It’s already shaping up to be a bountiful year at The Sharing Farm, and it’s about time to do your body and your taste buds a favour and register for one of our weekly Harvest Baskets.
Our baskets are packed full of a variety of local, naturally-grown and tasty produce available for pick-up from the farm every Thursday from June to October. The baskets provide enough to feed a family of four for a week. If your family isn’t that large then we will happily pair you with someone to split costs and produce.
The product is unbelievably good. My Greek husband, who grew up on Mediterranean salads, claimed that our tomatoes were the best he’s ever tasted!
There are plenty of classics such as peppers, eggplants and salad mix, but you’ll also go on a culinary adventure with hard-to-find treats. Some of my favourites from last year that I had never before tried were: Japanese salad turnips (almost luminous in their whiteness and with a crunchy, sweet flavour that is also great in noodle soups); purple daikon (a mild radish with the most beautiful purple pattern when cut open - this made even a hastily prepared lunch look like a gourmet dinner) and delicata squash (with a thin, edible skin and an incredibly rich flavour).
As well as taste, you also have to consider the nutritional benefit of buying fresh local produce. Richmond has incredibly rich soil thanks to our river delta location and all those lovely nutrients are going straight into our vegetables. You also receive the produce straight after being picked. Most veggies lose around 30 per cent of their nutrients three days after harvest. How long do you think that tomato from half way across the world has been sitting around in warehouses, trucks and store shelves?
The only disadvantage of signing up for one of our baskets is that you will have a hard time going back to store-bought produce at the end of the season. I was devastated when I had to buy my first supermarket salad mix.
If you like eating, you should sign up before they sell out. You can register now on our website at www.sharingfarm.ca/csa. All the proceeds go towards supporting our mission, so you’ll also be helping a great community cause!
Sarah Drewery is the Executive Director of the Sharing Farm
The Sharing Farm is a non-profit farm in Terra Nova Park, which grows food to donate to the food bank and community meal programs in Richmond.
