CSA in NYC
Cooking Demos At Your CSA
Presenters: Nicole, West Harlem and Astoria CSA; Pauline, Downtown CSA (Tribeca)
Group Activity
1. Why do cooking demos?
2. What do you hope to accomplish?
Why Do Cooking Demos
• less food waste
• community building
• increase CSA's visibility
• support new members
• nutritional education
• demonstrate that healthy can be convenient
• expand palates
• share knowledge
• inspire confidence to cook
• share information on a personal level (opposed to internet)
• outreach to non-members
• empower people to be healthier
• slow people down to enjoy pleasure of cooking
• increase low-income membership
• share different cuisines
• alternative to fast food
• learn to cook obscure vegetables
• rediscover culinary roots
• teach the younger generation
What do you hope to accomplish?
• Use up your food, be creative
• Teach food preservation techniques
• Community building
• Share challenges and successes
• Getting out of your food rut
• Creative way to bring people together for larger conversations
• Food security – extends the season
CSA Chef Program through Just Food
• Takes CSA members and train them to do demos at their CSA’s
• $50-$150 sliding scale fee
• Prefer one person per CSA, must get approval from core group
• Choose members who are comfortable with cooking, engaging, charismatic
• Lots of info on food safety
• Recipe selection – need something quick without a lot of ingredients
• You will receive a coy of Veggie Tip Sheets on CD and Just Food apron
• Get equipment from CSA Farm
Pauline discussed her experience with the chef program. In this program, she learned how to cook and engage people at the same time. Some places might not allow open flame, so you might have to use induction stove. You’ll need money for items such as olive oil, salt and pepper, plates, pots/pans. You can use money from your CSA admin fees to pay for these supplies. You might not always know what you’re getting in advance from the farm. You can do a lot without actually cooking, i.e. teaching group how to peel a kohlrabi
Nicole discussed her experience. She had to find a better and bigger space to do the demo from her distribution spot. Did a demo on the very last day of distribution. She looked at what veggies were being distributed over the past 2-3 months to pick several recipes, since she wasn’t sure exactly what she might get the day of the demo. Demo created a sense of community. She’d like to focus on preservation next year.
Keep in mind that the demo doesn’t have to be AT the distribution. It could be another date (great community building event), but this won’t work for all CSA groups.
