Joining a CSA – Is it Worth it?

Tuesday. CSA pickup day. My usual Tuesday routine this time of year is late afternoon yoga, followed by food pickup at the CSA. It’s the perfect zen ending to my day.

In case you have no idea what I am talking about, CSA means Community Supported Agriculture. While all CSAs are different, I never know what I’m going to get until I arrive and check the white board. Even with a small share, I usually have more than enough veggies to get us through the week.

I love belonging to the CSA. Besides the obvious benefits of locally grown, pesticide-free produce, going to the farm every week gives me a feeling of connectedness to the earth. It helps me feel grounded. And when I’m out in the field searching for berries or picking my own herbs, it’s peaceful. Not quiet, because there’s work going on around me, but there’s a calmness to the activity.

As I was leaving yoga last week a friend mentioned that she wanted to join a CSA but her husband wasn’t sure it was worth the cost. I had to admit that it was expensive – an expense that is noticeable because it’s paid in a lump sum, in advance. And just like the stock market, there are no guaranteed returns – if there’s a flood or a draught and the crops are lost, I might receive less in return.

If I prorate the cost on a per-week basis, we pay about $30 per week for a half-share. Usually that means five or six items per week. Last week I brought home one head of lettuce, a pound of potatoes, half a pound of arugula, half a pound of lettuce greens, one pound of broccoli, and a large bunch of scallions. If I had bought organic versions of those veggies at the grocery store I could probably do it for a little bit less – but just a bit.

I should note that my CSA is not certified organic – the cost to become certified would be prohibitive. In fact, it’s very difficult to find locally organic produce in my area. Nevertheless, it’s easy to find produce grown using clean, green, pesticide-free methods – and that’s what matters most to me.

So, is it worth it? My answer is a resounding yes!

I am supporting the local community with my share (the CSA also does a lot of community outreach).

It’s locally grown which means I am reducing my carbon footprint.

There is less waste because what I bring home from the CSA never seems to go bad.

It tastes better. (I don’t think I’m imagining that. It really does.)

And did I mention the berries? In addition to our share, when the berries are ripe we can pick our own:

No, they aren’t perfectly shaped, and they aren’t huge, but look at how red and juicy they are! These will be long gone before I get a chance to make jam out of them.

Do you belong to a CSA? Why would you choose to join? Or why not?

Bob’s Red Mill Hearty Whole Grain Bread Mix

Once again I can’t recall whether the folks at Bob’s Red Mill sent this bread mix to me, or whether I purchased it on my own. I believe I received it at the same time as the Bob’s Red Mill Homemade Wonderful Bread Mix, and I am continuing to (slowly) bake my way through the stash of mixes I have acquired – adapting them to be made without adding eggs, butter, milk, or other top food allergens. And so my disclaimer (to satisfy the FTC) is that I may have received this bread mix to review from the folks at Bob's Red Mill.

This is a unique bread mix – one that is more complex in ingredients than most. There are multiple grains including buckwheat, garbanzo bean, sorghum, fava bean, and teff. The starches include potato, corn, and tapioca. Potato flour is also used. The mix includes both xanthan gum and guar gum. And there are seeds – sunflower, sesame, and caraway seeds. And that’s not all – there is cocoa powder, evaporated cane juice, molasses, salt, yeast, onion powder, and soy lecithin. The yeast packet is included.

The sheer number of ingredients in this mix makes it less viable for many of the food allergy families that visit here. Those who are gluten-free and dairy-free and/or vegan may find it a great choice for a hearty bread. It is lower in sugar and higher in fiber than most bread mixes.

The only add-in item I needed to adapt was the eggs; I used ½ cup flaxseed gel instead. The other added ingredients are water, oil, and apple cider vinegar. If you decide to try it, watch your timer; my bread was done at 45 minutes (compared to the 60 to 65 minutes the package suggests it needs).

The bread is on the dense side but still very easy to slice. You can see it pictured here with homemade blackberry jam – a healthy start to the day!

I have also tried it with salami from Applegate Farms, sliced avocado, and homemade mustard. That was a very tasty sandwich!

I prefer the Homemade Wonderful Bread Mix to this one, as I found it to be more of an all-around bread and more likely to suitable for different dietary restrictions. If you try them, let me know what you think!

Back from BlogHer Food

I’m back from BlogHer Food, and I am in withdrawal.

After two days of conference programming, meeting bloggers, checking out new products, and making new friends, I am exhausted. (Not to mention the day of travel it took me to get there and another day to get back.)

But I miss everyone… it’s so much fun to be with people who want to talk about food and especially other people with food restrictions (there were a surprising lot of us there) who want to talk about food. That’s just one of the reasons I am looking forward to The Food Allergy Blogger Conference in November.

I have now attended three BlogHer conferences and two BlogHer Food conferences. Between you and me, BlogHer Food is my favorite. It’s big, but not too big. The pace is fast, but not too fast. The sessions are all about topics I want to talk about, and it’s just the right level of exhausting. 

And then there’s the food. We were in Austin, a city that proved itself to be very food-allergy friendly. My favorite meal of the weekend was at a dinner hosted by Udi’s Gluten-Free at Second Bar and Kitchen. They made a fabulous fish dish with garbanzo beans:

A close second was the melt-in-your-mouth dinner at the closing party at Stubb’s Barbeque. Somehow I managed to forget to take a picture of my meal at Stubb's. I must have been hungry.

There was a lot of hype prior to the event about food trucks. I was intrigued. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I discovered food trucks to be not much more than ice cream trucks or hot dog stands.

Maybe it was because of all the hype, but I was disappointed. I’ll take New York street carts over an Austin food truck any day (sorry Austin).

The best part about a food conference is that every sponsor and every vendor exhibiting cares about food! There were some fabulous prizes given away; I didn’t win (I really wanted one of those Kitchen Aid prizes), but there were plenty of great things to take home and I managed to keep my suitcase under the weight limit. Here are a few of my favorites:

Udi’s Gluten Free rocked the house with products that were right up my alley:

Thank goodness Udi’s was there on Saturday morning – with skimpy gluten-free options for the conference breakfast, Udi’s fed me lemon muffins and dark chocolate brownie mini-muffins. The chocolate brownie bites are hands down my favorite.

Bob’s Red Mill was there demo-ing their whole grain line. At one of the breaks they were serving a savory Sorghum Curry. This was a sample I took home:

A great surprise was discovering Pompeian oils. I am looking forward to trying their grapeseed oil in baking projects, and the Mediterranean blend for cooking. The blend includes canola, olive, and grapeseed oils.

I was thrilled to meet the folks from Wholesome Sweeteners; I now use their organic sugars and sweeteners almost exclusively. Here’s what I took home to bake with:

Their line of flavored agave sweeteners is absolutely wonderful! Agave vanilla is my favorite.

Note to self: I must get better about taking pictures of the food I eat.

A Busy Month

I’m about to get on a plane for Austin to attend BlogHer Food. While there, I’ll be speaking on a panel about food photography with Melissa Skorpil and Katie Jasiewicz. The name of our session is “How to Fake Great Photos.” Seems very appropriate, and it should be loads of fun. If you are in Austin please stop by!

When I get back I’ll be prepping for a local class that I am co-teaching with two other fabulous women, Alyson Chugerman and Colleen Ashe. On Saturday June 15th we’ll be teaching “Your Allergy Free Home and Kitchen,” with both food demos and a discussion on organizing your pantry.

On June 19th I’ll be at the Mid-Hudson Civic in Poughkeepsie signing books from 7:30-9:30am. This Breakfast of Champions event is hosted by the Poughkeepsie Chamber of Commerce.

Also on June 19th, I’ll be presenting a Kids with Food Allergies webinar titled, How to Bake a Perfect Cake. I’ll be doing a virtual demo and answering your questions. Sign up here.

And last but not least, On June 28th and 29th I’ll be in Philly for APFED’s annual conference. I’ll be speaking on Friday – my session is titled “Cooking Solutions for Restricted Diets.” I’ll also be signing books on Friday and Saturday.

Whew! I think that’s enough to keep a girl busy. If you plan to be at any of these events please let me know so we can connect.

Five Things I’ve Discovered Since I Wrote the Book

My grandmother used to say; “You learn something new every day.” That wisdom comes back to me often, especially when I do learn something new.

I’m more likely to learn something new when I do the same thing over and over again – as I often do in my kitchen. While I am trying to create repeatable processes and methods is when I often stumble on the greatest insights and new learnings.

Today I’d like to share a few of the things I’ve learned since I wrote Learning to Bake Allergen-Free:

1. It’s easier to roll out a crust between parchment paper than between two sheets of waxed paper. Continue to use the waxed paper if you prefer, but for me, parchment paper rules!

2. Organic evaporated cane juice works just like any other granulated sugar – and it’s less processed. Go ahead and substitute it cup for cup in any of my recipes that call for granulated cane sugar. It works great when creaming too!

3. You need a bit more guar gum per cup of flour than xanthan gum. In all of my recipes in the book I used xanthan gum – usually ¼ teaspoon per cup of flour. Having now done extensive tests with guar gum, I can tell you that a) it works, and b) you need about ½ teaspoon of guar gum per cup of flour.

4. Not all flours and not all flour blends are created equal. In fairness, I knew this when I wrote the book – I believe I even mention it in the book. Nevertheless, as I experiment with new flours and flour blends, I learn (again and again) that some are just higher quality than others. That quality is in both the texture and taste. If you find that your baked goods aren’t turning out as nicely as you’d like, try a different flour blend.

5. Arrowroot flour (starch) rocks! (Like tapioca, this is sometimes called starch and sometimes flour – same thing.) I am actually becoming a bit of an arrowroot starch snob. I have been doing side-by-side tests of the same baked goods using different starches, and in my opinion arrowroot always wins with a smoother crumb and consistent performance. So go ahead and mix that gluten-free flour blend with arrowroot next time – I think you’ll like it!

What have you learned today?