Iiiiiiiiiiinteresting.

Soooo.. for the longest time, I’ve been wanting to find a CSA in Calgary.

For some reason, I’ve found that Calgary is like some black-hole city for food happenings and I could swear that everything here is also way more expensive than it should be. Like just because we’re Calgary, everything has a ridiculous mark-up.

I mean, to be honest, it could just be me, seeing as I am not exactly the most outgoing into the wilds sort of creature, especially when it comes to driving around town. Maybe I’m not “in the know” as to where to find stuff, but damnit it just seems like we’re always discovering things years later.

Then again, I am also comparing Calgary to places like California or Montreal. Where they have growing seasons that are more than two months long and can actually have farmers markets which are actually, OMG, markets with actual farmers! Not a big building which houses a bunch of stalls which may or may not sell fruits and vegetables, but will most likely sell things like ostrich soaps, knitted hats and bulk candy. Ya. Srsly. ¬_¬

I think the Calgary Farmers Market is an awesome place to go shopping, but it’s not really a Farmers Market, which was located in the old barracks (they are currently relocating to a bigger and better facility). It was, like I said, basically this really large building that had stalls for different vendors which weren’t necessarily “farmers market material”. Yes, there are a couple of stands which do in fact sell fresh produce, there are a couple of stands that sell locally raised meat, there’s a fish market stand, and a cheese market stand, but there’s also: a cupcake stand, a pie stand, a candy stand, lots of mom & pop fast food stands, a coffee stand, a vitamin stand, an Ostrich farm stand, a carpet stand, a pet-bakery stand, a glassworks stand, an art stand, a bouncy castle, a clown face painter, the odd busker, a cribbage board maker, a handicrafts from Nepal stand… you get the idea.

Anyways…

Maybe my definition of a farmers market is incorrect to begin with. I had always thought that farmers markets were supposed to sell… real food. o_O; There are weekly farmers markets that pop up all over the city in the summer, and they are probably more of my idea of farmers markets — just a place where people can congregate to get fresh stuff from people that made/grew it. I have no huge issues with ready made foods like pies, soups, dips and what have you, but for some reason the CFM just rubbed me every which wrong way. I just found it to be the mecca for… suburban snobbery.

This is starting to sound like a very ranty journal entry and I am rather uncertain as to why… I guess I’m just kind of disappointed about the whole farmers market/fresh fruits & veggies scene. There are now a total of 4 3 year round “farmers markets” in the City now: Kingsland, Crossroads and CFM. All of which are on the south side of the city.

Anywho… back to my original comment of CSAs. I’ve been intrigued by the idea of a CSA for the longest time and have finally (FINALLY!) come across three farms which offer the opportunity to partake in it for Calgary: Eagle Creek Farms, Oxyoke Farms and Noble Gardens.

They all offer veggie boxes in around the ballpark of $300 for about 12-16 weeks worth of fresh, local produce, weather dependant. This is for a half-share, mind you. If you’re looking at a full share, the prices are slightly more staggering: between $500-650 to feed a family of four. Doing the math, it’s actually not too shabby (for the half-share, at least) — you’re looking at approximately $20/week per box that feeds 1-2 people. I guess the only reason why the $500 pricetag shocks me is because you’re paying this money right up front for only what amounts to being 3-4 months of produce. I shouldn’t really be sticker shocked, but I guess I’m kind of comparing it in my head to the $300 we paid for a 1/4 of a bison and it’s going to feed us essentially for 12 months-ish. It may not in fact last a full year, but then again, we’re only four months into our bison supply.

There is a noticeable difference in the taste of fresh veggies, our friends J & R are the ones I have to thank immensely for me experiencing the real taste of homegrown veggies which they tried as much as possible to do with their Urban Sunflower Market Garden last year. I’ve never told them, and perhaps I should, but I am so exceedingly proud at what they accomplished last year. Seriously. The insane amount of hard work, blood (mainly from mosquitos), sweat and tears that went into them having a market stand was just mind boggling.

So anyways, I finally have options there. I think I may still consider the CSA idea, but I’ve decided to try something else for a little while, which is the other option I had been considering for the last few years: organic grocery deliveries through Spud.ca or my new found discovery, Organics Delivered.

Spud.ca is basically a door-to-door grocery delivery, so they sell organic everything you can imagine and deliver it to your door. While a great idea, I enjoy the experience of grocery shopping way too much, so I don’t think I could ever go fully to that method of acquiring food. Plus, I don’t really care to have my entire life fully encompassed by the whole “organics” thing. It just doesn’t float my boat.

Organics Delivered, on the other hand, is just an organic fruits & veggies box delivered to your door. That, I am totally a-okay with. From the looks of things, they have an on-going thing where you can try two boxes for $80 if you’re interested in checking them out but don’t wanna commit to anything. They claim they’re fresher than retail, less expensive than retail and have free delivery to boot. According to the website: Testing our service twice will give you a taste of the quantity and variety that’s typical from delivery to delivery. Produce is chosen based on what’s in season, and is always as local as possible. The variety of food changes from week to week, but is generally 2/3rds vegetables and 1/3rd fruit.

Honestly, I would prefer to have all my produce be from locally grown farms, but the reality is that Alberta just doesn’t have the growing seasons for that kind of thing. I live in Canada, for goodness sake. I’ve always considered buying organic stuff in the grocery stores, but I hate the ridiculous mark-up thing and that just gets my goat. The whole hype of “OMG YOU HAVE TO BUY ORGANICS OR YOU’LL DIE!!!” being beaten over my head because that’s what everyone says is the be all and end all of good eating, also bugs me to no end. Heaven forbid you eat something that’s not labeled organic, free-range, [add your current favourite sticker here]…

So why is it I’ve finally decided to take the plunge into the whole organic fruits & veggies thing? Cuz it certainly seems like I’m bashing stuff left, right and centre tonight. Honestly? I’m lazy. I basically want someone to do my shopping for me. I don’t wanna have to think about what to buy. If someone presents me with stuff from the get-go to cook, I can run with that fairly easily. I love having to think about what to do with stuff and sit there and contemplate it in rather much too much detail to get the tastiest and most satisfying outcome. But if I have to stand staring at an aisle full of fruits and veggies and make a decision as to what to buy, I fail. I love grocery shopping from an “oh! shiny!” perspective but I hate produce shopping. I want the best of what tastes great and that will probably be from what’s in season. Given that I have very little knowledge as to what those items are, this seemed like a good way to go.

As much as I’m balking at the price of a fruit & veggie box (and I do find the pricetags rather shocking), I am really, really excited by it. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for years, but we haven’t really been in a financially feasible position until now to do so. The Hubbs doesn’t really have an opinion one way or the other, but is pleased that I get excited about SOMETHING every now and then. If it happens to be food, then so be it :D I’m just happy that he’s willing to foot the bill on some of my more extravagant experiments… like the 70lbs of bison.

I have no doubt that it will be a challenge for us to conscientiously use up all the produce on offer in a box (I’m thinking delivery every second week as opposed to weekly to start with), but it will be a good and healthy challenge that I’m totally willing to take on.