My First CSA Produce Box {and a pesto recipe}

You may remember from a few posts back

that I was looking into a local CSA.

If you're not familiar with CSA, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture

and it's a really great program.

Basically, you {as the customer} give a local farmer money up front at the beginning of the farming season,

and in return,

you receive a box of fresh produce each week for the entire season!

I was trying to decide between a few local farms,

when a friend of mine

{who happens to have a gigantic garden}

offered to be my 'farmer' and supply me with a weekly box of fresh, local, organic produce!

I couldn't turn her down

{I mean, could you?!}

and today was the day I received my very first box of produce!

Take a peek at the goodies I got:

yes, those are eggs

from chickens that aren't genetically altered, or crammed in some nasty hen house or fed disgusting food

{ok, you get the idea}

these eggs are from happy, healthy, free chickens

and I couldn't be happier to give them to my family!

So, there's celery, red and green lettuce, spinach, broccoli, eggs, kale and a lemon!

Along with some herbs too:

basil, thyme, oregano and sage!

I'm seriously so excited to keep getting amazing produce like this all season!

Since I already had part of a container of basil, I combined it with my fresh basil and made pesto!

Here's the recipe

{I didn't measure anything, so these aren't exact measurements...}

1 1/2 cups basil

1/2 cup nuts {I used hazelnuts, but you could use traditional pine nuts or whatever kind you have}

1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

2 garlic cloves

about 4 tablespoons olive oil

a dash of salt

a tablespoon or two of water {optional}

Place all ingredients in a food processor, leaving out the olive oil and water. Once the food processor is on, stream in the olive oil until the pesto is at a consistency you like. This is where you can add in some water to help your olive oil go a little further.

And that's it!

Fresh, homemade pesto...easy as that!

I also think this would have been great with a little squeeze of lemon too!

I roasted a bunch of veggies last night, so tonight I threw the left over ones in with some quinoa and pesto for a whole new meal!



I can't wait to try out new recipes with all of my fresh produce!

Yay for supporting locally grown!

If you want to locate a CSA in your area, check out this website!