I'm a joiner

I've recently joined two communities that I'm very excited about. If you scroll down a bit on the blog and look under the archive of posts, you'll see the Foodie Blog Roll. I'm so honored to be a part of this talented group! It's going to take me a while to visit every blog, but so far I've found a very diverse crowd. From Vegan to Curry to Cupcakes to Sushi. Raw, broiled or grilled. It's food in every form. I hope you enjoy exploring it, too.

I've been waiting to tell you all about another community my husband and I recently joined. I thought I would wait until the Spring, but what the heck. We are now shareholders of the Sandy Spring Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project at the Calvert Farm in Maryland. Their website which includes their harvest schedule can be found at http://www.sandyspringcsa.com./

I love the idea of supporting local farmers. Each share costs a few hundred dollars which goes to their seed money for the year. They plant just enough crop to cover all of the needs of their shareholders. Come May, I'll meet the Sandy Spring staff at a local pickup point for my weekly bounty of veggies, fruit and herbs. Each week will be different from the next. It's a twenty week program, so it will take us all the way through October. What does this mean for Test Drive Kitchen? Well, I'll be planning my meals based on what I receive each week. It will be a new challenge, because I hate to waste food. And with it being just the two of us, I'm going to be working extra hard in the kitchen cooking, freezing and canning. I'm literally counting the days until May. I'm that excited. I'm open to all suggestions from friends of this blog to help me in our efforts to prepare and preserve our food each week. Please share your idea for jarring tomato sauce, too! I want to be well fed in the winter when living off the farm is a just distant memory.

If you would like to locate a CSA in your area, check out http://www.localharvest.org/.