Thanks to Joe Shaw’s recommendations five months ago I joined the Chestnut Farm’s meat CSA. Today, fighting Cambridge/Arlington rush hour traffic I picked up my first monthly 10lbs. share. It was kind of funny finding a mail in my inbox stating that I had signed up some time ago and oh ya you need to go pick up your share this Wednesday. I almost skipped the mail but after looking at the quality of the meat I’m glad I read it.
It looks really tasty, unfortunately I spent last night cooking up 3lbs. of chuck beef stew which means I can’t justify cooking anything up just this minute. I will however be taking some of it to my parents house for the holidays and cooking some for them.
At $8 a pound it is pretty expensive but I am treating it like a learning expense. Since I don’t know what type of meat I will get each month I have to learn to cook almost any type thrown at me. I figure during the colder months I will stick with soups, stews and brazing while during the warmer months I will switch to grilling and slow roasting. If I like what they are sending me I may even get adventurous and see if they can send me the more exotic bits like sweetbreads though I suspect they sell those at a premium to restaurants.
Once I figure out my budget I may just start one of the vegetable CSA’s too.
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Nice! Congrats on that. The price has gone up a bit of late, but I think overall $8/lb still isn’t too pricey when you compare to Whole Foods and amortize the cost over all the different cuts.
It’s fun cooking up the various cuts; Brette and I made some potstickers with a ground pork and cabbage filling recently.
Comment by Joe Shaw — December 17, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
Weird, we did the same thing today:
http://twitter.com/chrisblizzard/status/1063668506
Comment by Christopher Blizzard — December 18, 2008 @ 1:20 am
I’m a vegetarian who has subscribed to a vegetable CSA co-op. I found the food fresh and slightly more affordable!
I hope you enjoy your CSA experience, even if it is richer in protein
Comment by Richard — December 25, 2008 @ 6:16 pm