Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hitting the CSA Jackpot

I finally found a local CSA that
  1. has shares small enough for the two of us,
  2. delivers in our area instead of requiring us to drive 15+ miles to pick it up,
  3. is very reasonably priced,
  4. offers a nice variety, with a good balance between stuff people use more often and things that are new/unusual to many folks,
  5. never overloads their CSA baskets with too much of any one thing like zucchini when it's in "can't even give it away" season,
  6. allows us to order additional produce, free-range organic eggs, and naturally-raised poultry and meats, to be delivered with our CSA basket,
  7. is run by Very Nice People (one of the other local CSAs is run by someone who comes across as a compulsive, aggressive control freak), and
  8. doesn't require work (one of the local CSAs requires each member to work a certain significant number of hours, but the costs are still as much or more than the other CSAs).
This makes me very happy.

In case you have no clue what I'm talking about, CSA stands for "Community Supported Agriculture." Generally, CSAs are small local farms that apply natural and/or organic farming practices, though not all are "certified organic." While some CSA's simply allow members to order and buy what they want each week, and many CSA's are the farmers at your local farm markets, many offer a pre-paid discounted weekly farmer's-choice basket which is a sample of what was harvested that week. I like the challenge (or at least I like the idea of the challenge) of getting something new and having to figure out how to use it.

Now I'll need to decide what, if anything, to put into my own garden.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who-hoooo! I will have to get all the 411 when we get there. 3 weeks and counting!!! (and No, I haven't heard a thing from DTCC).

Jennifer said...

I wish we had one like that here! The closest CSA is 25 miles away and no delivery to my town at all. :(

Of course, I can grow what they deliver, but I'd rather have the meat/eggs options.