We're about to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm for fresh vegetables this summer.

[grntuscarora]

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Local farm, local produce. For an upfront price, my family will get a weekly box of organically-grown produce and eggs from May to November. The farm has been in operation for several years already, so they seem legit.

I am so excited! We've never done this before, but are pumped to be part of a community farm operation!

Anyone else being supplied with veggies from a CSA farm? I would like to hear your experiences--good and bad---before we make a final commitment. Has anyone been on the unpleasant side of the "shared-risk" factor?

[frazzled]

1. We did this for quite a few years

when we lived in Minnesota (it was an organic farm across the border in Wisconsin, on the Saint Croix River).

It was a wonderful experience for us for the following reasons:

(a) We got an amazing box full of vegetables every week during the growing season, along with herbs and sometimes even some flowers, plus recipes. Beware: know the amount you and your family can consume in a week. We shared our "share" with our neighbors, because there's only so much kale one family can eat in a week!

(b) It introduced us to vegetables (this was back in the mid-to-late 1990s) that we might not have tried otherwise, and that we still enjoy to this day: varieties of swiss chard and kale (I'd been a spinach person), heirloom varieties of tomatoes that were rare back then, even rutabagas.

(c) It helped me get really creative. It was a huge amount of produce, so as the week wore on, I'd have to come up with creative soups or experimental mixtures of roasted vegetables in the fall to use them up.

(d) It taught us to eat seasonally, a habit I've pretty much not given up. When you are stocked with that much spinach and beets and early greens in the early spring to use up, or tomatoes and corn in the summer, or root vegetables in the fall, you're not going to go out and buy something additional that is out of season (say, asparagus in July or green beans in October).

(e) We worked at the farm once or twice a season, picking, packing, and driving the shares back to the big city. It was wonderful experience for my kids, who loved it there and learned how to pick snow peas and clean spring onions. There were also animals (goats and such), which they adored.

We no longer live there, and usually just use farmer's markets. But my son and daughter-in-law (who now live in the same large city as we do) joined a CSA last year and are looking forward to the beginning of this year's offerings. My d-i-l said she's learned how to freeze things and put them up when there's too much of something to consume right away. And it's always such a surprise to open your weekly haul!

[grntuscarora]

3. Great!!

We have elderly parents and neighbors nearby to share with, if we wind up with more than we can handle. And I might have to brush up on my canning skills, which I haven't used in years!

Thanks for your response

[Demeter]

2. My neighbor insisted on doing this, and figured she had me to do the cooking

Since she doesn't work at all, and I have 80 hour weeks, this plan did not work very well.

I got really tired of a refrigerator so full of stuff I didn't have time to cook,
some of which I didn't even know how to cook,
and food I wouldn't eat even if starving, due to the fact that I don't like it.
I was sickened by the amount of wasted, rotting produce.

There were days I couldn't find my own stuff in the fridge on account of all the unusable greenery in the way.

In my opinion, the farmer was also clueless as to what real cooks need: onions, potatoes, carrots, salad stuff, and a reasonable dose of everything else, one or two meals a week, say. Way too many beans all at once (and no time to can and no space to freeze) no corn because the deer ate it, far too much exotica and not too much of the common stuff of common everyday cooking. Root vegetables were not eaten by the deer, so we got way too much of kohlrabi, rutabaga, beets. The only thing I could handle was the beets. I got a mean borszcz recipe.

And since there was (at times) enough for 6, and we were only 3 (one of whom didn't like vegetables anyway), the plan was abandoned when I refused to take in the "orphans".

I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm saying it takes some planning and intelligence, which was not in evidence in the fiasco I experienced. And time. Real cooking takes time, especially fresh vegetables. If you don't have two hours a day to devote to cooking, canning, or freezing, you will have an epic fail.

Let me say this: it was an experience.

Edited to add: WAY too many habaneros, too.

[grntuscarora]

5. Thanks!

That's our biggest concern--volume. We're a family of four, two of whom are enthusiastic veggie eaters, two of whom would rather eat dirt.

This CSA offers a "small box" option, which is 60% the size of the regular box. My thought was to try a small box for this summer, to see how it works.

As for the exotic veggies, the kids won't go for them, but I will! (I never met a veggie I didn't like

I appreciate hearing about the pitfalls-- I want to know what we're getting into. thanks!

[drthais]

4. We have a CSA farm here in Louisiana

Although we have grown and sold organic vegetables for many many years
this is our 4th year of a CSA...

ours is a bit different, in that our member families (we have 40 families per season) help with everything from planting to mulching to harvesting etc. etc.

Our season is mid-May till mid-July

As a matter of fact, we're having a Planting Extravaganza this weekend!

As for the shared-risk' factor, our contract specifically states that the members do NOT share in catastrophic risk. Should an 'act of God' occur, they get their money back for the remainder of the season. We just wouldn't feel right about it otherwise. If your planting is diverse enough, you can stand a crop failure of one thing or another, and it all works out.

All members show up late Friday or early Saturday during the actual season, and help harvest and pack bushel baskets. We find that they enjoy the labor-sharing, learn quite a bit, and the whole thing makes it possible for us to grow enough vegetables, herbs and flowers for 40 families.
Everyone can do something, even if everyone is not able to do the difficult labor-intensive parts.

Works like a charm. Don't know why we didn't do this many years ago. It's fabulous.

[NickB79]

8. What steps were involved in starting your CSA?

I'm seriously thinking of starting a CSA of my own, since I already have the land, the green thumb, a love of gardening and multiple friends and coworkers have already asked to buy some of my produce this summer. I'll probably wait another couple of years until my daughter is older (it's hard to garden when you and your wife both work full-time and care for a 2-yr old toddler without daycare) but that gives me time to put in fruit and nut trees and prep more land for cultivation.

Are there a lot of regulations and red tape required to get started? Did you start off with something smaller, like a stand at the local farmer's market?

Thanks!

[grntuscarora]

9. Yeah, I want to make sure I understand

exactly what's involved with the "shared risk".
If they simply substitute one veggie for another, then no problem. But I'm concerned about the (albeit remote) possibility of "catastrophic" crop failure.
We must check that out.

[grntuscarora]

10. Zucchini failure???

I really thought zucchini were indestructible.

[grntuscarora]

14. this winter was so warm.

I worry that insects of all kinds will be very bad this summer.

[tsuki]

16. We have yellow flies now. They usually come with the blueberries at

the end of May.

[KamaAina]

7. If you happen to be in the Memphis area, this is the CSA for you

http://www.tubbycreekfarm.com

run by one of the coolest dudes on the planet.

[kestrel91316]

11. My sister and BIL in WI have had a share in one for at least 10 years, I think.

They LOVE it. At Christmas this past Dec my BIL said he was basically a vegetarian anymore because they got so much bounty there wasn't much room or need for meat in their diets. When they do eat meat it's organic or grass-fed, but it's not often.

[AndyTiedye]

13. We Were in a CSA for a Few Years

Lots of nice fresh veggies. Sometimes too much for just the two of us.

Then there is the game of "What is this alien vegetable and what do I do with it?"
Fortunately, our CSA had a newsletter which often had answers to such mysteries and recipes to go with them.

We also started a vegetable garden several years ago, and we have been doubling its size each year.
We dropped the CSA last year because the garden was producing enough that we could no longer eat all the CSA sent us.
Excepting the alien veggies mentioned above, often the CSA and the garden were producing the same stuff at the same time,
and of course we ate the ones from the garden first.

Now we hit the farmers' markets for whatever veggies we can't grow.