We get most of our fruit and vegetables through a local cooperative called a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Unlike a typical buying cooperative though, a CSA also works to support the producers of food, often one farmer. It binds producers and consumers together, so that producers know they have a certain income, and consumers get more or less food, depending on how things are going.

The one to which my wife and I belong is called Spiritual Food CSA. It supports biodynamic farming, which practices more stringent standards than regular organic farming, though I don’t know all the details. The word spiritual comes in, because the CSA is organized by a local yoga ashram, for whom healthy food, a healthy earth, healthy people, and a healthy spiritual life are inseparable. At least that’s what I think it means. I don’t get into the spiritual side of things, but I like taking yoga, and the people at the Shanti Yoga Ashram are just plain good folk. If only I had time for yoga right now. My commute from Northwest DC to Fairfax, VA and my teaching schedule has been keeping me away. Must change that.

Anyway, we pay one price for half a year and then pick up a share of food every week. Apples from the fall harvest had been accumulating in my fridge, as had oranges, which the CSA gets direct from Florida. Today, I decided to take action. I dug out the old juice maker and made orange juice and apple juice. I also made a large glass of apple sauce. Yum!