Those that know me outside of the office know that I am a
skeptic. I don't really take many claims at face value and that is especially true when so-called authorities in the 'wellness biz' make them. Like most skeptics I feel that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" so when
wellness practitioners suggest that I do something or another, or buy something or another and everything will be wonderful , I will be healthy, or I will save money, I tend to take it all with a grain of salt. Enter Farmer Donna of
Morning Song Farm.
Our company is blessed with a corporate culture that promotes wellness. We are also blessed with a HR team that is passionate about the environment. This often results in various speakers coming to the office who cause me to run to the research in order to investigate their claims. (For those in the office reading this and wondering about the score: Green Tea,
YES; the
Master Cleanse,
NO.) So you would think that I would be skeptical when I when I showed up to Farmer Donna's seminar on organic farming. Not really. I had been exposed to organic foods since I was a teenager (a funny story for another blog post) so I didn'tneed convincing that organic was
preferable wherever possible and affordable. It was the whole
CSA part that threw me. I had never heard of it before.
Only moments after Farmer Donna's spiel began was I to feel my skeptic hat firmly in place. Turns out she was not just an educator that day but also a salesman! Anyone who has ever been approached by someone selling water purifiers, motivational tapes, weight loss shakes, vitamins, magnets that relieve pain, (you get the drift), knows that salesmen who are also 'educators' can be a dangerous proposition. And, in fact, Farmer Donna's spiel did contain a few of the classic fear statements salesmen use to kick us into immediate action. While prior speakers at work have told us that our water supply is slowly poisoning us, Donna's version had more to do with vegetable seeds going extinct and the harrowing prospect of worldwide famine should anything happen to the loss of heirloom seed inventory.
That said, the pleasant surprise for me here was that there are plenty of good reasons to sign up for a CSA program that had nothing to do with responding to fear statements. Similarly, you didn't even need to consider the "dollar saved" proposition (again, another good future blog topic):
- Doesn't it make sense to know the person growing your food?
- Exposure to knew vegetables and fruits you wouldn't ordinarly try.
- A chance to visit the farm.
- Produce picked one day prior.
- Higher degree of credibility regarding the "organic" label.
- Just doing your part to sustain local farming, keep money local, and support a distribution system that doesn't burn a lot of fuel shipping things cross country.
So, no extensive research needed. I'm in!
house. It seems that everyone plants this in their summer gardens and everyone gets a bumper crop. My favorite way to eat zucchini is to just grate it and saute it quickly with some shallots or just salt and pepper. On Sunday I still had last week's CSA zucchini (still quite fresh) and this week's. Six was just enough to make one of my favorite recipes Mom used to make when she had her bumper crop of zucchini: Stuffed Zucchini (she used to call it "Zucchini Boats" thinking that would make vegetables sound more exciting to kids I think.) Anyway, these are great with hamburgers or any grilled meat and especially good for Sunday bbq's because they can be made ahead of time and popped into the oven while you are getting everything else readys
Chop pulp and stir in remaining ingredients. Fill shells and place in shallow pan. Salt and pepper to taste nd bake at 425 until filling mixture begins to puff and turn golden. About 20-25 minutes. 
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