Arganica Farm Club

In what is perhaps the antithesis of Cheap Ethnic Suburban Dining, Marta and I received our first delivery from Arganica Farm Club last night. We have a livingsocial deal for a free month long membership. After that, we probably won't be able to sustain our expensive, locally sourced diet.

It's really fun to come home to a big box of delicious food at your doorstep. Arganica is not a CSA model, meaning you can select the food you want, which includes meat, dairy, and prepared foods, in addition to fruits and vegetables. But our first order came with a produce box, so we stuck with that. We also got hummus from a farm in Virginia and peanut butter that is totally unlabeled, and could be any brown substance as far as I know. It is the best hummus and the best peanut butter I have ever had. I may or may not have eaten both of them for breakfast straight out of the container.

We're not sure if these are lemons, or lemon-lime hybrids.

Marta and I were excited about most of the produce, although our box was "Organic" but not "Organic and Local," which is (even) more expensive. Supposedly, the goal is to provide local food when possible, but our celery was from California, and our pears were from Argentina. I don't really understand the benefit of this. I don't even have to go to Whole Foods to get international organic foods- I can get that at Giant or Safeway. But when you order things individually, you know where it's coming from and how it's produced ahead of time. I suppose one of the big draws is the home delivery, but we have two good grocery stores within walking distance of our apartment, so that's not a big value add right now.

Still life with unidentified root vegetable.

We are not sure what these are. Rutabagas? Turnips? Radishes? Are they even all the same thing? And what do we do with them? Rita suggests rutabaga fries if we are able to slice through them.

Big Night In in the Alex and Marta household: cooking with our new produce box! We made spicy broccoli pasta and carrot ginger soup. I'm very excited for my Friday lunch leftovers.

Vietnamese food this weekend! Julia and I are also hopeful that a possible trip to H St. with Adam and his friends will result in some dangerously delicious pie.