Vendredi V - "Can I Have $750 to Buy Vegetables?" Edition

Nothing says spring like the return of that favourite feature here on PGT - Vendredi V, right?

Another thing that shouts "SPRING!" is the planning of gardens and anticipation of fresh produce. Since I don't have a garden (yet...), I signed up this week for the next best thing: a CSA.

CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) are basically rent-a-garden (plus bonus gardeners!) for city folks. Someone else plants, cultivates, and, because I am lazy found an awesome one, delivers fresh produce for the entire growing season.

I was a Janey-Come-Lately last year and was only able to get the winter storage share from the CSA I found, but it was fantastic. So I stalked their website all winter and was first in line when they finally announced their 2011 season. Can't wait until June!

I wonder if all this veggie-love is why this time of year also brings to mind something else that for me is pretty spring-y - being a vegetarian. It was in spring 11 years ago that I was eating a delicious chicken breast. I started it as an omnivore and, by the time I ate the last bite, I was a vegetarian. In practice, it took awhile to officially join the team, but in my head and heart, I was done.

And so, how much more spring-y than:

Top 5 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian:

1. It keeps me healthy! I gave up the ol' carcass just before I got pregnant with The Girl. (After a year of infertility, but I'm not claiming causality.) People around me worried, but I had a healthy pregnancy, a healthy daughter, and wash-rinse-repeat the same two years later (well, except the daughter part). The past 11 years have been the healthiest of my life. Again, it's not necessarily the absence of meat, but perhaps the concentration on veggies and beans and whole grains, but whatever - I'll take it!

2. It's good for the planet! No proselytizing or condemnation here - y'all can eat what you like. And certainly I have no moral highground - every time I go into the co-op I can just feel the vegans getting all judgey on me for the dairy in my cart. But I do believe that a vegetarian diet helps fulfill God's commandment to care for the earth and all the creatures in it.

3. It keeps me nimble in the kitchen! If you're used to the meat + starch + veg combo, vegetarian cooking is daunting. Gone are the "defrost something from the freezer while you figure out rice vs. potatoes and corn vs. peas" days. Absence of meat does not automatically equal a healthy diet - heck, Old Dutch chips 24/7 would technically be veg. (And be technically awesome!) So it takes a fair amount of creativity to make sure you've got enough protein. I've got three picky eaters in this family, so I spend a lot of time with cookbooks (and hearing complaints). But hey, at least we're trying new things!

4. I'm indecisive! You know that feeling you get when you go to a restaurant and you're totally overwhelmed with the options and it takes you fifteen minutes to decide, going back and forth between your final two dishes until the server finally comes for the third time and you blurt out whichever choice happens to be winning? Well, there's none of that analysis paralysis when you're veg! Unless I intentionally seek out one of those local food/caters to the hipsters restaurants, I usually have two, maybe three choices tops. It still takes me fifteen minutes to decide, but I'm not nearly as lathered up with anxiety by the end.

5. It's dee-lish-uss!! Honestly, going veg wasn't very hard for me. I admire people who lurve meat and still give it up for moral reasons - I don't know if I have that kind of fortitude. I love veggies with my whole heart (except eggplant - we're still eyeing one another with suspicion across the table). I love beans - oh black beans, I heart you so. Truthfully, my diet is so full of amazing food that there really isn't room for meat.

Oh man, my mouth is watering right now - bring on the spring spinach! And bring it directly to my door, you fabulous CSA fairy!