This bowl of fruit, vegetables, and herbs is a sampling of our first delivery of an expected total of thirty-one from the Little Farm in Gilbert. The Little Farm in Gilbert is a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture operation that, through word of mouth, attracts subscribers who pay $16 a week to receive varying selections of fresh foods depending on what is coming in from October 26 through June 7, 2006. Today’s bag included two ears of corn, six Japanese eggplants, three peppers, six pears, a bunch of carrots, approximately a pound each of lettuce and spinach, and a healthy portion of sweetly aromatic basil.

For the next 30 deliveries, we can look forward to locally grown pesticide-free fresh radishes, turnips, Chinese cabbage, garlic, turnips, kohlrabi, onions, lemons, pak choi, parsley, cauliflower, snow peas, beets, escarole, fennel, asparagus, chard, broccoli, arugula, sorrel, cucumbers, squash, and sage in addition to the items in today’s shipment. Tomatoes and beans have been scratched from the list because the crop didn’t make it – a risk of pesticide-free farming. No matter, though; the rest looks great, and wow, how nice it is to buy veggies that actually have a smell to them.