Community Supported Sugar High

The Good Food podcast had a bit a couple weeks ago about a new offshoot of CSA – Community Supported Agriculture.

A few enterprising food producers in Madison, WI have started a CSP&B: Community Supported Preserves and Breads.

Here’s a blurb from the producers – Pamplemousse Preserves – about how it works:

All of our artisanal products are made by hand, in small batches to ensure high quality and freshness. When you buy from us, you're also supporting the local farmers we rely on for our sustainably grown ingredients.

Products vary from box to box, reflecting seasonal availability and the producers' creativity. Each CSP&B delivery will offer:

• Honey Bee Bakery: One 1-1/2 lb. loaf of bread; one 6-in. butter cake with seasonal fruit; Two small pastries $15
• Kindly Kraut: Two pints of ferment, sauerkraut, and/or kimchi $12
• Pamplemousse Preserves: One 9oz jam, one 4oz jam $15

A sample of what you are likely to get in your first box:

One 9-oz jar of tomato jam and one 4-oz jar of raspberry lemon verbena jam; one pint of dill sauerkraut and one pint of radish kimchi; one 1-1/2 lb. wheat berry bread, one 6-in. butter cake with Italian plums, and two chocolate hazelnut tartlets.

First of all, how cool is that?

Secondly, all in a flash, my future became completely clear. I must one day start a CSIC&HRD: Community Supported Ice Cream and High-Risk Desserts. Subscribe and I show up once a month with a bunch of ice creams, dessert components and a sheet of instructions of how to put them together.

I’m kind of not joking. I know I am getting too late a start with all of this cooking and too old to try to go into the restaurant business now. And my need for novelty and experimentation means I am not going to be trying to start a traditional kind of food business.

But I have been feeling like this drive I have to be creative in this way is far too all-encompassing to just be a hobby. It feels a bit like I need to find some way to harness this for some kind of productive end or risk financial ruin and Type 2 Diabetes.

So watch this space, folks. I know I have many hundreds of hours of learning to go before I can even get a consistent result for myself, much less actually ask people to pay money for it. And, after that, there’s all the necessary capital investment in an OVEN THAT DOESN’T BREAK MY HEART or a commercial work space and a Real Girl Ice Cream Maker, but still...

Whenever my friends are feeling at a crossroads with their careers, I always deliver the same exact advice, namely that maybe why they feel like they are not sure what they want to do next with their lives is because their ideal job doesn’t exactly exist yet. Maybe they will have to make something up that brings together their interests and talents.

I am always thrilled, therefore, to see something like Pamplemousse Preserves and this CSP&B, as I see it as a hopeful sign from someone who’s doing it themselves, creating their own careers to fit their lives.

P.S.  Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Good Food podcast with all my heart?  I love host and chef Evan Kleiman's good-natured approach and the mix of offbeat news and super useful tips.  Although the show is for the LA area, I find it to be the best food show out there no matter where you live. 

The episode with the above info also had some great info on foraging for Wild Mushrooms with experienced foragers, a new mushroom producer called Golden Gourmet Mushrooms that sounds very promising, a three-ingredient soup from Mark Bittman and more...