Anyone do a CSA share?

[TnTWalter]

COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE

I have been pondering joining a share for organice produce and/or meat eggs milk for a couple years and am now thinking of taking the plunge.

having a hard time finding a share that offers both meat and produce. Anyone do either?

Trish

 

[katie26]

I have a vegetable CSA, and I love it! I mostly cook for just myself and my boyfriend, so I split a share with another couple we know. It's a great way to get lots of organic local veggies on the cheap and it's a nice way to get a variety of different vegetables.

Our CSA also has options for fruit, flower, bread and egg shares, but I like to just pick those things up when I want/need them.

 

[vicki_c]

We just joined one that starts @ the end of the month - no meat though. Veggies, but then I added the egg share and a special tomato add-on they had.

 

[TnTWalter]

Perhaps I will have to do 3 separate shares: milk eggs, veggie/fruit, and meat. I just thought it would be easy to combine them all.

there should be more in Indiana but not having a lot of luck.

 

[vicki_c]

I found mine through a post on Eat at Home Cooks, which linked to another blogger - The Greenbacks Gal - and somehow linked me up to a main national CSA website.

Here's a link to her blog page on that - and it has a link to Local Harvest - that's where I started.

http://thegreenbacksgal.com/category/buying-local/

PS - I just looked and there are 89 listing in the state of Indiana, but obviously it's a big state so not sure how many would work for you!

 

[EPCOT is a verb]

We have done 2 different CSA's the last 2 summers. Both had all vegetables. We enjoyed the organic veggies and receiving different and unusual veggies. Both were fairly expensive for the amount of food we received, though. We decided not to do one this year. I am planning on buying more at local farmer's roadstands this year.

 

[Pigeon]

I've done it for years. I actually split a share with a coworker who also has a family of four. I love it. Mine is just veggies though. I would love to have fruit and meat, but none of the CSAs around here do that.

We also have a small garden, mostly tomatoes and herbs, and with that and the half-share, we're good for veggies for almost six months.

 

[Sadie22]

I have a fruit and vegetable share for our family. We can buy meat and milk from a nearby farm store if we want.

 

[scrapquitler]

COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE

I have been pondering joining a share for organice produce and/or meat eggs milk for a couple years and am now thinking of taking the plunge.

having a hard time finding a share that offers both meat and produce. Anyone do either?

Trish

I've been trying to join one for this year, but the lady at my local farm won't call me back or email me the information that I've been askng for for the last 6 weeks.

 

[Evi]

I do a weekly veggie csa. In my area I find you can get milk, eggs and meat from local farms but not really as a combined package.

 

[mjbaby]

I've been trying to join one for this year, but the lady at my local farm won't call me back or email me the information that I've been askng for for the last 6 weeks.

Please keep in mind that this is a busy time for farmers! In my experience, CSAs are not run as businesses per se but something that the farmer does in his/her "free" time - of which there is very little this time of year. Calling now requires the same patience as calling an accountant in March/April or a professor during finals.

I've had the best luck signing up for or asking for information in the months of November through March. Keep at it! I've found CSAs to be totally worth the effort and risk (remember, too, that a CSA is a risk sharing arrangement with the farmer: good years result in good shares, less-good years result in less-good shares. Pick a farmer whose skills and methods you trust and leap with both eyes open!)

 

[girli565]

I've found CSAs to be totally worth the effort and risk (remember, too, that a CSA is a risk sharing arrangement with the farmer: good years result in good shares, less-good years result in less-good shares. Pick a farmer whose skills and methods you trust and leap with both eyes open!)

This is very true. We've had some freezes in our area (Homestead, FL) and it severely affected the CSA I joined. The months of Dec. & Jan were rough, we got tomatoes and lettuces but the herbs were damaged very badly. They sprang back the following months with delicious broccoli/broccoli raab and the tomatoes were delicious.

 

[SDSorority]

COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE

I have been pondering joining a share for organice produce and/or meat eggs milk for a couple years and am now thinking of taking the plunge.

having a hard time finding a share that offers both meat and produce. Anyone do either?

Trish

We did a veggie CSA last year.

Honestly... I wouldn't do it again. You were kinda...stuck...with what you got. There were weeks where I had SO MANY beans and bags of lettuce that I didn't know what to do with it all (and we're a high-raw vegetarian family).

This year, I'm sticking to my own garden and farmers markets. That way, I get to kinda pick what I want to have for the week.

 

[Lucille1963]

Please keep in mind that this is a busy time for farmers! In my experience, CSAs are not run as businesses per se but something that the farmer does in his/her "free" time - of which there is very little this time of year. Calling now requires the same patience as calling an accountant in March/April or a professor during finals.

I've had the best luck signing up for or asking for information in the months of November through March. Keep at it! I've found CSAs to be totally worth the effort and risk (remember, too, that a CSA is a risk sharing arrangement with the farmer: good years result in good shares, less-good years result in less-good shares. Pick a farmer whose skills and methods you trust and leap with both eyes open!)

I did one a couple years ago and decided it wasn't for us. Some weeks it was good, other weeks it wasn't but overall I felt like I was still having to buy a lot of veggies from other sources. I joined hoping for lots of tomatoes, but ended up with 3 squished at the bottom of my box once. Overall, I felt like I was still paying almost as much at the grocery store and farmers markets as I did without the share, but I had paid hundreds of dollars up front.

To the PP who talked about not being able to get a hold of the person running the farm, I'd take it as a red flag. A few years ago there were some people in my area who joined a CSA that never delivered that I read about on review pages. If the business person is MIA now, what makes you think they'll be better if there is a problem down the line. Although I am sure they are very busy, for the amount they charge up front, they should be responsive. 6 weeks with no communication is way too long.

 

[paminpa]

We joined one last year -got to experience some veggies i might not have bought on my own- love garlic scapes!! This year will be a different CSA one that delivers with my milk and egg order YEAH!

 

[patchchild]

We've had the best luck wth ours in Massachusetts. Given the crazy weather here, that's saying something. We get both fruits and veggies, although they do have a meat CSA as well.

A lot depends on finding the right CSA for your family. Ours is really good about never overloading you with just one kind of veggie. We always get a nice variety.

 

[powellrj]

I look into it every year and decided it wasn't for us. We have too many weeks we are out of town and the food would go to waste. We do go to a couple of farmers markets and one of the farm stands we use is also a CSA. We have found its easier for us to just buy weekly.

 

[tapplebapple]

I used this website to find a local CSA ...

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

One of the biggest advantages was the reviews, and the fact that you could search by zip code. I spent a lot of time researching and found a local farm that does both veges and fruit and he runs the CSA as a business and it fully committed to it. I LOVED IT and have been so upset over the last 5 months without any local veges and I can't wait - just 4 more weeks

 

[Pigeon]

I've been trying to join one for this year, but the lady at my local farm won't call me back or email me the information that I've been askng for for the last 6 weeks.

They may have sold all the shares by now--our CSA has. They should, of course, get back to you about it.

 

[Evi]

I used this website to find a local CSA ...

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

One of the biggest advantages was the reviews, and the fact that you could search by zip code. I spent a lot of time researching and found a local farm that does both veges and fruit and he runs the CSA as a business and it fully committed to it. I LOVED IT and have been so upset over the last 5 months without any local veges and I can't wait - just 4 more weeks

I'm with you I pick up my seedlings for my garden on Saturday and then 3weeks till my csa starts