Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a great way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here’s how it works: a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. A customer buys a “share” and has a box or basket of goods delivered to their home or office weekly or bi weekly.
Charlie and I receive a box every 2 weeks at our home. We have selected a fruit and veggie box and we look forward to it’s delivery every other Thursday. We say each week when we open the door and see our box on the doorstep, “It feels like Christmas!”
Our son Ryland helps us unpack and we talk about the contents and what we will make with it. It’s a virtual “Iron chef” episode on those Thursday mornings at the breakfast table. We leave the box on our porch for the next delivery and the CSA reuses the box.
According to the CSA directory at localharvest.org : “This creates advantages for both farmer and consumer…
Advantages for farmers:
- Get to spend time marketing the food early in the year, before their 16 hour days in the field begin
- Receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm’s cash flow
- Have an opportunity to get to know the people who eat the food they grow
Advantages for consumers:
- Eat ultra-fresh food, with all the flavor and vitamin benefits
- Get exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking
- Usually get to visit the farm at least once a season
- Find that kids typically favor food from “their” farm – even veggies they’ve never been known to eat
- Develop a relationship with the farmer who grows their food and learn more about how food is grown
It’s a simple enough idea, but its impact has been profound. Tens of thousands of families have joined CSAs, and in some areas of the country there is more demand than there are CSA farms to fill it. The government does not track CSAs, so there is no official count of how many CSAs there are in the U.S.. LocalHarvest has the most comprehensive directory of CSA farms, with over 2,500 listed in our grassroots database. In 2008, 557 CSAs signed up with LocalHarvest, and in the first two months of 2009, an additional 300 CSAs joined the site.”
Charlie and I feel that our participation in a CSA is strengthening the connection of farm to table. We want our son to understand and appreciate where his food is coming from and how fortunate we are. Southern California grows some of the very best produce in the world and we are so lucky to have it. We were also pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive our box of produce was. We still visit our farmer’s at the Santa Monica Farmer’s market each week, but we love our CSA for some extra goodies.
Check out the CSA directory on Localharvest.com and find a CSA near you. It’s an affordable and excellent way to supplement your monthly groceries.
Comments