Green Bag Special

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Farm fresh!

After deciding to eat more locally-grown foods, we thought through our options for obtaining these foods.  Here are two we didn’t choose:

1) Growing our own foods.  As discussed previously, I am not equipped for this.  While we may try our thumbs at gardening for fun this summer, I don’t want to rely on this as a major food source just yet.

2) Buying vegetables at a farmer’s market.  The farmer’s market has great appeal.  It is a fun place to visit.  Our problem, however, is our location.  We live 20-25 miles from the nearest large-scale farmer’s market, meaning it would require a special trip each week to get fresh vegetables.  We found a CSA that could deliver to our town, which would save us from committing to traveling to town to pick up our vegetables.  If you don’t know what a CSA is, read my description here.

What makes the CSA appealing?

1)  Someone knowledgeable does the work.  By supporting a CSA, we are helping a local person who has an interest in farming.  Perhaps they can even earn a living from it.

2)  We get a bag of vegetables!  Visiting a farmer’s market would require us to pick out vegetables.  I think I would limit myself and not take a variety of items.  The bag of vegetables will force me to think and cook creatively and will open us up to new experiences.

3)  We participate in the process.  The CSA involves visiting the farm to help with the harvest.  We can show our kids how food is grown.  Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle talks about how disconnected Americans are from our food supply.  When I was a kid, my parents thought it was hilarious that I didn’t realize they could make french fries from potatoes.  I had no clue!  I thought french fries came from a bag…where else?

This is what I'll look like doing my share at the CSA this summer.

Just a few short weeks ago, I had never heard the term “CSA.”  I happened across an ad on Craigslist offering bags of organic, farm-grown vegetables delivered weekly.  I was immediately intrigued and began investigating.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

People become members of a CSA by paying a fee to join.  The farm uses the money to purchase plants for their garden, and in return, they promise the members a share of the harvest.  Each CSA has different prices and offerings.  You will have to decide whether to purchase a whole share or a half share, if that option is available.  For us, since we are light vegetable eaters, we are going with a half share for this year.  If that doesn’t fulfill our needs this year, we will know to get a whole share next year.

Some CSAs are limited to the veggies grown on the individual farm, while other farms have joined forces with others who grow fruit, raise meat, collect eggs, bake bread, and etc.   Members can then add on shares for the optional items.

Many CSAs give you a discount on your vegetable share if you agree to help harvest the veggies.  Next week, our CSA is having a meeting for members, where we will sign up for our work dates.  Though I’m not known to be the outdoors type, I am actually eager to participate in the vegetable harvesting.  Some friends from work are also signed up for our CSA, so it will be fun if we are able to work on some of the same dates.

If you are interesting in finding a local CSA, a good website is Local Harvest.  You can search for CSAs based on location and based on the types of shares available.  After researching various local CSAs, we went with the one advertised on Craigslist because they deliver to our local area.  Not all CSAs offer this service, but we are happy to have it available to us.   Other CSAs expect you to pick up your share at the farm or at a mutually-agreed upon location (sometimes a local farmer’s market, where the farm is selling other goods).

I’m just five days away from receiving my first green bag special.  Woohoo!