Do you know where your food comes from?  You should!  I had the opportunity to volunteer my time Monday at Johnson’s Backyard Garden in Austin, TX.   Brenton Johnson is the Owner of this Certified Organic Farm, “home of the largest CSA (community supported agriculture) in Texas, with more than 900+ members”.  I first became aware of Johnson’s Backyard Garden at Austin’s downtown Farmer’s Market, as I buy the majority of my vegetables from Johnson’s Backyard Garden every Saturday.

Brenton Johnson has harnessed the power of social media, as he sent out a tweet asking for volunteers to come out and help transplant onions (Thanks to ATXFoodNews for Re-Tweeting as I missed the original tweet).  With the current weather we’d been having in and around Austin, it was too wet at the farm to transplant onions, so myself, the other volunteers and several of the regular farm workers harvested turnips and carrots.  It was amazing to be harvesting vegetables that were going to the Farmer’s Market this week and to grocery stores, such as Whole Foods Markets.  Talk about fresh!

The other thing the struck me is farming is not easy work (by Wednesday my legs hurt so bad) and I think everyone should volunteer at least once at a farm to see just where your food is coming from.  In today’s society, we take for granted where our food comes from and don’t always educate ourselves exactly what is in our food and how it is processed because we live in such fast paced culture.  Having Celiac’s Disease, I have to know where my food comes from and what is in my food!  Also, my friend Carla Crownover (Co-Owner of Austin Urban Gardens) has inspired me to buy more of my items from the Farmer’s Market each week with learning about her year-long journey of not shopping in a grocery store (see article link below).

I am so excited about the contents of my CSA box that I picked up Wednesday from the Triangle Farmer’s Market (located at 46th Street and Lamar)!  I am planning on cooking up a few new recipes this weekend I have not tried before using the kohlrabi and turnips (yes they will be posted on my blog and I will share them so they can be posted on Johnson’s Backyard Gardens recipe sharing section of their website as well).

Thank you again to everyone over at Johnson’s Backyard Gardens for such a wonderful experience and for my box of veggies!

Included in my CSA Box:

Photography Credit:

Scott David Gordon

Special Note:

In exchange for my hours of volunteering at Johnson’s Backyard Garden I received one (1) CSA box (contents listed above).

Related Articles:

• One Woman’s Year Without a Grocery Store (food.change.org)
• Joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Cooperative – The Pros! (symbolandsubstance.wordpress.com)
• Field Trip: Our CSA box (life.nationalpost.com)