My mother told me to eat my vegetables, now a CSA does.

            Don’t get me wrong, I love my CSA. It’s a privilege to belong and I’ve been a member for many years. It’s a membership I would never think of relinquishing. I am a proud, boastful even, admiring its acres of cultivated fields that were once barren and stony. I recall the initial years when many volunteers including students from GCC and Greenfield high schoolers hauled out rocks, raked and shoveled preparing fields for planting. I witnessed all that arduous work of turning untended acreage into fertile ground. Over these many years, I’ve admired diverse crews of farmers, each with their dedication, skills and work ethic in spite of heat, humidity, mud and bugs. Now those fields feed hundreds of local families as well as providing fresh food for hospitals in a wide area. And I am glad that I have an opportunity to support the growing food security of our community.

On typical Saturdays, from June – October, there are the troops of families who come to the farm to select from the known and unknown, the familiar and exotic range of seasonable goodies. Now too, there are pick-your-own herbs, fruits and flowers with the feat of juggling a quart of raspberries in one hand and a brilliantly colorful bouquet in the other.

So yes, I look forward to Saturday mornings toting my two bags to pick out our share. Last week, it included peaches, corn, herbs and tomatoes. I easily come up with what to do with two pounds of peaches. I’ll make a smoothie and/or dice them for a salsa with the tomatoes and cilantro, or just savored whole because who doesn’t love to eat a peach as summer’s own sweet bounty. I’ll slice the tomatoes for a quick version of a caprese sandwich, using the basil that was also part of the CSA share. I’ll make a thick sauce with the rest. But despite, these valiant efforts, the fridge is still packed. There are other veggies from my share because it’s hard, to be honest, to take ONLY what I know we will use in a week. The bunches of carrots were gorgeous too. The leeks — wouldn’t they add a good flavor to just about everything? The squashes, chard, the purply-black eggplant or the one with reddish stripes that belongs on a pedestal or the broccolini that looked good too? A CSA offers a banquet of choices I am excited to use. Except when I don’t.

And there’s the problem. I feel guilty when the kale is wilting after five days in the vegetable drawer. The dark green chard with its neon red stems, the one I meant to cook right away, but didn’t, isn’t looking so great. And that melon that rolled into a back corner somewhere is now rather soft and spotty. And while I turned most of the five pounds of tomatoes into sauce there were still a few strays that got mushy sitting on the counter because somewhere I heard that if you put tomatoes in the fridge they lose their nutrients. So, I don’t — so, they decay. Sometimes, I’m even reluctant to accept a generous invitation for dinner for fear of those uneaten veggies. And no, my friends don’t want a creative casserole. Just bring you, they insist.

Which is what brings me back to that “CSA tyranny.” And the resolution to do something quick with the yellow squash, the fresh parsley and the lonely scallion. And today is Friday and well, tomorrow … tomorrow, we do it all again.

Ruth Charney lives in Greenfield.