Meet CSA Member Kelly
Member since 2021
I want to introduce you to Kelly! Kelly works at a tech company and her spouse works at a local university. They moved to Portland 20 years ago and love that the city is full of like-minded people. A big draw for them to the area was that the community supports local food, local farming, and the environment.
The family enjoys cooking and their new puppy!
CSA Pick-Up Location
Portland
Type of Share
10#
Word Of Mouth
Kelly first heard about the CSA from her coworker and long-term member, Heather. Kelly was familiar with the CSA experience from participating in veggie CSAs. She felt that the CSA model is a great tool for accessing local food.
“I like the creativity of having an item and figuring out how to cook it.
I think without that, I would eat the same things over and over again.”
Kelly put herself on the waitlist and stayed on it until a spot opened up and she could join.
Increasing Support Of Local Agriculture
Kelly shared that there wasn’t one aha moment that connected her to supporting local food. Over time she started becoming more aware of factory farming and she didn’t want to contribute to it. She wanted to support an ethical system for raising meat.
Supporting environmental causes has also been very important to her and is critically important to the decision to support local food.
I have kids, so I'm concerned about the future. I'm really concerned about the impacts of climate change. It’s not enough for me to just be worried, but I also need to really think about how I can change my lifestyle.
One of the ways Kelly is trying to lower her climate impact is to consider how far the food has traveled to get to the store before purchasing it. Her family continues to make decisions based on these environmental priorities and looks for new ways to be more conscious and make changes in their lives.
CSA Experience
So far Kelly’s CSA experience has been amazing. She loves that the meat is high quality and tastes great!
Other aspects of the CSA that she has enjoyed include:
The food is healthy food for the kids and is nourishing their bodies.
Having meat in the freezer means that you always know what you have to work with for dinner. Kelly loves the go-to cuts like the ground meats and the new to her cuts that provide a little bit of a challenge.
Recipe support from the CSA like “Unboxing” blog posts and “I Ate It And It Was Great” emails help her meal plan with a busy schedule. Seeing tried and true recipe suggestions cuts the time down on having to scour online for ideas.
“I like having a smaller structure and smaller community of places with good ideas. I have eaten some great things and gotten some really good ideas.
I feel sometimes things are on such a large scale and I want things that can be simpler and on a small community scale. Things that make life a lot easier. I appreciate anything that simplifies my life.
”
Weekly Meal Planning
Kelly is an established weekly meal planner. She gets the meat at pick up once a month and then gets a bi-weekly veggie CSA. She looks at what they have in the fridge and pantry on the weekends and then picks any needed items up at the store.
Her motto is to use what they have first though. A big source of pride is having an empty fridge. It means that nothing is going to waste. She loves seeing what they can make with items on hand.
Mealtime Inspiration
Outside of CSA recipe supports, Kelly looks to a few established cooking blogs and some favorite cookbooks for mealtime inspiration.
Some of her go-to sites are:
Some of her go-to cookbooks include:
How To Cook Everything Fast by Mark Bittman
Time To Eat Delicious Meals For Busy Lives by Nadiya Hussain
Kelly loves the Chicken Curry Bake from Hussain’s cookbook. Her family eats it regularly!
Outstanding Cuts And Meals
Other great meals that the family has enjoyed include using the stir-fry beef strips to make beef and broccoli.
Kelly loves getting the whole chickens, cooking them, and making a lot of different dishes with the meat. The family also loves getting steak in their share!
Final Thoughts
“I think that Katia is always so nice and friendly at pick up, all the time. Everybody is that I chat with.
It’s just lovely. I love being a part of this. I’m really glad I did it.”
Thank you, Kelly, for sharing your experience with us! -Rachel