LOCAVORATIOUS! Adventures in Community Supported Agriculture

My chosen CSA is, rather aptly named, Garden Party. It’s owned and operated by a lovely, very down-to-earth (shouldn’t all farmers be down-to-earth?) woman named Theresa Schumilas, in a little slice of agrarian heaven called St-Agatha, two hops, skips, and a jump away from Waterloo, Canada. How you actually pronounce “Schumilas” is a bit of a mystery to me at the moment, but I’m sure, especially now that I’m writing this blog, that I shall be enlightened eventually.

Garden Party offers “market style” choice, which means that your weekly share is not pre-determined, but rather, you get a selection of the available harvest, including some additional products, such as organic meat, eggs, cheese, and the all-important ice-cream, which Theresa sources from other local producers in the area. Theresa, is, apparently, the only CSA provider in the region that provides CSA shares year round. The shares are seasonal, meaning one for the Winter, Spring, Summer, and the much anticipated Fall harvests.

For the Spring CSA, I’ve been the beneficiary of some pretty fantastic salad greens, including spinach, watercress, and “living” arugula and boston lettuce, which are delivered to you, with their root systems intact. There’s a range of “storage” vegetables, such as apples, potatoes, and carrots, but you can also get some of the more esoteric stuff, such as celeriac root, and yellow beets. There’s also fresh organic herbs, and my personal favourite thus far, baby pea shoots, which, stir fried with little oyster sauce, are quite frankly, to die for. Much to my delight, Theresa also offers Spring Asparagus and Bok Choi, a perennial asian favourite. There’s also a range of canned, frozen and prepared goods, including homemade stock, and organic ground beef, which so, far, has been lovely.

Theresa tells me that the Spring CSA is actually the most “problematic”, because she’s basically supplementing the fledgling spring vegetable harvest with storage products from the Winter CSA, so ability to offer significant quantities of freshly picked produce is limited.

I tell you though, based on my excellent experiences thus far – if the Spring CSA is the least abundant, and it’s already this good, I can’t wait for the Summer and the Fall CSA’s. This Garden Party is one you don’t want to miss!