Hi Umbra!
I've held back from joining a CSA because 1) I live alone and am worried about wasting food, and 2) I'm worried I'll get so much oddball stuff, especially in the winter, that I won't know what to do with it. I figure I can overcome No. 1 by seeking out some sufficiently hip neighbors and seeing if they want to share (although someone cautioned me that it gets hard to split the choice stuff -- she mentioned an incident with six strawberries). But I'm more concerned about the second. I work a lot, and don't have a ton of time to research recipes or do lengthy food preparation. It seems so much easier to buy what I need at the farmers' market. But I'd like to support local farms more directly, and ideologically, I like the idea of CSA -- do you have any advice?
Tara
Sacramento, Calif.
Dearest Tara,
Let veggies into your life.
Photo: iStockphoto
Hmm. The farmers' market might be the better choice for you. No harm in that, either. CSA advice first, and then soothing remarks about farmers' markets.
Recently, we discovered that community-supported agriculture means joining one's eating fate to a particular farm by paying at the beginning of the season for weekly boxes of produce (the nuance-free description). Fighting over strawberries does sound tearful. One thing you could do is find a CSA that offers half-shares. They will divide the strawberries ahead of time, and you will still get to meet your sufficiently hip neighbors as you each pick up your box without rancor.
Farmers have to plan the harvest months in advance. Duh, right? This is to your advantage should you choose to join a CSA: you can ask what will be in your upcoming boxes. The farmer knows whether kohlrabi and rutabaga are en route. In fact, any experienced CSA farmer has seen enough confused members to have thought around the kohlrabi surprise. So as you look around for a CSA to join, you'll usually see a list of expected upcoming foods, and later, recipes for unfamiliar foods.
I've seen CSAs get around the I-don't-like-that issue by having members pick up their produce on the farm and pack their own boxes, directed by signs saying "take one broccoli or one rapini." You don't want rapini, you don't have to have it. An adventurous person accustomed to eating seasonally and excited about leaving broccoli behind them, by the way, would be a great candidate for supporting a beginning farmer. Remember, it's not just a financial transaction, it's community-supported agriculture.
A good cookbook might be another way to get around fear of the unusual. There are cookbooks out there for every specialty, and you need one on simple cooking with vegetables. I, of course, have advice on this point: Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone has a section organized by vegetable. Under "carrots" will be a list of simple suggestions for stuff that goes well with carrots (e.g., dill), and three to seven recipes ranging from glorified steamed carrots to something kind of special. Also, I'll give you a hot tip: almost everything is tasty steamed and served with butter, salt, and pepper. Join a CSA, get the box, find a simple recipe, gain confidence, look forward to new odd foods. It could happen to you.
That said, community-supported agriculture and farmers' markets are not necessarily systems in conflict. Farmers' market stands are either run by middlepeople, selling stuff other people grew, or run directly by the farmers themselves. (To find out which is which, inquire at the market organizer's tent, or at the booths if you are comfortable.) In the latter case, you are supporting a farm just as directly as with a CSA. The money goes right to the farmer. It's just a different model. If you shop often and faithfully, the farm will begin to feel assured of a certain amount of income each week at the market stand, and you could get a little closer to the CSA ideal while still controlling your produce choice.
Oh, here's my last CSA idea: just go for it, get a whole share, don't worry about the unfamiliar food. Find or make a cooking, adventurous friend. Give them the produce you can't or don't wish to cook. I bet they'll sometimes invite you over to eat it. Everyone wins.
Turniply,
Umbra
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Comments
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zibby Posted 5:43 am
29 Aug 2007
JOIN UP, TARA!
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swan Posted 6:02 am
29 Aug 2007
I've been writing about local farms, saving seeds and growing your own in my blog http://goodwordswan.wildflowerstew.com and I am so pleased to see more and more people finding their food closer to home.
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sindark Posted 6:27 am
29 Aug 2007
At the same time, I am sure I could not eat as many vegetables as the local schemes seem to provide each week, nor easily stomach the cost.
A smaller delivery at a price of about $10 a week would be ideal.
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bluefoxfarm Posted 12:34 pm
29 Aug 2007
What do you think of a hybrid model between CSA and farmers market?
It works like this- You the eater pay in advance for Farmers Market Bucks- say $250. But you get a 10%-15% discount for paying in advance. So you only pay $225 for the $250 worth of food. So each week you come to market you buy the amount you want. The farmer marks off what you spend and when you exhaust your card, you prepay for another if you like.
We're thinking of this as a possible option for our CSA for may reasons. The eater gets to choose. 85% of our members already pick up at market anyway. We're not packing boxes in advance. And we don't have to deal with logistics of drop sites. And we the farmers get the money in advance to help pay for costs.
Of course this is (again) a farm by farm scenario that wouldn't work for all farms or all people. By diversity in buying your food is just as important as diversity in choice of food.
Gathering Together Farm (in Portland Oregon) does something similar to this. Actually it's where I got the idea.
Love to hear what you think.
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AlliesAnswers Posted 11:17 pm
29 Aug 2007
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msk Posted 11:43 pm
29 Aug 2007
The CSA my wife and I belong to allows you to select ten items per week on-line from a list of about 25 different things. The box we get is huge. It IS a lot of work to prepare and sometimes we end up eating the same thing ten days in a row (our freezer is not that big). I can safely say I would not be able to manage it if I were single. A half-share might work. Getting a half-share AND sharing that with a neighbor might work too.
As much as I support local food, I do not encourage people to try CSAs willy-nilly, as they can get easily overwhelmed and back away from it. It's good that Tara is considering carefully before signing up. There's no shame whatsoever in buying at at the farmers' market, and if it's a "producers' market," as I've heard them called around here, the money goes directly to the farmers.
Another option I have seen out here in the Philly area is a buying club. Most of them seem to work this way: you sign up and once every two weeks or a month you can choose what you want, paying for each item individually. These usually go year-round and include things like milk and cheese, meat, and honey at certain times, in addition to the veggies. Often they deliver to a central point not far away for pick-up. If you don't want to order because you haven't made it through the last order, you don't have to.
Another great cookbook with a big section organized by vegetable is "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman, although it would NOT work for a vegan. Our copy is coming apart from so much use.
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sernya Posted 4:49 am
30 Aug 2007
It's a great system, maybe you can find one like that?
Also, there are great CSA cookbooks out there, where they are arranged by season and vegetable. I have that AND the one we got from our farm.
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Delay And Deny Posted 1:12 pm
31 Aug 2007
Action Item #1:
Get rid of corn syrup from American food.
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geekguyandy Posted 10:16 pm
03 Sep 2007
I joined a CSA this year, and sure I got a lot of food, but I would never say "I don't have enough time to prepare it." I think people need to stop whining and just learn to eat good food again. I can steam up a nice big pot of veggies in minutes, and maybe that's more prep than throwing a box of corn-syrup-invested-microwaved-boxed-waste-product in the microwave, but I can wait the extra 5-10 minutes. When I do feel like cooking something more glamourous, I will take the time, but just because I'm cooking from the CSA doesn't mean that is the activity for the day.
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MidknytOwl Posted 2:27 pm
04 Sep 2007
I think you would do a lot better if you did the Market Bucks payable via food stamps. I understand if you can't have the machines at the Farmer's Markets, but you should be able to process it if it was purchased ahead of time. Then I could actually eat fresh things and support my local economy, instead of eating the crap in the super market or debating if I can take money from somewhere else to buy at the Farmer's Market instead.
(And for the inevitable person who will come and say that it's not that much more money and to stop whining, I live off $500 a month, and that includes everything. The extra $1 a pound for apples really does add up).
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akbeancounter Posted 4:42 am
05 Sep 2007
Also, many CSA's offer half-shares or biweekly pickups, designed for families of one or two. Ask around; if you have more than three CSA's in your area, you'll probably find something.
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Monolake Posted 1:43 pm
05 Sep 2007
Our farmers' market is very seasonal so the CSA is the best option for local produce in the winter
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honeychrome Posted 7:13 am
10 Mar 2008
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