QUALITY CONTROL

I discovered something today: when washing eggs all ten of my hand digits participate. Standing there at the kitchen sink, looking at the egg in my fingers, watching how the water ran and was splashed on each, I could see clearly that I turned and rubbed each cackle berry using a similar method for each 3 second scrub down. Now I say three seconds and you say yeah right like you timed every one. No, I did not time every one. But a bunch just to make sure it was a scientific test. Three seconds probably isn't an average either, and, it was the most recurring measurement.

When washing eggs I am doing several things at once( all egg washers do these things, I suspect) the grandest of which is ensuring a high mark of quality. LDF egg-purchasers can be assured that their eggs have been thoroughly cleaned and stress tested. Sounds strange, indeed, stress test for eggs. Essentially when the cackle berry is in the hand under the water flow quite a bit of pressure is applied to all sides. I move the things in a random way, spinning and turning to cover all areas of the egg's surface. By applying pressure the dirt comes off and any structural flaws are presented most hastily and squishy. No bad eggs get by me. And this includes less than gorgeous ones, too. Stained or too oddly shaped and they go in the "seconds" tray; some eggs are cracked or otherwise damaged and they go on the "seconds" rack i. e., not good enough for sale but still tasty and useful and good enough for the farmers and their families.

I can assure you that every egg is tested in this way. Every egg is touched! This IS hands on quality control!!

Quality, the highest of quality, extends to field crops as well. This is evident each and every week for CSA members. Also evident twice the week at local Farmer's Markets.

Community Supported Agriculture has the ring of quality, doesn't it? And it should. CSA is just that: Community(a group of people striving & thriving together), Support(sharing risk and burden and Harvest) Farming. In a community there are many responsibilities to be shared. Thankfully, in a community there are no shortage of helping hands, and minds, to handle these responsibilities!

MACSAC says:

CSA is a unique social and economic arrangement between local households and farmers who work together to share the responsibility of producing and delivering fresh food. Households support the farm by paying an annual fee in the winter or spring that entitles them to a "share" of the season's harvest.

Very nice, succinct. They really have a very nice list of things on that page that apply to us and many many other CSAs. I encourage you to click around.

Go HERE and HERE and of course, HERE.

The USDA says CSA," ...provide mutual support and sharing of risks and benefits of food production."

Locally grown! That means the food you(hopefully you and your family) the share holder eat comes from, quite nearly, your very own neighborhood. No trains or airplanes used to deliver this food. No China factories to process it. No tankers, cargo ships or Mack trucks to haul it hundreds or thousands or hundreds-of -thousands of miles. It is on the Farm, grown, harvested, delivered or picked up by you, and then, hold on, eaten!! One might want to add a cold water rinsing, but that's all.

I wanna go on and on, people. I have been writing this one post for over a week now and need to put it to rest, or Post in this case.

More to come...