From time to time I'll share our family's experience as a half-shareholder in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) garden down the road.

August is payday for CSA shareholders, and our family's garden investment is hitting big. Colorful veggies are rolling in faster than we can eat them.

Beyond eating organically with the seasons, investing in a CSA garden is automatic inspiration to prepare unusual vegetables you wouldn't see in the grocery store or wouldn't normally think of buying over the summer. I've also researched freezing methods so nothing is wasted. We scored this giant Italian squash last weekend, although I have no clue how to cook it. Luckily, many CSA-folk are outstanding cooks with creative recipes to share.

To date we've received peppers, potatoes, eggplant, basil, cilantro, beans, three different types of squash, four different varieties of tomatoes, turnip and snap peas. The pumpkins are ripening beautifully on the vine. Check out the gallery of photos to see it all -- especially the monster Italian squash. Anyone have a good recipe for that one?

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From time to time I'll share our family's experience as a half-shareholder in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) garden down the road.

Just as Bethany loves the veggies pouring in from her family's CSA share, so do we. This is our family's first experience with owning a CSA share and we absolutely love it! It's headed up by a wonderful woman with an immense knowledge of organic gardening -- beyond locally-produced veggies, my thumb is becoming greener.

The plan we purchased requires ten hours of work in the garden. So a couple nights ago I took the kids over for an hour of weeding. I worked up a nice sweat weeding between two endless rows of tomato plants. I showed my son what okra, sweet potato and green pepper plants look like. He ran the perimeter of the two-acre garden and I didn't need to worry about traffic.

At the end of the weeding session, our CSA host had a special surprise. The sugar snap peas were ready to harvest and we were able to pick and take home the biggest, juiciest sugar snaps I've ever tasted. They were like candy off the vine. Here's a gallery of photos of our evening at a CSA -- hope your vegetable garden is yielding plenty this summer!

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Living healthy isn't just for us humans, it's good for the planet too! Reap the benefits of a healthier you and a happier Earth by supporting a local farm.

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I strongly considered signing up for a share or half a share of an organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) last spring. I couldn't find a friend to split a share with me and wasn't up for driving to pick up my weekly box of fresh vegetables organically grown 30 minutes away on a CSA farm selling shares to the public. While I plant a small, organic vegetable garden which yields terrific tomatoes, broccoli, spring lettuce, cucumbers, pumpkins and herbs, it's not big enough to provide a wider variety of the veggies we also love -- carrots, beans, potatoes, peppers, and the like.

But after reading Julie's Health Blog this morning on the declining nutrient values in food, I picked up the phone and bought half of a CSA share from a farm much closer, only 15 minutes away. Julie reported on Brian Halweil's analysis of a British study that measured the nutrient value of foods between 1940 to 1991 -- Halweil is a senior researcher at The Worldwatch Institute. In the quest for a higher yielding food supply, nutrients in the U.S. and U.K. food supply are eroding. Here are a few facts Halweil cited from the British study:

• It took three apples in 1991 to equal the iron content of an apple from 1940.
• Potassium in spinach dropped 53 percent, phosphorus by 70 percent, iron by 60 percent and copper by 96 percent.
• Iron content in meat dropped an average of 53 percent. Less nutrient-dense feed grains/forages are part of the problem.
• The higher the yield of corn/wheat/soybeans, the lower the protein/oil, same goes for vitamin C, lycopene and betacarotene in tomatoes.
• Farming strategies to increase yields are good at fostering bigger, faster growing plants, but they do not absorb as many nutrients from the soil.

However Julie raises the big question -- aside from fewer pesticides and nitrates, does organic food have higher nutrient values? According to a scientific review by The Institute of Food Technologists, it's too soon to say.

Other than organic milk, our family does not purchase organic fruits and vegetables at the grocery store -- the main obstacle is price. But I'm excited about our half CSA share. The farm is just up the road and costs $200 for an every-other-week box of just-picked veggies June-November. No genetically modified veggies, no pesticides, no major fossil fuels burned to transport the food thousands of miles either. My CSA requests half-shareholders invest ten hours of work on the farm during the season, and I can bring the kids -- we love digging in the dirt! And as a novice vegetable gardener, I'm looking forward to hanging out with local organic gardening experts. If you'd like to check out a CSA near you, search here.

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When we moved about two years ago, one of the things I mourned the most was the loss of a local Whole Foods market. I just couldn't imagine shopping at a conventional supermarket again, after having so many natural food choices right down the street.

Well, sure enough, I adjusted. Belonging to a food coop helps, as does our seasonal membership at a local CSA farm.

A recent article about Whole Foods made me think about my experiences there. Whole Foods is being criticized because they don't carry foods with artificial coloring or trans fats, but they will carry anything else. I found this to be a point of criticism I always had as well. It really is like shopping at any other supermarket in that respect. You need to be a staunch label reader to make sure you are getting the best and healthiest foods.

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Do you know where your produce comes from? If you answered "the grocery store," then you've only half answered the question. Where was it grown? How was it grown? How far did it travel before it reached your shopping cart?

Because we know that the nutrient levels in fruits and vegetables begin to decline the minute they are picked, many people are turning toward community supported agriculture (CSA) for their produce. Members buy a share of their local CSA farm, and each week during the growing season they're supplied with a box of freshly and locally grown produce.

There are definite benefits to joining a CSA farm. Not only is the food as fresh as possible, it's also often organic. Variety is important when it comes nutrition, and your box will have something different in it each week. And for those who want, picking your own is often an option. This is a great way to introduce children to agriculture and help them connect the food they eat to the source. Less tangible benefits include reducing your contribution to air pollution, since your food doesn't have to be shipped hundreds or thousands of miles. In addition, by supporting a local farm, you'll also be supporting your community.

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This is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard.

I found a health insurance company in Wisconsin that pays its member to eat organic food.

Here's the whole story.

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