Do Any of You Belong to a CSA?

I'm serious considering it for next "season."
O. of my relatives brought his farm share on vacation to share with all of us. What a great way to try new things and know that the good is fresh, local and organic! Can't put a price tag on that really...

The advantage to it is, you've paid up front and so you will force yourself to go every week. Your child will go with you and help carry the vegetables home, which sparks some interest. You'll come up with recipes and try new things, which involves your child. He'll eat more than corn and watermelon because they're only in season part of the time. He'll also find out that locally grown produce that's really fresh and hasn't been sitting in nitrogen gas in a refrigerated space for weeks tastes a lot better than supermarket stuff.

The down side is, you have to eat what's in season, just like your grandparents did. In May, you aren't going to get corn. You're going to get spinach and kale and radishes and different types of lettuce. So you have to change your habits and not expect to eat your favorite vegetable every week forever. You can pick your own strawberries or buy fresh picked at the farm, but then when they're done, they're done. You have to be more excited for what's coming and not just mourn what season is past. You have to be as excited about beets as you are about berries, and that takes some adjustment because many of us are used to eating certain foods every week year-round. You have to be willing to try new things and find uses for the parts you'd normally never use (like cook the beets but use the greens too).

The cost is based on a certain amount every week. That doesn't mean that you can skip the first month and then load up on the stuff you love. You're going to get a pre-set amount so when your grocery bag is full, you're done for the week. So if that's not fun for you, you'll lose money on the deal, and you'll lose interest/momentum.

It kind of depends on how set you are, how adventurous you are, how committed you are to eating more variety. If you're a creative cook or willing to research recipes, and if you have a freezer to set aside your extras, it can work. Otherwise, just commit to going to the farm as a customer every week. If you find you are walking out empty-handed for 2 of the 5 months, you know you aren't ready. But you can also buy one batch of kale and try it out, or one bunch of beets or a new squash to try. Then you'll know for the following year. That's what one of our local CSA farms recommended to a friend of mine who has 2 grown daughters at home.

Yes, we have had a CSA share for several years (probably about 5). We split it with a colleague and her family because there was too much produce for either of our households, and I do sometimes have stuff go bad because I was too busy to cook it first. However, the tomatoes, squash, and melons were FANTASTIC this summer... Ours also provides an egg share (free range, chem-free) for an added cost.

I do like that it's local and organic, and I also get to try out some different veggies. You may want to look at how much produce you are likely to get and see if you can split it with a neighbor/friend/other household--more affordable and reasonable, given your family size.

I belonged to a CSA for several years - it ran from late April (mostly greens) through late October. It was really good - we ate a lot of vegetables we probably wouldn't have otherwise. My son came with me to pick up our box every week and was much more involved and happy to try all the new things. Our CSA had a lot of fruit which was great. It was more cost effective than shopping at the local farmers market. Ours allowed us to specify 2 things we hated as well as things we really loved - so we never got beets. There was also a trade box when we picked up. You could put something you didn't want in and take something else. Very little if any of the veggies went to waste - I seemed to feel much more responsible for them than I did with produce from the supermarket. The only reason we stopped doing the CSA is I started putting more time into our vegetable garden and realized we were basically just getting more of what we were already growing.

A CSA will probably greatly expand your son's palate.

I joined one last Fall for one season. At first it was awesome. I was cooking veggies I'd never tried before and it was a lovely culinary experiment. Unfortunately, fall veggies around here are mostly root veggies. After a while, we all got really sick of eating turnips, parsnips, beets, rutabagas, radishes...and cabbage, so. much. cabbage (which none of us really like). I ended the season with a bunch of beets left over and I just couldn't bring myself to cook them. I might consider joining one in the Spring...maybe.

I LOVE the idea of CSAs, I really do. But we're not huge veggie eaters in this family and I hate the idea of wasting such good food, so buying what we want, when we want it (for more money, sadly) at our local grocery store or Whole Foods works out better for us. We're also picky, so if we got a bunch of veggies we don't like (and you have NO choice, BTW, you get what you get), I'd have to just give those away or they'd go bad. When I took into account all the stuff we never actually cooked or I gave away to friends, etc, I don't know if it ended up being cost effective, either.

So that's my CSA story. I WISH my family LOVED veggies, because then I'd be ALL OVER our local CSAs. Do you have to commit for a whole year? Around here, some of the CSAs go season to season. And it's not JUST veggies/fruits, either. Some offer local, organic chickens, eggs and dairy, too. But you have to commit to the veggies to get the chickens...

We have a half share in our CSA and it's working out well. This one offers a share that runs from June to mid October. This is the first year we've tried this one; we were members in a different one for 2 years a while back. I like this one for several reasons:

First, I really like the half share option (meaning we pick up every two weeks, not every week). It gives us all the great benefits of a CSA without being overwhelmed with more vegetables than we can use. Also, we get to still stop by our local farm stand and indulge ourselves.

Second, this CSA sends out an email on pick up day, explaining what's in the share and offering a recipe or two and maybe some links to other recipes. It really helps in trying something new.

Also, the selection is a great mix of tried-and-true produce and some new items I'd never otherwise try.

Lastly, I love that we're supporting a local family and helping to keep a farm operating -- and we're getting a ton of locally grow, organic produce in return! We'll definitely be signing up again for next year!

We belonged to a CSA a few of summers ago...I think we got produce from June until the end of Oct. About the same cost you mentioned and all organic.

I loved the young couple who were so passionate about it and we got some great veggies. We did end up trying a few things I never would have maybe...such as kale and lots and lots of different kinds of greens. That was great and a drawback at the same time...we got kind of tired of all the greens mostly...BUT I am really glad we tried it. My kids enjoyed it even...it was really fun to come home and see what we got in our bag each week and they tried some foods they wouldn't have normally. But my kids were older and at ages where they were willing to experiment with some different food.

I would consider doing it again if the pickup location was closer to us ( it was about a 1 hour drive roundtrip during rush hour, which got old), but probably not every summer. Also, be aware if there is a drought or anything you may not get all you thought you would.

I am way too much of a control freak in the kitchen to just take what they give .

I love to cook and do use seasonal ingredients and shop Farmer's Markets and local sources. I just want to prepare and eat what we want when we want it. Being at the mercy of what a business gives me doesn't sound like much fun.

Why not start shopping at your Farmer's Market or a local farm stand? You will get local, seasonal veggies, your child can "help" and hopefully branch out his tastes a bit but you still have some control over what you are eating.

Generally I don't think it's worth it. It's nice because you try things like kohl rabi (sp?) which you otherwise might not, but way too much herb like cilantro and dill that you just can't use and it's a pain to try to freeze it all.
With Trader Joe's and Fairway and their extensive organics sections, I find it's not worth it. And financially, not really a savings. My two cents.

I joined two different ones. In the end I did not like the baskets because it did not represent the foods we like to eat in the quantity that we eat them in. They gave you enough greens and herbs to eat salad every meal, but when in came to potatoes or broccoli, strawberries or carrots, it was this itty bitty bundle that everyone just sampled. I buy two bunches of broccoli, three bunches of carrots, and a half flat of strawberries at a time. So for me it did not work.

However, at my CSA, you don't have to sign up for weekly boxes. You can just shop their open air stand. Turns out I spend between $40 and $50 dollars week at the stand, about the same price as the baskets, but I get what I want, on the day I want to go get it. And I don't have to cancel my basket for vacation weeks.

I have many friends who pick up their weekly baskets, and I run into them while I shop and think to myself, enjoy your 48 salads this week ladies. I have ingredients for stir fries, mashed potatoes, and soups galore!

i've done 'em off and on over the years. and i like them. but i've opted out for the time being. i really love that you get what's most fresh and in season, but i also find that there's a lot of stuff that my mundane palate just doesn't care for. having excess isn't a problem, i freeze or can it, but if i just won't eat it there's no point in getting it. we have enough farmers' markets around that it makes more sense for me to just go there and get exactly what i want.
khairete
S.