The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Look at How CSA Can Help You Reach Your Goals

Farm Update

Fred cleans some yellow shallots with our ancient root washer
that we got working earlier in the season.  Meant for potatoes,
turnips, and other root vegetables, it's also very effective at
cleaning onions and shallots.

 Hi everyone!  It's definitely starting to feel more like fall out there.  We've been continuing to plant crops for the last part of the season; today Fred planted a bunch of arugula and radishes in one of the coldframes.  We've also been planting spinach out in the field in anticipation of next season; the most recent spinach planting will be protected under a layer of perforated clear plastic for the winter so it will be ready to harvest early in the spring.  Fred also transplanted some lettuce last week into another coldframe, which will be the spring mix in the final week's share.  Speaking of the last week of the CSA, that will be the week that runs from October 30-November 3.  So we still have five weeks of veggies left!  In other news, we and a lot of other growers in our area have really struggled with the white aphids this year.  They're a pretty common fall pest, but this year they have been a lot more severe due to the dry weather.  We've been irrigating a lot for the last several weeks, and we were glad to get a little bit of rain this weekend, even though it was a very small amount.  It dried up pretty quickly, but we'll definitely take whatever rain we can get.  We are now entering the home stretch of the 2017 CSA season.  While we're often pretty tired (okay, exhausted) by October, as every endurance athlete knows, this is the time to kick it in and finish strong.  So here we go!  Bring on October!

What to Expect in your Share this Week

Although they start small, by this time of year, our shiso plants
have grown up into a beautiful purple and green hedge!

If you are picking up at one of our regular drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, and Midland) this week, here are the options you’ll find at each station!  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item at each station, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.

Broccoli for everyone!
Lettuce
Cherry tomatoes or slicing tomatoes
Carrots or potatoes
Kale, collards, or Napa cabbage
Surprise veggie
Red onion or yellow shallot

And if you’re having your share delivered or picking up in Lansing, Okemos, or the Midand hospital, here are your options.  If you have a half share, choose either share A or share B, and if you have a full share, you get to choose two.

Share A:                               Share B:

Broccoli                               Broccoli
Lettuce                                 Lettuce
Cherry tomatoes                  Slicing tomatoes
Carrots                                 Potatoes
Kale                                     Napa cabbage
Surprise veggie                   Surprise veggie
Red onion                           Yellow shallot

The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Look at How CSA Can Help You Reach Your Goals

Timmy can't wait until he's old enough to help
take care of the chickens!

One of the occupational hazards of being a farmer is that you have all the time in the world for half of the year, and then you are crazy busy for the other half.  Like, have to work from 5:30 AM to 11:30 PM just to pack in all of the non-negotiables on the to-do list busy.  Given that this is my life from June to November, one of the things that pretty much gets me through the summer is audiobooks.  I check them out and download them from the library’s extensive catalog of audiobooks, then I put them on my phone to listen to while I’m washing dishes, doing laundry, weeding, and packing up all those nice little bags of carrots and potatoes in the CSA shares.  One of my favorite book genres is the self-improvement type, and I find myself drawn to books on organization and time management in particular.  I don’t know why; I think that that type of literature just appeals to my nerdy, type-A self. 

One book that I listened to recently over the course of a few days was by an author named Sarah Knight, and I won’t name the book because it has an expletive in the title, but suffice it to say that it was a very funny take on how to hone your ability to get stuff done.  One thing she talked about was harnessing “the power of negative thinking” which sounds not only counterintuitive, but counter to what pretty much all of the self-improvement people have been talking about for a long time.  Like, aren’t we supposed to be focused on thinking positive?

Before you start saying “Okay, what is this even about?  This has nothing to do with farming, or vegetables, or anything…”  That is all true, but despite the extremely long rabbit trail I’ve just been on, it does have something to do with the CSA.  In particular, why you’re a part of it. 

It’s been suggested by a lot of really prominent people from megachurch leaders to TV personalities with their own networks that what we ought to be striving for “our best life now.”  There is something appealing about this line of thinking.  In my best life, I would always have hair perfect enough to rival any Disney princess, and all the time (and inclination) I’d need to stay in good enough shape to run a marathon with just a few weeks’ notice, and I’d be able to jaunt away to Europe for a few weeks every year or two.  (Spoiler alert:  That’s not actually what my life looks like.)  My guess is that for some of you, signing up for the CSA was a largely aspirational act, because in your best life, you’d be cooking up Martha Stewart level meals every night in your state-of-the art kitchen, and of course you need the highest quality organic produce to make food that phenomenal.  And your family would be amazed, and your kids would beg you to make those awesome veggies, and since you’d be getting so much amazing nutrition, none of you would ever get sick again, not even a cold.  (My guess is that’s not what your life looks like either.  That makes two of us.)

So where does the power of negative thinking come in?  Maybe instead of thinking entirely aspirationally, like in the Disney-princess-hair, Martha-Stewart-kitchen fantasy, we should think about identifying the thing in our lives that isn’t working for us.  Because that aspirational dream of perfection is a moving target.  You never actually get there, and after a while, you start to think, “Okay, this is never going to happen.  Maybe eating well and being healthy is just unattainable.  Better just pick up a dozen frozen pizzas and a huge bulk box of ramen noodles and call it a day.”  But with the power of negative thinking, the though process is different.  It goes more like, “It really bums me out that I get sick so often, and that I can’t wear all my favorite clothes that I could wear 15 pounds ago.  So what do I need to change to get to a point where I feel well consistently and can dig those cute clothes out of the storage boxes?”  That is where the CSA can fit in.  Once you identify a strategy to reach your goal, such as “Replace four processed meals per week with home-cooked veggie based meals”, and you commit to doing the actions outlined in the strategy, you’ll start to see results that move you in the direction you want.  And sometimes an up-front commitment, such as signing up for a CSA, is the kick you need to keep doing the actions you know will move you toward your goal, even when the goal isn’t shiny and new and surrounded by a beatific haze anymore.  And then who knows?  Maybe the day will come that you’re standing in line at the CSA drop-off with your cute market basket, wearing that cute dress that you couldn’t fit into a few months ago, planning the great meal you’re going to cook that night in your fancy kitchen (which is also somehow magically clean all the time), and you’ll realize that at least in one area, your best life kind of sneaked up on you when you weren’t looking. J

Recipes

And speaking of Martha Stewart, here are 30 Tried and True Broccoli recipes she created to get you on the way to those amazing dinners!  Check them out for some broccoli inspiration!