Community Sustained Agriculture

[khorrell]

I couldn't figure out where to put this, so I figured this would work.

Do you know about Community Sustained Agriculture? It works like this: You purchase a share of the harvest of a local farm. The farmer uses your money to run the farm, and you get a portion of the harvest throughout the year. There are tons of variables, like whether a work portion is required, or if they deliver or you go to the farm to pick up. Some are run by groups, others by individuals.

It is not the cheapest way or most convenient way to get my veggies, but it has numerous other benefits. First, my kids know that their veggies come from a field, not a shop. Second, my co-op is organic. Third, we learn to try all kinds of things I would never purchase in the store. Fourth, I know than my share is helping to keep the farm working instead of turning into McMansions. Fifth (for my co-op), we donate food to the local food bank.

Cons include upfront costs, (mine is $460 a share, we buy two shares for six people), having to go to the farm every week to pick up our shares, variable harvests (we had a bad drought last year.) Just a note, many CSAs offer half-price shares for people who meet certain requirements, and/or offer a work-share opportunity.

Check out this link to Local Harvest

[amandajane]

That looks very interesting! I am going to check out if there are any such schemes in my area. The thought of organic vegetables is very tempting. I'm so sick of store brought veggies with nasty pesticides you have to wash off and although I have got some container gardening happening now the staples like spuds and carrots are an extra expense.

Thanks for the link!

[jkuo13]

I was toying with the idea of participating with CSA once. I think back then, the deal was that you'd get a share of the crops delivered to you. It actually ended up being pretty cheap if you could actually use all the produce. I heard from some acquaintances that some weeks you'd get like 8 ginormous squashes, and then a ton of zucchini another week, etc., etc. We eventually decided that we couldn't deal with a huge influx of produce like that.

[khorrell]

The overabundance of certain crops can be a problem. My CSA often allows you to choose, for example: two pounds total of squash, beans or tomatoes. However, I go to the farm and that may allow me more options.

There is more information in a post at SpouseBUZZ .

[jdp]

I tried that. But the closest one is about 28 miles from my house. Not feasible as its 'pick up' only. Thankfully there is a farmers market in town 2 days a week in season.

[layla17]

That's a pretty interesting idea. I've never heard of it before. I'm going to look into it in my area.

[triathing]

Go to Local Harvest to find your nearest CSA. They take some getting used to -- think trying to deal with 10 pounds of greens in a week -- but they're well worth the investment.

[purplefdu]

Probably the only time it pays to love where I do. I have a half dozen in a nice distance from me, but we normally buy from local markets anyway during the growing season.

We used to do this when we lived in San Diego though and it was the best idea ever. Living in the dessert and getting fresh produce was a treat.

[redsoxmaniac]

I think the added value is trying different produce that you might never try. It is always good to have a neighbor or two that you can get to buy or give your access to. No pesticides, locally grown. It is hard to beat unless of course you don't want to commit to that much produce. In that case...

A couple of good articles:


http://www.ehow.com/how_2192702_edible-landscape.html

http://www.plantea.com/edibleland.htm

[lucille]

We thought about doing the one CSA in our area. But it requires us to drive into town every Sat. morning to pick it up. With gas as high as it is and not always needing more produce every week we decided not to. We have a pretty good sized garden at home and we go to the farmers market about every other week to stock up on some things we don't grow or don't have ready yet. We also plan for the late summer onslaught and low prices on things like tomatoes, zuchinni, cukes and melon. You can get a huge box of canning tomatoes for $20. Most are perfectly good for slicing and we make roast tomatoes out of the rest.