When hiromi lived in Tokyo, she had this amazing service that delivered produce and whatnot every week in the form of a somewhat blind box. It was great. She got awesome produce, fresh and magically. She didn't really have a choice in what produce arrived, and was only guaranteed that it would be in season and locally grown. 

When visiting, and marveling at all things Japanese - I just attributed it to another interesting thing that japan has created.  However, while talking to my friend Jon, he explained that it was most likely a Community-supported agriculture group. Jon explained how it works and and how I should be able to find one locally and take advantage of the same magic that hiromi had in Tokyo.

So I went looking and found this place called Freshpicks.com. They have some cheesy story about how they were professionals and wanted to start a CSA - but the results are great. We signed up last week and received our first box on Thursday. It was awesome. A bundle of cilantro, some arugula, some rhubarb (for which hiromi made an awesome rhubarb pie) and some other less memorable stuff. Its only $25 bucks and they deliver the produce to you. So you don't really have to do much but cook and eat. It makes me excited.

To find out about a CSA close to you, check out Local Harvest. They have all sorts of resources for finding CSAs, and other good organic stuffs.

[tags]csa, chicago, freshpicks.com, organic, agriculture[/tags]