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CSA Etiquette: When Roommates Don’t Eat Their Veggies

by · July 21st, 2008
Community Agriculture, Cooking, Featured, Leftovers, Personal Story, Vegetables

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From Dear Abby to Ask Umbra, advice columns are a time-honored method publications use to engage readers on a personal level, while sharing expertise and etiquette from a trusted expert. But what happens when the “expert” (and I use that term loosely here) is stumped with a question of her own? Today, I thought I’d switch things up and turn to you with a CSA-related quandary that has been gnawing at me for the last few weeks. Miss Manners might tsk tsk my table-turning, but this is the blogosphere, after all, and I’m desperate for a little good advice…

Dear Gentle Eaters,

After nearly being shut out of my CSA this year, I was fortunate enough to secure a share. My two roommates said they wanted in, so we split full vegetable and fruit shares three-ways, which cut down on the cost, and – I thought – meant we’d split the eating duties. But several weeks in, I seem to be the only one using the vegetables! Over the last three weeks, one roommate made a chocolate beet cake, and the other made a turnip mash (both delicious), but the responsibility of using the drawer full of broccoli, lettuce, kale, cukes, blueberries, and just about everything else, has fallen on my shoulders.


If I knew this was going to be the case, I would have just gotten a half share for myself. But now I’m stuck with the weekly tension of not wanting the lovely vegetables to go to waste (and also just wanting to eat them!), but also not wanting to step on my roommate’s toes and be “the girl who bogarts all the veggies.”

At this point, I usually hold off until a day or two before the next pick up and then have a vegetable scarf fest. But I’d love to be more thoughtful about my CSA cooking. If my roommates don’t want to use the vegetables, that’s fine with me – more for Shabbat dinner! – but I feel awkward about it because they both fronted a third of the bill. What should I do?  How can I bring this up to them without sounding too judgmental about their CSA neglect?

Thanks,
Craving The Still-Fresh Kale

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8 Responses to “CSA Etiquette: When Roommates Don’t Eat Their Veggies”

  1. Rhea Says:
    July 21st, 2008 at 11:36 am

    This is a good question! And I love the table-turning advice column format :) Usually, when my roommates haven’t used produce it’s been because they aren’t sure what to do with it and they’re happy to let me cook it up. But your roommates sound quite creative.

    How about using the more abundant veggies to make large batches of some dishes, so your roommates can use the leftovers? That way they get to eat the veggies, too. And they might get inspired to make the next batch!

  2. Kerr Says:
    July 21st, 2008 at 11:57 am

    I have had a similar problem, and since I’m going out of town, I am going to cancel the remainder of our share. My roommates have done head-noddy “we told you it wasn’t going to work” things when I have mentioned doing so. They all want to write out a week’s worth of recipes and then go to the grocery stores and farmers’ markets to get exactly what they need. So maybe it just isn’t working for us this year, and I’ll have to go back to farmers’ marketing like a fiend myself… which, naturally, I don’t mind one bit.

  3. Hannah Lee Says:
    July 21st, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    Leah, you’re doing your roommates a favor by using up the veggies. You don’t need to feel guilty and neither do they for not using their shares themselves. Do you share dinner together or do they eat out more often? Could you switch some of the veggies for fruit in your CSA? Fruit is easier to eat fresh and whole, so even busy professionals can pack fruit for their work day.

  4. Allison Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 am

    Leah,
    It sounds like option time. Maybe you can change your order to get a personal half-share, or maybe a neighbor would be willing to take half. With a couple options you’d feel comfortable with in hand, you might be able to have a low-key, non-judgmental, what are we going to do with all these veges kind of talk. In my experience, posing a problem, having a few truly viable options, and letting people develop more is pretty effective strategy.

  5. valereee Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am

    Leah, how about preserving some of the food so you can all use it in winter? A lot of pickle-y things can be preserved in small batches, and berries, peppers, onions, tomatoes freeze beautifully with very little work.

  6. Leah Koenig Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 am

    Thanks for all the helpful comments, everyone. I guess that, like everything, it really comes down to having a conversation with the roommies – as awkward as it might be. I suppose I knew that, but I needed the reminder!

  7. jen Says:
    December 15th, 2008 at 4:54 am

    I’m entering this way too late and you might have everything worked out by now.
    CSA baskets are usually full of surprizes, so you could ask your roomies to help you figure out who gets to use what. You could even sigh ‘rutabegas! What are we going to do with more rutabegas?’ or try ‘I claim the corn! Can I have it? What are you guys going to make?’ If they don’t cook the dishes they planned with the veggies they claimed, then take your Shabbat veggies to someone else’s house (ie, don’ become their in-house chef, unless you want them to pay all your rent). You can offer to swap part of your broccoli casserole for some of their carrot cake. You could even ask when they plan to cook it, because it is part of your menu planning for the week.
    Do it in a hand-holding, having-fun-together sort of way, not in a nagging, superior way, and it should be actually fun in the end.

  8. Talitha Says:
    February 27th, 2009 at 12:42 am

    ah. I have invented (at least, in my house, i was the first one to do it) veggie box soup, which happens the night after the veggie box comes, with last week’s veggies in it. You just make a whopping lot of it, and leave it in the fridge, and they have to eat it too, but you get to decide what it is they’re eating.
    peace~
    another most-consciencientious-veg-eater-of-a-community-house

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