than with others--and this is merely based on personality. After two short days at Moore Farms, we already feel very at home and comfortable with Laurie and Will, similarly to how we've felt with our previous hosts. However, we are not the only WWOOFers currently here. One of the other WWOOFers is a bit aloof and there is a severe personality clash between him and everyone else here. As WWOOF hosts, Laurie and Will very graciously open their homes to complete strangers and merely ask that volunteers do their share of work and respect their environment to earn their keep. At Coweeta Heritage Center, there was a WWOOFer journal and we realized that some WWOOFers didn't stay as long as expected for one reason or another. We imagine this happens all over, because either the WWOOFer takes advantage of the host or vice versa. It appears at Moore Farms that one of the WWOOFers has been taking advantage of the hosts and as a result Laurie and Will have asked him to leave. If we were somewhere we felt uncomfortable, we wouldn't hesitate to leave. If a host feels uncomfortable in their own home at the expense of a WWOOFer, logic stands that they should be able to remove said WWOOFer. We hope to continue to have harmonious relationships with all our future WWOOF hosts as we have thus far.

Also today, two new French WWOOFers arrived at Moore Farms and they seem super cool. They are both males, which follows suit with our previous experiences; there are more men WWOOFing than women.

We were in charge of cooking lunch and dinner for everyone, including a few part-time employees. For lunch we cooked spaghetti with fresh tomatoes, broccoli, onions, garlic, and delicious local cheese alongside a fresh salad of watercress and arugula. For dinner we made more salad, added red peppers, grapefruit, carrots, broccoli, and scallions and paired this with fresh toasted bread and a delicious stinky goat cheese that the French boys absolutely loved. And so did we. Jen also baked an apple, pear, cranberry crisp for dessert that Aaron helped with. Everyone was well-fed and happy.