For an eyewitness account of bok choy innovation and to provide some insights into the CSA experience, we asked some friends and long-time farm supporters, Kip and Christa, some questions.
Tell us a bit about yourselves.
We’re the Holland-Anderson family – Christa, Kip, Martha, Henri, and Chloe. We’ve lived here in the core city of Holland since 1997 when Christa and I moved here from Chicago. Our whole family lives on the academic calendar – Christa and Kip are both public school teachers. As a family we love spending time on the beach (both here in Michigan and any other location), playing games, and hiking with our two rescue dogs.
Tell us about your experience with Eighth Day Farm and how you’ve used your CSA share.
We like Eighth Day Farm’s commitment to social action and their New Fast Food Program. How have we used our share? We use it all! We hate to waste food and so there are times when a particular vegetable is in abundance that we need to challenge ourselves to find new ways to use it. Case in point, a number of years ago we had an abundance of bok choy, so Christa devised the “Bok Choy Challenge” to see if we could use bok choy in three meals in a day. Smoothies, eggs, and stir fry were all made better with the addition of bok choy. Additionally, our 17-year-old daughter, Martha, has been volunteering on the farm the past two summers. Weeding, washing, and prepping vegetables. She loves the community while working on the farm and it’s inspired her to consider a career in food sustainability or food justice.
How did you decide to become CSA members?
Our first experience with CSAs was about a dozen years ago, when we joined Trillium Haven which was located in Jenison. It was our family’s first experience with a lot of new vegetables and challenged us to find ways to use them in ways that our family would enjoy. We’ve been CSA members ever since, switching through a couple of CSAs as we tried to get our food sources closer to our home.
What vegetable are you most excited about for this year, and how do you like to prepare it?
Christa and Kip are big salad eaters so lettuce right from the fields is always a hit. Kale is another favorite. Overall, as we said above, we don’t let anything go to waste and find ways to enjoy it all.
Click here for details and to sign up for our CSA and design your own bok choy adventures.
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