Watercress Time

The coulee region of Wisconsin is full of bluffs, hills and valleys. Spring-fed streams are everywhere and in many of these streams grow the peppery, piquant watercress. The variety in these streams tastes nothing like the bland product sometimes available in grocery stores.

Cress can be available during fairly cool months if the stream is running and not frozen over. March and April often bring an abundance of this green. Family lore has it that only in months with an "r" in them can it be gathered. In the other months, water bugs find this leaf just as tasty as we do and cleaning becomes a chore as well as a lesson in aquatic zoology.

I've been lucky enough to enjoy it for years from the stream that runs through the farm that is still in the hands of Lloyd's relatives. Sometimes our food co-op has some, sometimes the early farmer's market. We look forward to eating it in spring with a roaring anticipation. The first greens of the season speak to us of the bounty ahead. A quick spread of mayo on Lloyd's homemade wheat bread piled high with the fresh cress makes a sandwich that tells us that spring has really arrived.

CSA - Community Supported Agriculture

The seed catalogs are arriving. In the cold of winter, those of us who garden are thinking of what we want to plant in the warming days of spring.  January also brings the first notices from farms who have CSA's that its time to think of buying a share so they know how much to plant.

The basic premise of a CSA is that a household helps support the farm by buying a share in the harvest. The farm then provides a weekly or bi-weekly delivery of vegetables, herbs, fruits, eggs and sometimes meat throughout a sixteen to twenty week harvest season. By becoming a member, you agree to share in every farmer's risk - the harvest may be bountiful or poor depending on the weather, pests and other factors that affect yield.All the CSA's we know about provide organic produce at a fair price. Ridgeland Harvest has been our CSA since we came to town.

We support CSA's for a number of reasons. For us, knowing where our food comes from is important. Equally important is directly supporting nearby farm families who are caring for the land. We love to buy locally and organically. We appreciate the concept of investing now for a reward later. We have been treated fairly and respectfully in our relationships with our CSA farmers  both here and on the eastern side of the state.

We also love the crazy kismet of opening the box and seeing what we get to cook with for the week - we commit ourselves to using everything in our meals. We have discovered and come to love many vegetables we never tried before (rabid collard green fan!). With all the produce, we simply eat healthier - less meat and more cooking to the season. It is an great incentive to celebrate the bounty of the harvest that we have right here in Wisconsin.

Besides the newsletter from the farm that has great recipes, a couple of cookbooks have helped with tasty uses for the bounty - our favorite is Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Season Produce from the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition. It is full of recipes for all the fruits and vegetables found in CSA boxes and farmer's markets.  We also rely on Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

We still stop by the farmer's market during the season. We like to browse, see friends, pick up a little extra here and there and support more farm families. But it's our CSA food that truly sustains us, challenges us and that we support our farmers by investing in.