June through October David and I split a community supported agriculture (CSA) share at a local farm with my brother and his wife. We go to the farm once a week and pick up fresh, organic produce. It is delightful and I would recommend it to anyone. But one must remember that these vegetables are organic and sometimes this can come with unwanted problems (holes in the leaves from bugs, etc.)

       One particular evening I was home preparing dinner for my husband as well as several guests. The vegetable with the meal was broccoli that we had picked up from the farm the day before. I was dutifully rinsed the beautiful, robust heads and started slicing them into bite-sized pieces. Much to my horror within a few cuts of the knife I notice the presence of tiny grey-green bugs covering the florets. Our company had already arrived and there was little I could do to hide the fact that the food I was about to prepare for them was riddled with aphids as well as aphid eggs. David helped me to pressure wash the bugs off of the florets as best we could and I continued to chop the broccoli and steamed them.

     We all ate the broccoli and lived to tell the tale. I don’t think that our guests will ever let us forget it. Although to their credit they were more amused than upset with the whole situation. David’s brother, Mark, even seem excited about the prospect of ingesting aphids. His response to the bugs: “oh, cool! That’s great. A little extra protein. I’m game.”