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CSAs: Part the Second
I've had a bee in my bonnet about the CSA K and I joined Sunday. The more I
read, the more certain I feel that we just took a great new step for us.
I've been doing alot of reading over the last 48 hours abour CSAs: What they
are, how they work, what you can expect of them. I know some of you are
interested in what I've learned, so I'm going to spend today's entry talking
only about CSAs. Tomorrow, I'll probably continue posting along this line of
thought (I'm not joking here, folks. I have a real Bee in my Bonnet about
this. It almost certainly comes from spending as much time on a place like
CC as I have and having VERY Strong Thoughts, not just on what an Ideal Diet
is, nutritionally, but about some of the Politics of Food as well (And yes,
there's alot of politics in foods. Most of the food industries have their
own special interest groups who have one role in mind: to sell more of what
they offer. And don't even get me started about how weak the "Certified
Organic" label is nowadays.)
But anyways.. today's post. What is a CSA? What will a CSA offer, and how
can I find one if I'm interested?
(and y'all thought I just posted my personal rambings in here, didn't you?
Admit it! ;) )
OK, first of all.. what is a CSA? CSA stands for Community-Supported
Agriculture. What that means, in brief, is that... you, the share-holder,
give the money directly to the farmer to grow produce for you. No Middle
man. No Warehouses. No Supermarket.
How this works.. depends on the farm, of course, but the general rule is
that a farm decides before it plants how many shares it thinks it can sell,
what plants they want to try to grow, et. al. and then looks for
shareholders. Shareholders foot the cost of the growing season, ensuring
that the farm continues to make the money they need to keep operating and in
return, the shareholders get a pre-determined share of that weekly or
biweekly or monthly produce.
There seem to be some differences in the business models some farms use.
Some farms go entirely CSA, selling ONLY to their shareholders. Some put
aside a portion of the produce for a CSA, and sell the rest on the farmer's
markets. Some farms work-together, selling portions of their produce to
other farms or CSAs. Some CSAs ask that you volunteer some of your time to
work on the farm, or give you a discount if you agree to do so. Once the
produce is collected, you then pick up your portion at a predetermined point
or, in some cases, they deliver it directly to your door.
Our CSA, Potomac Vegetable Farm works thusly: They already charged a fee for
us to get our mini share. In return, we get 1/4 bushel of fresh produce for
24 weeks (and 8 weeks of fresh home-made bread in autumn!). Our CSA sells a
portion of their produce in various local Farmer's Markets around the area,
but as a reward for being part of the CSA, we get certain vegetables that
they grow just for us, stuff that won't be sold in the Farmer's Markets.
There is no demand for volunteer work, and no discount if we do volunteer a
portion of our time. We then pick up our produce at a pre-selected place,
the Vienna farm, on a pre-selected day, Monday.
There are many advantages to getting your fresh food via a CSA (or
producer-only Farmer's Market) instead of a supermarket. The first is that
you are actually supporting a local business. For many, this is a big deal.
Especially when, delving briefly into Food Politics here, it's no secret
that many of today's small farms are being overtaken by the big gigantic
corporate farms that might be half way around the country, or the world.
CSAs help small farms stay in business. You are essentially paying a local
farmer to grow produce for you. And such an arrangement works our well for
the farmer as well. He doesn't have to scrounge around trying to find
someone to buy his produce, nor keep tabs on what produce is selling better
this year. In fact, many CSAs seem to provide more of a variety of vegetables than most other farms, because they can. They don't have to devote half of their field to corn, so they can pull in enough money to
break even, so they can give you turnips, bok choy, celeialiac, peas, spring
onions, broccoli, radichio, more tomatoes than you know what do with etc.
etc. etc.
You get to put a face to your produce. I've notice that our CSA, as well as
a few others, make a point of sending our newsletters so that you get the
news from up front, so that you start to feel like a small part of what's
going on there. Our CSA does biweekly newspapers that include a general
what's going on in the farm, how things are progressing, as well as some
silly articles about how things are in their hen house (including, in one
article I couldn't help but read, the cat who moved into the hen house and
seemed to think it was a chicken!) or the various dogs they keep, or
whatever. You begin to feel like you're a little part of it all. Some CSAs,
as I said, go a little farther by asking you to devote time to the farm,
which I don't see as a bad thing, because that not only brings you into the
community a little more, but having worked ont he farm a little, maybe the
produce begins to feel a bit like YOUR produce. After all, you spent FOUR
HOURS weeding around those long beans, so they're yours, in a way.
Honestly, that's the biggest advantages of CSAs.
Many CSAs offer organic, or nearly organic foods, which is a plus, if that's
something your interested in, which many people who care about what they put
in their mouth are,
Now the important part, since a couple of you wondered whether or not
something like that might exist near where you live. The answer is, probably
yes. There is a site devoted to CSAs and producer-only farmer's markets
called Local Harvest. If you put in your zip code, you should be able to locate all sorts of useful resources
near where you live that might help you, if you're so inclined. As of
present, according to LocalHarvest, there's approximately 2,200 CSAs across
the US, alone. If this is something you're personally interested in, check
our the Local Harvest website and see if there's any CSAs signing up near
you right now. Who knows? There might be!
Last but not least... a fair warning.
DON'T Join a CSA if you are looking to save a buck. Not to say CSAs are
SUPER expensive (Whole Foods, they aren't), but they aren't the cheapest you
can get either. If you want cheap, you want the corporate farm vegetables.
They can afford to sell cheap. For the record, don't let this warning
overscare you...As I do the math, we paid about $20 per week for 1/4 bushel
of fresh vegetables, it'd be $29 a week if we got the 1/2 bushel. That's not
a whole lot more expensive than I pay at the local grocery store for some of
the things we buy. Especially with the promise of variety.
Which brings me back to my second warning. DON'T join a CSA if you aren't
interested in trying new vegetables, or don't have the time to cook a bunch
of vegetables. We purposely went with the mini-share so we didn't get
slammed with "oh god oh god, what do we DO with all this stuff?!?!"
Also, don't join a CSA if you're planning to be out of town a lot and don't
have someone to pick up your stuff for you. Remember, you're paying the
farmer, typically ahead of time, to grow FRESH, SPOILABLE produce for you.
If you don't pick it up, or can't get someone else to pick it up, you don't
get it when you return. Chances might be you may not WANT it when you
return. This policy may differ some with different CSAs from my own.
So... I hope I gave those couple interested parties a little food for
thought (and a little push in the right direction if you're looking to get
involved!)
read, the more certain I feel that we just took a great new step for us.
I've been doing alot of reading over the last 48 hours abour CSAs: What they
are, how they work, what you can expect of them. I know some of you are
interested in what I've learned, so I'm going to spend today's entry talking
only about CSAs. Tomorrow, I'll probably continue posting along this line of
thought (I'm not joking here, folks. I have a real Bee in my Bonnet about
this. It almost certainly comes from spending as much time on a place like
CC as I have and having VERY Strong Thoughts, not just on what an Ideal Diet
is, nutritionally, but about some of the Politics of Food as well (And yes,
there's alot of politics in foods. Most of the food industries have their
own special interest groups who have one role in mind: to sell more of what
they offer. And don't even get me started about how weak the "Certified
Organic" label is nowadays.)
But anyways.. today's post. What is a CSA? What will a CSA offer, and how
can I find one if I'm interested?
(and y'all thought I just posted my personal rambings in here, didn't you?
Admit it! ;) )
OK, first of all.. what is a CSA? CSA stands for Community-Supported
Agriculture. What that means, in brief, is that... you, the share-holder,
give the money directly to the farmer to grow produce for you. No Middle
man. No Warehouses. No Supermarket.
How this works.. depends on the farm, of course, but the general rule is
that a farm decides before it plants how many shares it thinks it can sell,
what plants they want to try to grow, et. al. and then looks for
shareholders. Shareholders foot the cost of the growing season, ensuring
that the farm continues to make the money they need to keep operating and in
return, the shareholders get a pre-determined share of that weekly or
biweekly or monthly produce.
There seem to be some differences in the business models some farms use.
Some farms go entirely CSA, selling ONLY to their shareholders. Some put
aside a portion of the produce for a CSA, and sell the rest on the farmer's
markets. Some farms work-together, selling portions of their produce to
other farms or CSAs. Some CSAs ask that you volunteer some of your time to
work on the farm, or give you a discount if you agree to do so. Once the
produce is collected, you then pick up your portion at a predetermined point
or, in some cases, they deliver it directly to your door.
Our CSA, Potomac Vegetable Farm works thusly: They already charged a fee for
us to get our mini share. In return, we get 1/4 bushel of fresh produce for
24 weeks (and 8 weeks of fresh home-made bread in autumn!). Our CSA sells a
portion of their produce in various local Farmer's Markets around the area,
but as a reward for being part of the CSA, we get certain vegetables that
they grow just for us, stuff that won't be sold in the Farmer's Markets.
There is no demand for volunteer work, and no discount if we do volunteer a
portion of our time. We then pick up our produce at a pre-selected place,
the Vienna farm, on a pre-selected day, Monday.
There are many advantages to getting your fresh food via a CSA (or
producer-only Farmer's Market) instead of a supermarket. The first is that
you are actually supporting a local business. For many, this is a big deal.
Especially when, delving briefly into Food Politics here, it's no secret
that many of today's small farms are being overtaken by the big gigantic
corporate farms that might be half way around the country, or the world.
CSAs help small farms stay in business. You are essentially paying a local
farmer to grow produce for you. And such an arrangement works our well for
the farmer as well. He doesn't have to scrounge around trying to find
someone to buy his produce, nor keep tabs on what produce is selling better
this year. In fact, many CSAs seem to provide more of a variety of vegetables than most other farms, because they can. They don't have to devote half of their field to corn, so they can pull in enough money to
break even, so they can give you turnips, bok choy, celeialiac, peas, spring
onions, broccoli, radichio, more tomatoes than you know what do with etc.
etc. etc.
You get to put a face to your produce. I've notice that our CSA, as well as
a few others, make a point of sending our newsletters so that you get the
news from up front, so that you start to feel like a small part of what's
going on there. Our CSA does biweekly newspapers that include a general
what's going on in the farm, how things are progressing, as well as some
silly articles about how things are in their hen house (including, in one
article I couldn't help but read, the cat who moved into the hen house and
seemed to think it was a chicken!) or the various dogs they keep, or
whatever. You begin to feel like you're a little part of it all. Some CSAs,
as I said, go a little farther by asking you to devote time to the farm,
which I don't see as a bad thing, because that not only brings you into the
community a little more, but having worked ont he farm a little, maybe the
produce begins to feel a bit like YOUR produce. After all, you spent FOUR
HOURS weeding around those long beans, so they're yours, in a way.
Honestly, that's the biggest advantages of CSAs.
Many CSAs offer organic, or nearly organic foods, which is a plus, if that's
something your interested in, which many people who care about what they put
in their mouth are,
Now the important part, since a couple of you wondered whether or not
something like that might exist near where you live. The answer is, probably
yes. There is a site devoted to CSAs and producer-only farmer's markets
called Local Harvest. If you put in your zip code, you should be able to locate all sorts of useful resources
near where you live that might help you, if you're so inclined. As of
present, according to LocalHarvest, there's approximately 2,200 CSAs across
the US, alone. If this is something you're personally interested in, check
our the Local Harvest website and see if there's any CSAs signing up near
you right now. Who knows? There might be!
Last but not least... a fair warning.
DON'T Join a CSA if you are looking to save a buck. Not to say CSAs are
SUPER expensive (Whole Foods, they aren't), but they aren't the cheapest you
can get either. If you want cheap, you want the corporate farm vegetables.
They can afford to sell cheap. For the record, don't let this warning
overscare you...As I do the math, we paid about $20 per week for 1/4 bushel
of fresh vegetables, it'd be $29 a week if we got the 1/2 bushel. That's not
a whole lot more expensive than I pay at the local grocery store for some of
the things we buy. Especially with the promise of variety.
Which brings me back to my second warning. DON'T join a CSA if you aren't
interested in trying new vegetables, or don't have the time to cook a bunch
of vegetables. We purposely went with the mini-share so we didn't get
slammed with "oh god oh god, what do we DO with all this stuff?!?!"
Also, don't join a CSA if you're planning to be out of town a lot and don't
have someone to pick up your stuff for you. Remember, you're paying the
farmer, typically ahead of time, to grow FRESH, SPOILABLE produce for you.
If you don't pick it up, or can't get someone else to pick it up, you don't
get it when you return. Chances might be you may not WANT it when you
return. This policy may differ some with different CSAs from my own.
So... I hope I gave those couple interested parties a little food for
thought (and a little push in the right direction if you're looking to get
involved!)