This question comes near the end of the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) season for most, but we thought it would be a good opportunity for those of you with CSA memberships to sound off on your experiences of this season.
After reading about CSA boxes so much over the past few months, I'm looking into subscribing (if that's what you call it...) I am new to the process, so I'm not exactly sure how it works, but in looking at localharvest.com, there seem to be a lot of options in NYC. I live on the upper west side, near Columbia, and would love some advice.
Is there one that everyone uses? A more convenient pick up spot? A trick to picking the right one? Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank you!
Elizabeth
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a way for people to become shareholders or subscribers to a farm and its growing season. You can see a good description of the idea at Local Harvest's CSA page. Members become stakeholders for a farm's growing season - usually paying one up-front fee and then sharing the risks and rewards of local, often organic, farming. For this one-time fee they get a weekly box of the farm's produce - usually a mix of local vegetables and fruit.
The benefits are just-picked, local produce - so much better than grocery store varieties! The risks include uncertainty and limited variety. Your produce is limited to what the farmer sends that week. And if the season is harsh and certain crops don't come up as expected, then shareholders experience that right along with the farm. If crops do well, then there is an abundance.
One other benefit to CSAs is the opportunity to go and experience farms firsthand. Many memberships offer a discount in exchange for a day or two of work weeding or harvesting. Some even require this - we think it's a great opportunity for city-dwellers to get more in touch with their food!
A real CSA, it should be noted, is different from an organics delivery service, like Orlando Organics or Boston Organics, which partners with many farmers - some local and some not - to deliver a more rounded variety of fruits and vegetables year-round. A CSA is usually only active during the local growing season, which may be short in the Midwest, over the winter in Florida, or year-round in California.
We do not have specific suggestions for your area, Elizabeth - we'll leave that to the readers! In general, CSAs in the East and North usually start taking subscriptions in the early spring or late winter. Popular farms, especially ones in areas with few other CSAs, fill up fast, so find options that you like and see if you can get a subscription early for next year.
Comments, anyone? Do you have a good suggestion on a CSA for Elizabeth? Reflections on your own CSA experiences this year?
More on CSAs
• CSA = Community Supported Agriculture
• Introducing: The Virtual CSA Box
• Virtual CSA Box: What's in Your Box?
• All Virtual CSA Box posts
(Image credit: Rock Spring Farm)
This was my first year in a CSA, and I don't think it's right for me. I found that not having control of how much shows up each week led to more waste than we would typically have if we were visiting the farmer's market instead. Some of it, too, was the extraordinarily uncooperative weather here this summer. I think our farm didn't have any rain for the first 2 or 3 months, then it was rained steadily every day for a week or so, at which point the size of our haul almost doubled - right before we went out of town for a few days. I think next year we'll go back to the farmer's market. We can still buy from our farm, though, since they are also at our market each week. :)
view LauraII's profile
My advice it to choose a established farm. This was our first year and we went with some moving back to the earth hippie types. The farm folded within a month. We paid a lot of money for just enough rhubarb to make one crisp.
That said, we learned our lesson and will be finding ourselves a well established farm that also has experience with being a CSA next year.
view Kassie's profile
I'm excited to be joining a fall/winter CSA. I've never been involved with one before.
I live in North Central Alabama, so our growing season is longer than in other areas, and we can get good winter root veggies.
I'm having trouble choosing between two CSAs, though. One is a stand-alone farm with its own CSA. The other is a CSA that represents multiple smaller farms.
What do y'all think?
view Nicole R's profile
for a listing of all 50 CSAs in NYC (all 5 boroughs) go to:
http://www.justfood.org
just food is a non-profit that organizes csa's throughout the city. i belong to a csa in queens, but i know there are quite a few on the upper west side. some of them might offer winter shares.
view civita's profile
Anybody aware of a service similar to Boston Organics for NYC area?
view LuckyMonkey's profile
dunno what boston organics is, but perhaps Urban organic? Urbanorganic.com. Kind of a csa but i think they just purchase lots of organics from different places, not one particular farm, and not necessarily local. I've actually gotten pineapple in it..
not bad, but i guess like a CSA, i quit because I had no control on what I was getting.. the size/amounts of stuff. I once asked to replace 2 things with another "vegetable" and was given 3x garlic.. who needs 10 heads of garlic??
view cheflaura's profile
this was our first year belonging to a csa. the folks who run our farm say that in previous years, subscribers were receiving 15 pounds of vegetables at this time, where this year we're getting 4-5 pounds each week. our farm (Clagett Farm CSA in Upper Marlboro, MD) says that many of their crops never took off because of the drought, but also because development surrounding the farm is causing more and more deer to come onto the farm in search of food.
overall, i've enjoyed the experience. our pickup point is ultra-convenient. the high point was wonderful lettuces at the beginning of the summer. the low point was only receiving one ear of corn for the entire summer. it's been fun to cook with things that i usually wouldn't purchase myself. i'd like to try it at least one more summer to see how the experience is different.
Here's the CSA we belong to: http://www.clagettfarm.org/ and http://cbf.typepad.com/clagett_farm/
And here are photos I've taken all summer of our weekly shares: http://flickr.com/photos/galant/sets/72157600286246609/
view ctd's profile