Here’s what I got last Wednesday from Farmers’ Fresh.
cucumber, corn, and okra
peento peaches, peaches, ambrosia melon, blueberries, and a plum
tomatoes, oyster mushrooms, and garlic
granola and eggs
I also bought several things from the online store.
one gallon of blueberries!
sweet onions
whole-wheat sourdough bread and Shiitake mushrooms
sorrel and crème fraiche
Snacking as an aid to meal planning
I tried out the crème fraiche with a piece of bread and a sorrel leaf.
The top two snacks didn’t work so well. (But the bottom snack of bread and creamed honey was delightful.) The crème fraiche is too tart to go with the sorrel, but immediately made me think of the mushrooms tucked away in the fridge. So, even if the snacks didn’t work as such, they inspired supper….
Mushroom madness!
First I minced a quarter of one of the sweet onions and a clove of garlic. Then I chopped the oyster and Shiitake mushrooms and reserved the stems for later stock or stir-fries. Then I melted some butter and threw everything in to saute along with some salt and pepper.
After about 15 minutes, I added some white wine and herbes de provence, let it cook for a minute, and then turned the heat to low. When the heat was down, I added half a cup of the crème fraiche.
Sorry about the blur. The aroma was so tempting that the camera got excited and wouldn't sit still.
The results were incredible. It was almost too rich. Almost.
Also on the plate was pesto-crème fraiche toast and grape tomatoes. (I started off slicing the tomatoes to go on top of the toast, but they were explosively juicy, and it seemed better to serve them whole.) The pesto-crème fraiche combination was interesting and tasty – just not in the same league as the mushrooms. Next time, I’ll serve the mushrooms over rice with a little salad. And there will definitely be a next time.
thoughtful consumption 
Hi Susan – Great blog! Just wondered how you like the Farmer’s Fresh CSA, and how you’d compare it to others in the area. Feel free to shoot me an email back, if you’d like. Everything looks delicious! Thanks again for posting.
Hi, Leigh Ann,
Thanks for reading! I’m responding here instead of email in case other people are interested.
I’ve never belonged to a CSA other than Farmers’ Fresh, so I’m not the best comparator in terms of quality of produce. (Seems great to me, though!) I can say that I’ve been impressed with the staff over the past three years. They really care about what they’re doing and are always trying to do it better.
The main difference I see is that FF is a co-op of small farms as opposed to a single farm. The advantages of this arrangement (from the member’s perspective) are increased variety and availability. If one farm’s crop has issues with a particular crop, another farm might be okay. FF can also handle keeping “hate lists,” where members list a couple of items they can’t stand. That’s sooo nice because it’s no fun getting a box full of collards when no one in your family likes them. Finally, FF maintains an online store (and now a physical one in downtown Carrollton!) where you can supplement your subscription. This is great when you really want something, and you can never be sure it’s going to appear in your CSA box that week. (Murphy’s Law always seems to apply here.)
I can see people enjoying the relationship with a single-farm CSA. But you can build relationships with individual farmers at FF. I’ve also read about problems with “big-box CSAs” where a bigger farm comes into an area and cannibalizes the smaller farms’ markets. I would think a co-op is a great compromise between better service/reach and promoting small farms.