Tender lettuces

The incredible summer weather last week really got the garden going. Between the increased foliage and the rains, the slugs are out in force. No matter, they are no match for me, patiently handpicking them and gleefully grinding them under my yellow rain boot. Last week also saw the first harvest of tender baby lettuce, which means that Number One Son takes himself out to the garden every morning for some fresh lettuce for his sandwich (salami this morning, no mustard).

However, we will not be able to live from our garden alone: our suburban backyard is too small and shady. No complaint, we adore every one of our towering cedar trees. But it makes it impossible to grow heat-loving plants like corn and basil. I have planted only what works well: lettuce, potatoes, peas and beans. I do have a few token cherry tomatoes on a sunny corner of the back deck together with a pot of alpine strawberries, for occasional munchies for passing children.

So where do I go for the rest of the bounty of summer fruits and vegetables? Well, some things are a given: Helge will call soon and ask us to come glean his raspberries (he begs, we comply and offer a token jar of jam), the plum tree is already well-laden with thumb-sized green fruit, the Mercer Slough has u-pick organic blueberries, and blackberries grow along the roadside on the way to summer camps. Any other windfall fruits will join these in the jam pot and grace our tables in cobblers and pies.

That leaves the everyday vegetables, and I have been looking seriously at CSAs. I am sorely tempted.

Jubilee Farm is near and dear to my heart, as Farmer Erick has been regaling me all winter with his measured musings on organic and biodynamic farming and what it really means. The thought that this passion goes into the very food he grows is very compelling to me. His is a traditional CSA, where you sign up for the year and share the bounty and risk. Everything in the summer box comes from his farm; which is the problem. The typical list includes things like kohlrabi and turnips, and substitutions can’t be had. Now, I’m game for a few new things, but past experience with a CSA taught me that I can’t keep up with too many new things, and my compost heap often receives a large share of the box. There is also the added expense of the produce that I continue to have to buy to fill out the way we eat (I know that we eat a huge amount of lettuce and potatoes, and no CSA can keep up with us).

Fishing Sensei handed Darling Husband a flyer from Full Circle Farm, and I recognize the name as one producer featured at our co-op. The box list very much parallels our eating style, and the depot is right around the corner from us. They have a very slick web presence, where you can change your box contents or even take a week off—with no charge for that week. But when I look closer, I realize that only a tiny portion of the produce actually comes from the farm, and much of it is not even grown in the Northwest.

I’ll spend some time on the web and look at some of the other CSA offerings (localharvest.org offers up 24 farms near my zip code, so it may take a while!) to see if I can find the right balance. In the meantime I’ll continue the status quo: as local and as organic as I can find at the co-op, where every bit of fresh produce is prominently labeled with its provenance.