I have a CSA coming. You know what that is, right? COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE, baby! It is a deal where you sign up to take a shipment of fruits and vegetables from a specific farm for a whole season, paying in advance. It’s relatively cheap by the week, but it’s a long-term commitment. That’s tough for me, because I am a farmhopper. I like to go to different farms and see which one has the best what.
My CSA is with Sang Lee Farm, in Peconic, a tiny hamlet on the North Fork of Long Island, and it’s a pretty special farm. It operates almost year-round, which is critical for me, living here through the freezing, windy, damp, deserted wasteland that constitutes the Hamptons in the winter. True to its Chinese name, Sang Lee specializes in Asian greens — in addition to the normal farmstand offerings of cabbages, squash, tomatoes, etc. Its heirloom tomatoes are outstanding. And it’s organic. In this day and age, that’s better than a health-insurance policy.
My check cleared in March, and I’m scheduled to pick up my first shipment on May 26.
Eating locally is nothing new for me. It’s one of the reasons I live on the East End. In fact, I was eating topnecks from Shinnecock Bay and making minestrone from Long Island-grown cabbages, carrots and squash back in in the eighties, when the rest of the country was ordering blackened catfish and learning to pronounce the word “balsamic.” I realized a long time ago that the local stuff we have out here is pretty much the best around, if you buy it fresh and cook it well.
So, as I write this, the little U-choy sprouts are popping their heads up through the organically-amended soil, waiting to be snipped by an old Chinese lady in a cone-shaped, wide-brimmed hat (I swear I’ve seen her out in those fields), popped into a box with the magic words “Fresh-Lee-Cut” printed on it, and picked up by yours truly. Stay tuned!
farmhopper 