2.16.2008
CSA?
Hi all. I have been throwing around the idea of buying a share from a CSA farm this spring, but am a bit leery of it. I think it's a great idea, and I love the idea of getting most of our produce from local farms. I found one not too far out of the city that does only organic produce, which I love even more. It seems like a great operation: Turtle Farms. But they only offer full shares (which apparently are good for 2 adults) at $450 a pop. I don't know anyone interested in splitting a share, either. As much as I'd love to try it, it sounds like a bit of a financial comittment toward something that I imagine is hard to form an opinion on until you try it out. I think during the peak summer months it would be worth it, since we'll be getting a lot. Though I worry that we'd waste some of what we get, too, if we don't keep up with cooking it all while it's fresh. On the flip side, I wonder how much it's worth doing in May and September, when you get little more than lettuce and some root veggies. I think I would have fewer hesitant feelings if little Benjamin was going to be 6 months during the summer--then I'd be buying organic veggies in bulk anyway to make baby food for freezing. But but the time he is ready for solids, in late October/early November, some of what I would have made and frozen in July may be getting freezer burn. My parents-in-law (local--beef--farmers themselves) suggested just making more of an effort to buy from the farmer's markets each week, to assure that we get only what we need and want, and if the season is bad for farming, at least we didn't then pay for it and lose that money. So my question for all of you is whether you see a benefit to participating in CSA over buying from local farmer's markets? Have any of you tried CSA, and what were your experiences? I think if the price were lower, I would jump in for one season at least (especially because I'll probably skip my garden this summer since I'll have a newborn in tow), but for close to $500, I'm hesitant to take the plunge. Any comments are welcome!
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3 comments:
I haven't made the commitment to a CSA, but I know Samantha and Carrie have tried a couple of them in IC. I think you are going to have your hands full this summer and you might not want to worry about spending time with your veggies before they go off. I like the farmers market idea...at least until you can find another family to split the cost with :)
p.s. you asked about <3, it is a heart made with characters. that Carrie is so cute and smart!
yep, we did go the CSA in C one year. We shared a family share with our duplex neighbors. I liked it, but I don't think we could have eaten the whole share ourselves. Other than the week of mucho kolrabi and some wormy broccoli, the food was great and the people were great. I don't think 400$ is too high a price or that big of a risk, but I agree that it could be a tad bit of work for a new mom.
i should preface this comment by saying that i love the idea of CSAs and think they are wonderful. however...we did a CSA last summer and i will abashedly confess that we wasted a lot of what we got. we split a share with someone else (so, three adults for one share) and often felt overwhelmed by the week's delivery. a few disclaimers, though:
1. perhaps the most relevant caveat for the earthmama family--with a new baby in the house, i felt that i had very little time/energy to cook, much less think of creative things to do with lots of fresh produce that's not of the wash-and-eat or pop-in-some-boiling-water variety. which leads me to...
2. we got a lot of veggies that we don't care for, though i'm not sure where we fall on the "picky eater" spectrum. we had weekly kohlrabi, radishes, and beets for at least a month. and who can go through a whole, huge head of green cabbage two weeks in a row?! may was actually great b/c we ate the lettuces and other greens up quickly.
3. like samantha's wormy broccoli (we got zero broccoli, by the way--rob waited all season for it), we had some horribly scrawny stuff, wilted things, etc. sometimes the quality wasn't wonderful. we also wished there was some way to choose what you'd receive, but it doesn't really work that way.
i guess in all i really liked the *idea* of having a CSA share, but in reality, it wasn't the best way for us to spend our grocery money last summer. i think this summer we'll forego it and make weekly trips to the IC-area farmer's markets instead.
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