Dear Millicent...

Our CSA is having an upcoming open house on the 24th! We haven't been able to make it to the last couple so I'm looking forward to it. In our newsletter this week Michelle Silveira, one of our farm owners, encouraged us to contact a reporter in Sacramento who focuses on healthy living and has expressed some interest in coming to the CSA open house. Here is the e-mail I sent to the reporter about the impact the CSA has had on our lives:

Hello Millicent,

I'm writing to encourage you to attend the Rancho Piccolo CSA open house on the 24th. I just wanted to let you know a little about my experience with being a member of the CSA and how it has made my life a healthier one.

I've been a member of the CSA for about two years now. My boyfriend and I joined pretty soon after we moved to Merced from Orange County. When we made the decision to move to the Central Valley we talked about what great farmers markets and produce we would have access to. But what we didn't know was so many farmers in the area take their produce to farmers markets in the bay area where they can make more money (that's understandable). So we were a bit disappointed about our farmers market choices locally. After asking around we learned that joining the CSA would be a good way to access local Valley produce, so we signed up!

Joining the CSA has impacted the way we eat in the following ways:

1) It changes your mindset about planning meals. We used to think about meals in terms of "what do we want to eat" and then we would go grocery shopping or out to eat and this type of thinking about meal planning makes it much more likely that you will make unhealthy decisions about meals (for example heading to In and Out or the local taco shop on a Wednesday night wasn't uncommon for us). Now we think about meals in terms of "what do we have here to eat." We want to make sure we eat all our produce from the CSA so we build our meals around what we have in the house. Though this means sometimes being creative we've ended up eating a lot more simply at home, like more roasted vegetables, soups, and salads, so we can take advantage of our CSA produce and use as much as possible.

2) You learn to eat seasonally. I never thought about seasonal eating until we joined the CSA. I had no problem eating berries in the winter and corn on the cob all year round because I could get any produce I wanted at the grocery store any time of the year I wanted. Even though we still supplement the CSA veggies we get with grocery store veggies, now I buy seasonally to complement the CSA produce. There's just something about eating seasonally that makes sense and makes you feel that much more connected with the experience of cooking and eating. It just makes for a more conscious and thoughtful experience with food and that can really change the way you think about how and what you eat. And eating seasonally decreases the miles traveled for produce and that improves air quality making the Central Valley a healthier place for all!

3) We started to understand that food is connected with community. We know that individuals who have strong social networks lead healthier lives. They are less stressed and live longer. Well in an interesting way the CSA has strengthened our social network and ties. It's like the Silveira family are friends of ours! I look forward to hearing from them every week through the newsletter and I look forward to meeting other members at open houses. It's like a little social ripple that all starts with the food we eat. Without the CSA I don't think I would have fully understood the linkages between food and community. When you buy food at the grocery store there aren't any "community strings" attached to it. I don't know where grocery store produce always comes from, I don't know who grew it and with the CSA instead there is a full understanding of this, and beyond just knowing where your food came from I experience a sincere feeling of social connections through it.

Hopefully these three reasons help you to understand how the CSA has made our lives healthier!

I hope to see you on the 24th here in the San Joaquin Valley!

Best,

Lila

Now let's see if she shows up!