Food for thought: Community-supported agriculture
Categories: Places to go, Eating & nutrition, In the news, Environment
We're trying to decide if we should participate in a CSA -- community-supported agriculture -- this summer. While CSAs aren't a new idea, they are gaining in popularity as people begin to pay more attention to how and where the food they eat gets from the farm to their tables.The basic idea is this: at the beginning of a growing season, you buy into a share of a farm. In exchange, you receive a basket of fresh products weekly. Most farms focus on fruits and vegetables, but some also include meat, eggs, milk, and anything else that can be harvested locally. (One farm in my area also has a shrimp boat, and includes fresh shrimp in their CSA!)
It's a win-win for the farm and the consumer. Farmers get a guarantee that their produce will be sold, so they can focus on what they do well: growing it. As a CSA member, you get food that is fresh and local. Some farms use organic methods, and many encourage visits and provide public education about their farming practices. I'm thinking that a weekly trip to the farm to pick up our bushel would make an excellent family outing.
The one catch, as I see it: you don't generally get any control over what ends up in your basket. If you've got a family of picky eaters, or you aren't willing to try new recipes, that could mean that a bunch of fresh vegetables end up in the trash.
Interested? You can search for a farm in your area at Local Harvest. If you can't find what you're looking for there, try asking around at the local farmer's market or call farms in your area.
Has anyone participated in a CSA before? What has your experience been?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tiffanie 3-02-2008 @ 1:45PM
I've been participating in an organic CSA for several years, and I recommend it highly. It's true that sometimes you get a vegetable you've never seen or eaten before, but I like to think of it as a challenge and opportunity. :-)
Overall, I eat more vegetables (and definitely more greens) during the CSA season, the quality is excellent, and it's a fun event each week to get the box and figure out how to cook it all in one week. My CSA has a website with recipes and a newsletter that comes with the box with suggestions on how to use the contents. My son is only a year old, so I don't have to deal with a picky eater yet, but I imagine there must be a way to interest children in visiting the farm and finding fun and tasty recipes each week for the family to enjoy. I grew up on a farm, and I always loved picking the vegetables and helping my mom prepare them. As teenagers, Sunday dinner was always prepared by the kids, so we could make whatever we wanted (within reason), and we loved the freedom to create a meal.
If you have trouble with finding recipes, Epicurious.com is a handy way to search for an odd ingredient. You can also check out my CSA's website: http://twosmallfarms.com/. There is a link for recipes on the right.
My CSA starts in a couple of weeks, and I'm already looking forward to the strawberries later this season and all the fresh greens to saute with garlic and olive oil for an easy pasta dish.
Good luck!
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kim 3-02-2008 @ 1:45PM
We have done the CSA thing for five years, with two different farms. Here in Pittsburgh there are a number of great choices. We are very lucky.
It's great, though I have ultimately decided to drop it in favor of going to the farmer's market for this year, as an experiment. The farm we did CSA with for the last two years also sells at the farmer's market near us so I'm not changing farms, just the means of getting their products.
It came down to wanting to make my own choices. I would get "crate envy" if I saw something good in another box that wasn't in mine.
Another bonus, as I try to encourage my kids to eat more vegetables, is I can take the kids along to the market. My hope is they will eat things they select themselves.
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Mel 3-02-2008 @ 2:04PM
This is just weird. I'd never participate in a program which gave me no say regarding the particular products I'd get. Weird.
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Lori 3-02-2008 @ 2:36PM
How funny, I just sent in the check for our first CSA yesterday. The one I signed up for starts in late April and runs through Thanksgiving. I'm also getting chicken and beef from the same farm. We generally try and eat healthy foods, but I think this will help us take it a step further. And I know the kids will enjoy going to the farm to pick up our box of goodies. Barbara Kingsolver has long been one of my favorite authors, but reading her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, really helped convince me to try some different ways of shopping for my family's food.
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Carolyn 3-02-2008 @ 5:47PM
I've never heard of CSAs, it's an interesting idea. We've been trying to buy locally and so have just switched to making our produce purchases at the local farmer's market. It's fantastic. Good prices, great food, and a fun way to spend the morning, too! Good luck with the CSA.
Carolyn
http://www.momsontheedge.typepad.com
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isisaquaria 3-02-2008 @ 6:22PM
We grow our own stuff and raise alot of it as well--but if we have a bad yr, we have done this.
We usually have more than enough...so we do share with the elderly lady who lives down the road, we give it freely to her (tight budget) but she insists on doing things in return. Since I hate making jellies, she does it for us...I can sew but can't do the elaborate prom type dresses for dances--she can. It is more like an old time barter system--but everyone gets what they need.
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mamaloo 3-02-2008 @ 7:21PM
I've really been wanting to do this. I'm thinking of suggesting to go half-sies with my granny, who couldn't possibly use all the CSA veggies and fruit, but who has made a pledge to eat only locally grown fruit and veg as much as possible after all the problems with US produce lately. Can you imagine, at 80 deciding you are going to get political about food!
The only thing that is holding us back is the cost. Buying at the store a little each week is a bit easier for us, but I'm gonna try to see if we can save up for the CSA and then we can reduce our grocery spending each week even more!
PS, since this is a food post, can I squawk my new website? http://vegetarianmoms.wordpress.com
We are transitioning into a vegetarian diet and trying to reduce our food spending (or maximize it) and I started this new blog to work through that, share with other vegetarian/vegan moms and swap recipes.
I just thought a site like that might be relevant to the parents reading this post. :)
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Uly 3-02-2008 @ 8:31PM
"Can you imagine, at 80 deciding you are going to get political about food! "
What, do you think she should wait until she's 90? :P
"Buying at the store a little each week is a bit easier for us, but I'm gonna try to see if we can save up for the CSA and then we can reduce our grocery spending each week even more!"
One of the ones I found in NYC offers an installment plan (AND you can pay in food stamps, so I called a food-stamp-using friend of mine who is always trying to feed her kids healthy foods), maybe you can call one of the ones in your area and see if you can work out a deal?
Anne 3-03-2008 @ 12:05PM
We did a CSA 2 summers ago, and we were less than thrilled. We got more vegetables that were of higher quality from our local farmer's market. We live on the Upper West Side in NYC, so we are lucky in the number/quality of farmer's markets that we can got to.
We are currently participating in a winter CSA from one of the Farmer's Market Farmers that we got friendly with. We liked it alot, but we already knew that the quality of his produce was high.
If you don't have an easy Farmers' market to go to - I say go for it! Otherwise, just support your lacal farmers by going to the market!
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Jan Bay 3-03-2008 @ 12:14PM
I would rather go to the farmer's market and buy my own. The problem is that most produce in our area all comes in at one time. If you want to can and preserve, it's a round the clock endeavor in a very tight time frame.
There used to be a canning teaching here that charged a nominal fee for canning people's produce for them. It provided jobs and taught people how to can who otherwise wouldn't have had a clue. As with lots of good things, it closed. I think it may have been funded through the county, but I'm not sure.
I know that if you garden, you can save money with canning, but has anyone done the numbers to say if it will be less expensive to can your own produce if you buy it?
Jan from http://www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com/
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jane 3-03-2008 @ 2:21PM
Jan, I have never done the numbers but I would venture to say that canning and freezing, once you have all your jars and supplies, would have to be cheaper. I’m not really sure but it’s the only thing I’ve ever done. I freeze as well as can. Really, the only things I can are tomato’s, salsa, pickles and my fruit. I pretty much freeze most of the veggies and only because I like the way they taste more that way. I don’t like the way they tend to get mushy from canning. I blanch them first and then freeze them using those sealing machines that take the air out. They even have bags that you can cook them in. I have always had a garden and like eating our own stuff so I know how they have all been taken care of and that nothing (that I know of) is in them or on them. I can for most of August and it's a whole lot of work but there is a huge sense of accomplishment seeing them all lined up on the counter and in the freezer after it's all said and done. A lot of times a few of us gather at each other’s homes and do them together and we switch houses. Just to have a little company and companionship.
Jill 3-03-2008 @ 3:50PM
I'm able to subscribe to a local CSA for just every second week. Then I can buy from the farmer's market to fill in gaps and help spread out the "healthy stuff" to make it easier on my picky eater. We've been happy to get new stuff- we've added some favorites to our diet that we'd never even heard of before we started.
My son was told, at age 4, that he could add seven years to his life every time he tried a new food. We were very proud that he really did try-- and continues to try at age 7-- although he's still a challenge to work around.
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