#WinePW CSA Challenge? Accepted!

This month I am inviting the Wine Pairing Weekend group to join me in pairing veggies from their CSA boxes or local farmers' markets!

I know that organic fruits and veggies are available in virtually every grocery store in town. So, what's the appeal of a CSA box?

Let's review...right around the same time the Slow Food movement began to coalesce, the popularity of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) began to rise. CSAs are a popular way for us, as consumers, to buy locally-grown, organic, seasonal food directly from a farmer.

Here are the basics and benefits...the farmers receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm's cash flow and have an opportunity to get to know the people who eat the food they grow. We get weekly deliveries of fresh food, with all the flavor and vitamin benefits; we get exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking; and we usually get to visit the farm at least once a season so the kids see that food is grown in the ground and doesn't just magically appear - in cellophane - in the grocery store!

I had initially joined years ago to get organic, freshly plucked fruits and veggies every week during their season and to support a local farm. And while I am happy to support local farmers, I realized that one of my strongest reason for continuing my subscription: the mystery! I love a challenge.

I relish getting something unknown in my box. As an example, I had never seen, much less cooked with, agretti. But I loved the burst of juiciness that it brought to a quick pasta tossed with pancetta, caramelized onions, and mascarpone cheese. The albino looking carrots - parsnips - were transformed into a flavorful soup with a sweetness brought on by white chocolate. And roasted romanesco added a nuttiness to a frittata topped with asiago cheese.

I love the adventure of finding delectable ways to cook something I've never seen before. What might stress out some home-chefs, piques my curiosity and gives me a reason to look for new recipes. So, every time I pick up my CSA box, I do a happy dance. Woohoo. Oh, yeah. Woohoo. Oh, yeah!

I hope the other #WinePW are as excited as I am to shine the spotlight on some CSA veggies and pair them with a wine. Hopefully, we'll get some answers to questions: What wine pairs well with asparagus? What about vinegar-based slaws made with freshly shaved Napa cabbage? I can't wait to read the pairings! And, if you aren't a member of a CSA, don't worry, just get creative with some seasonal produce. This topic is wide open. Join me.

Details for participation

Are you ready to jump in and participate in the CSA Challenge? Accepted! #WinePW event? Here are the details…

Send an email (or post in our Facebook event) to tell me you're in: Include your blog url, Twitter handle, link to your Pinterest profile, and any other social media detail. If you know your blog post title now, include that...but you can send me that a bit closer to the event, I'd like to get a sense of who's participating and give some shoutouts and links as we go. The email is culinarycami[at]gmail[dot]com.

Send your post title to me by Sunday, August 7th, to be included in the preview post. I will do a preview post shortly after getting the titles, linking to your blogs. When your post goes live, the published title should include "#WinePW" but it doesn't need to be included for the title list. 

Publish your post anytime before 7:00 a.m. Pacific time on Saturday, August 13th. You can always schedule your post in advance if you will be tied up around then.

Include a link to the other #WinePW participants in your post, and a description of what the event is about. I'll provide the html code you can easily put in your initial post--which will link to people's general blog url--then updated code for the permanent links to everyone's #WinePW posts.

Get social! After the posts go live, please visit your fellow bloggers posts' to comment and share.

Sponsored posts OK if clearly disclosed. Please be sure to disclose if your post is sponsored or if you are describing wine or other products for which you have received a free sample.

Live #WinePW Twitter Chat August 13, 8:00 a.m. Pacific: Participating bloggers and others interested in the subject will connect via a live Twitter chat. It's a nice bring way to bring in others interested in the subject who didn't get a chance to share a blog post. You can definitely still join the blog event if you're not available for the live chat.