Should You Join a CSA?


A typical CSA BoxIf you shop at farmers markets, you’ve probably seen the signs for CSAs. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it’s a good way to help support your local farms while making your weekly fruit and vegetable shopping a lot easier.

With a CSA, you (typically) prepay for a weekly delivery, either to your home or to the farmers market. By prepaying, you are taking on some of the risk that the farmer incurs to bring you fresh, local, organic produce each week. Some CSAs allow you to choose the foods that go into your weekly box and others just deliver a random assortment based on what is fresh that week. Some CSAs also encourage you to visit their farm and even go help out.

My husband and I recently signed up for our very first CSA. We’ve been shopping at the farmers markets for three years now, but never ate enough vegetables to feel like a CSA was in our best interest. Now that we’re eating vegetables regularly, we decided to give it a try. The photo you see here is our first weekly delivery. In a few weeks, I’ll let you know how we like the CSA and how the costs compare to both the supermarket and buying our fruits and vegetables individually from the farmers market.

For a list of CSAs in your area, see Local Harvest.

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June 26th, 2008
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Robin
Posted on:
June 29, 2008 at 2:19 am

I have thought about joining a CSA. I am also a loyal shopper of Farmers Markets. my big fear is what to do with those veggies I don’t like such as radishes? I hate to waste them or even compost them. I am interested in hearing how your CSA share experience goes!

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Patricia DiGiacomo Eddy
Posted on:
July 2, 2008 at 5:35 am

Well, you have a couple of options.
1. You can look for a CSA that allows you to choose what items you receive each week. Many will, but then again, many won’t.

2. You can try to find a recipe that will allow you to like that veggie. That sounds like a bit of a pat answer, but I have been very surprised at the number of vegetables that I actually do like, when prepared correctly. I’ll be posting more of my “learning to like vegetables” series as the summer continues.

3. You can donate the extra veggies to a food bank. Though I’d only recommend this if there are very few vegetables that you don’t like. Otherwise it won’t be worth it for you to join the CSA. If all you don’t like is radishes, then this would be fine. But if there are five or six vegetables that you don’t like, that might be a waste of money.

4. Go in on the CSA with a friend or coworker. You might find someone you work with who likes some of the vegetables you don’t.