Should You Join a CSA?
Posted by Patricia DiGiacomo Eddy on Fit Fare
If 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.
I joined a CSA last year and found the the variety of veggies was too small. I just couldn’t find enough recipes for that much kale. I am sure they are all different and love the concept. Maybe I will try it again in a few years when my local farm has more variety.