The Most Intimidating Box in the World

This year Dustan and I bought a CSA share at a local farm in Oak Creek.  You can read about it here, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

It was a funny thing, that white box.

Most people would love a box of organic vegetables spilling onto their counter. 

We dreaded this white box like The Plague.  First of all, pickup was every Wednesday before 7pm at a house near us in Racine.  It was the biggest feat of the week.  We could not get that box.  If it's any indication of how we'll be as parents, little Bearcub Balkcom will be that kid after school making small talk with the teacher, sneakers on concrete, waiting on his ride.

Me: Hey wait, isn't it Wednesday?
Dustan: Ahhhh dangit.

When we first talked this decision over, we were both on board, because we have hoped to start our own CSA at some point in the future.  Not just a passing whim, but a LOT of late nights in bed talking over what it would mean to have our own farm as a job.  We've thought through everything, from the coolest root cellar to the design of the garden to the massive harvest parties we would throw every year under lanterns with guitars and dogs and babies and butternut squash soup in thick mugs.  It was only logical that before we could start a CSA, we should test out the other end - the customer end.  So it was a no-brainer.

Theeeeeeen, I got pregnant, and the veggies started coming right in the middle of the first trimester.  The first trimester was like one of those cats that rub up around your ankle all coy and calm, and you think 'Hey, I might actually like this cat!'  And then right when you reach out to pet it, it turns around and sinks its claws into the fatty part of your palm, and suddenly you hate all cats everywhere.  Yeah, that's what the beginning of pregnancy was for me.  Except what I suddenly hated was vegetables.  All I could imagine eating when I got pregnant was trailer trash food, to mitigate the "morning" sickness that hit worst at night.  Pizza, corn dogs, cheeseburgers, sausage biscuits from McDonald's, frozen stuff that gets greasy when you cook it.  All the worst, artery-clogging, immune system-destroying goodness on the planet.  Bacon, doughnuts, italian sausage, cheese cheese cheese.

Not only did I not want vegetables, I didn't cook.  Period.  This was not the time for me to Google "kohlrabi" and figure out how to use it before it went bad in my crisper (which it did).  I can't even tell you how much money I spent grabbing takeout and random slices of mushroom pizza at 3pm in downtown Milwaukee (but it was a lot). So these boxes would come, and Dustan would pull out the little sheet of recipes they came with and he'd make something.  And at first, this worked.

Confetti Potatoes

That is quite beautiful, isn't it?

Roasted chicken with beets, red onion, summer squash, apples, carrots and turnips

Penne lisce with summer squash, some other squash, carrot and tomato marinara and parm

But after a bit, the endless mystery vegetables became quite a burden.  I gave a lot of them away.  Some of them wilted and I threw them away.  What a dismal, wasteful failure I was!  We both were!  It was a good lesson learned.  I don't think we have any business starting a farm.  We paid a lot of money to give away turnips this year, and it left a really bad taste in our mouth.  CSA's are awesome, but this one just kind of slapped us around and we didn't do with it what we should have.

Now I'm in the glory days of being prego, looking round but feeling great.  I eat vegetables now, don't worry.  I actually prefer fresh cooking, because all that crap I ate at first is now associated with the rolling nausea I thankfully don't have at all anymore.  But that very last veggie pickup?  Was aaaawesome.  We're both so glad that White Box isn't here to sit in judgement of us anymore.  (Even though there are 3 lingering turnips in my fridge...does anybody want them?)

P.s.  I'm blogging again because I'm back to work 3 days a week instead of full-time.  I have no idea how people keep up (quality) blogging while working and having a balanced life.  It totally eludes me.