Any of You Belong to a CSA? How Do You Shop for Produce?

I think you should contact the CSA and ask if they have a general outline of when different fruits/veggies will be in season. I joined one once, and in the beginning of the summer it was heavy on peas, beans, and greens. Tomatoes and peppers didn't come until a month or so later, and in August we had watermelon coming out our ears! But, I still sometimes wanted tomatoes in May and early June before they were ready locally, and I still wanted some peas/beans in September long as after they were done producing at the local farm. So, in my experience, unless you really want to switch your eating habits to focusing on only what is in season at any given moment, you will still have to shop for produce. I just timed my regular meal planning and grocery shopping trip for a day or two after my CSA delivery.

IMO, the biggest benefit of the CSA was that it got us out of our subconscious food rut, and we tried a bunch of new things.

My CSA would give us suggested recipes for some of the less common items - I became an expert at cooking Swiss Chard, which I had never eaten before, because I got it every week for many weeks!

Your CSA haul will depend on what is in-season for type and successful growing/production for quantity. Anything you usually buy at the store that is not in-season locally, you will still have to go buy at the store, or choose to go without. In NY, you may get CSA apples and pears in the autumn. You won't get citrus at all unless there is a greenhouse involved.

Our local CSAs usually have recipe/use resources for their produce so that people will know how to use things they don't regularly encounter. Sometimes you will get a crazy amount of something that you can't use or store long-term, so sharing with friends or neighbors can be a good option.

I joined a good co-op, which I think is similar. I tried not to buy any extra. We were overflowing with fruits and veggies.

I went back to the old-fashioned type of cooking that I remember mom doing. Rather than think about what you want to make and then shopping for that, you look at what you have and think about what you could make with what you have.

I would search out recipes and make substitutions to adapt to my ingredients.

I tried to post recipes on the local co-ops Facebook page hoping that other people would do the same so that I could get some ideas.

Unfortunately our food co-op "temporarily" suspended service to our area just as I had decided to split each weeks bounty so I wouldn't waste any food and we could supplement with grocery store purchases so I wouldn't have to be quite so creative to use all the fresh produce.

Have fun trying the CSA - you will know after a few weeks whether it suits you and your family, if not this will just be an interesting experience! The inclusion of flowers and eggs is a nice touch.

As mynew describes below, you might end up with large amounts of things that you would not usually buy. Along with that, you might end up with less of certain things you use all the time. So, in terms of "supplementing", for example, if your family eats bananas every morning, you might still need to buy bananas at your regular store.

There are a bunch of apps and cookbooks that are designed around ingredients (recipes for broccoli, recipes for brussel sprouts, etc). Look around for the ones that suit your style of cooking.

I don't think we have one here.
We live in a fairly rural area.
I typically shop in a grocery store, but spring through fall there are many road side stands (even neighbors have them) and you can get just about any produce in season that is all grown locally - eggs too (so many people have chickens now!).
Right now, the U-pick strawberry fields are all open.

We have a couple of local farms that do this. They definitely support customers by providing ideas, and you should get a schedule of what is in season when. We get away from that with the supermarket because stuff is shipped in from all over, and we forget that the cool weather crops come in first and it's a while until the fruits come in! The advantage to a CSA is, it makes you branch out into new things! It can be exciting for kids too, seeing what's fresh and what everyone else is buying. We have an active farmers market in town and kids really get into it with free samples and the festive atmosphere.

You can also type in the ingredients you have right into your browser, and get recipes. So if you put in what produce you're getting along with what you have at home (cheese, mustard, whatever!), you'll get some great ideas and combinations you hadn't thought of. You have to be creative, because some weeks you're going to get a whole lot of spinach and you need to know what to do with it for several nights!

I'd set aside a day each week to do some bulk cooking of different dishes that you can reheat or do in the crockpot on work days. Get your older child involved in that one even if the baby is way too little. You can get some kid-friendly plastic "knives" that kids can manipulate if you aren't too picky about the appearance.