"Cah-Sah," as Alexa Might Say (and Added Drama)

 We asked Alexia, the house spy, to remind us once a week to pick up our CSA. Despite spelling out: Cee Ess Aye as one normally says it, she took it upon herself to inform us that we should go get our "Cah-Sah" today at one. Being who we are, we immediately adopted CahSah as the appropriate pronunciation of CSA.


Image: all the vegetable matter which shall be enumerated below.

Alas, our newsletter promised a box of strawberries, but we did not get any, it seems. (Honestly, when I saw that on the list, I thought, "Huh, isn't it kind of late in the season," but then thought, well, maybe???) However, I am excited by what we did get:

Asparagus
Rhubarb
Purple onions/scallions
radishes
and a giant pile of lettuce

We also got cilantro, which I immediately composed. I had also thought that we were supposed to get boxes packed to our preferences, but I'm getting the sense that maybe the way the Hmong Farmer's Association works is that different farms do different weeks. I suspect this because even how the boxes were distributed was slightly different this week. Last week, each box was clearly labelled with our names, as were the bouquets of the flower share.  This week, the full shares were against a different wall (and now I'm worried I picked up a half share, since I think the big difference was that full shares WERE getting strawberries and half-shares weren't. Damn it!) The confusion would be because the sign said "full share" by the set of boxes I pulled from and none of them were labelled. Instead, we had to sign out on a sheet. So... Mmmmm. I wonder if some lucky fellow who is the last to pick up will actually get *my* strawberries.

Alas!

The other reason I suspect a different farm was at play this week is because the level of prep was different. Last time I didn't feel the need to wash anything more than I would stuff I get at the grocery store, but this week there was a lot more trimming and washing to do.  Last week, too, things had been organized into their own separate baggies, but this time, no.

Ah, live and learn.

But, I'm still happy, even if I am strawberry-less.  We planned our dinner around the asparagus because last time we got it we didn't get a chance to eat it before it went bad. Ah sh*t, I just went to look at what I was supposed to get in my full share and I also missed out on kohlrabi (a favorite!) and curly kale!!  Dang it. I can't exactly shove it all back in a plastic container and take it back. Ahhhhhh!! Well, hell.  Luckily, this is only week two. Next time I'll know better than to believe the signs and actually check what is in the boxes before I walk off with one.


CSA DRAMA UPDATE:
So pick-up for my CSA ends at 4 pm and it occurred to me when relaying what I thought had happened to Shawn that I *could* go back, pull out my strawberries, kohlrabi, and chard from the box intended for me, stick what was remaining into the half box I collapsed and left behind and that would make everything square (and avoid confusion for whoever came at the end). And when I got there at a quarter to four, everything looked like I would hope. Only ONE box of full shares remained.... but wait, it was in the place and of the type of box that I'd picked up.... okay, well, I looked one of in the other boxes in the other spot, yeah, those were definitely half shares. When I pulled out the plastic bag containing the full share it had strawberries, kale, and kohlrabi...???

So then I went and looked at the initialed list to see if I could figure out if that WAS my box somehow or not. Going over the list and the initials, it seemed that more than one more person should still be picking up full shares. Oh boy. There was only that one box. AND, that threw a monkey wrench into my plans.

I couldn't steal someone else's box!  So, I carefully repacked everything and kind of hung around while the last stragglers came in, thinking, well, maybe one of these guys, like Nathaniel (a name I remembered for whatever reason) just forgot to initial and if they didn't show by 4, well, I'd help myself to the missing bits. Maybe. I was really feeling uneasy about that idea, however.

And, I'm glad I didn't. 

While I was waiting around a bunch of people came for half-shares and then a woman came and notice the last box had been opened a little (apparently, I wasn't quite as careful as I thought).  I explained (we were both masked, of course and at a distance) that that was my fault. I told her my problem and promised to all that was sacred that I did not touch or lick her produce. I said (because it was true) that I just lifted the interior plastic bag so that I could understand if I'd been shorted or if all the boxes were missing these three things. She said, "Oh, no problem. I'll just take this then.  Well, well, this is all very different for me  because I've never been here before. I missed picking my box up yesterday and they told me I could come here." Mmmm, I thought, but said out loud, "And you're expecting a full share?" She nodded and said yes and then took the box... which I honestly suspect was Nathaniel's. 

What I figured happened to my box is that since I took it from the top of the pile, it was probably last in the truck and it might have been at the point where they ran out of certain things. So I was just unlucky. I feel a lot less stupid? But, I think this is going to be something to be wary of because I'm SURE some of this trauma was borne out of the fact that we are getting different farmers different weeks. Some weeks we get the well-organized labelled boxes, some weeks we don't. 

Meanwhile, I think someone took Nathaniel's box, you know?

I'm just glad it wasn't me.


C'est la vie.