FOOD one eats, the LAND where it is grown, and the FARMERS who grow it.

For the second year in a row I joined the Full Moon Farms Coop. When I tell most people this, they say "what?" So what is it?

"Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a resourceful social and economic arrangement in which consumers and farmers share responsibility for producing, delivering, and honoring food. CSAs create an opportunity for communities to actively participate in their social and ecological relationships by sustaining their own local farm and farmers. In practice, the CSA partnership fosters mutual respect and support between a community of eaters and a community of farmers."

The farm is in Athens, Ga so each weekend on the way to the lake either Ko and I or my parents pick up our share. Each box is filled with a variety of that weeks crop. Each week its a surprise. After I get the box and dig in to find out what's for dinner the rest of the week, I wash the produce and start my search for recipes. This week's box included potatoes, swiss chard, collard greens, spring onions, radishes, carrots, cilantro, bibb lettuce and a bag of mixed salad greens. Yum! So here's what we've had for dinner:

Hoppin' John with Collards from Cooking Light, December 2007

Although this version is better, but I couldn't put my hands on the recipe when I needed it:

Black-eyed pea stew, Cooking Light, October 2007

The next night I made Spring Green and Chicken Gratin from the latest Food & Wine magazine. Sorry no link, but it was so good! The best recipe so far with swiss chard. It was creamy and cozy on a rainy night! It's not real light which is probably why it was so good!

And tonight: Fresh Salmon-Cilantro Burgers, Cooking Light, May 2009

These were amazing!! I substituted avocado for the mayo in the sauce. Much better!! Make it, you'll love it! Oven roasted potatoes were a great side. And while all of the above were tasty and successful, I admit that tonight I also made gingersnaps and they were a complete mess. They came out sticky, gooey and flat. Nothing like my grandmothers! If you have a good recipe for gingersnaps, send it my way.