We love CSA's because we believe in supporting our local farmers and we love getting fresh produce delivered to us direct from the farmer. Now, those of us in most Bay Area locations can have local meat delivered to us straight from the ranchers.
Meat CSA's in the San Francisco Bay Area
Meat CSA's are a recent development in the Bay Area and there are only a few of them at the moment. The prices (ranging from $5 to $15 per pound) are very reasonable for organic and grass-fed meat, and the packaging is minimal. The meat is coming from farms in Marin and Sonoma counties, and includes beef, lamb, goat, pig/boar, and chicken. The meat arrives frozen and packed with dry ice. Here's the current list:
- Marin Sun Farms - offers once a month pickup at locations in Marin, San Francisco, the East Bay, and Palo Alto. Some locations are currently full; there is a waiting list. You can get a mixed meat package of beef and lamb that includes roasts, cuts, and ground meat, or you can get a chicken or sausage-only pack. Mixed meat packs come in various weights that you can choose from.
- Bay Area Meat CSA - monthly pickup of steaks, roasts, chickens, and eggs.
- Sonoma County Meat Buying Club - this is the only meat club that offers pork, duck, and bacon in addition to beef, lamb, and chicken. Unfortunately, they only offer pick-up at two sites in Santa Rosa and Petaluma.
- Clark Summit Meat Club - this club is currently full, but add yourself to the mailing list and they'll let you know when they're taking new members. They provide beef, lamb, boar, chicken, and eggs. Once a month pickup at sites in Marin, Emeryville, and San Francisco.
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Ingredients - Meat, San Francisco, Sustainable, pork, beef, lamb, meat, local meat, CSA, chicken, Marin, Sonoma, boar, goat, local farmer, meat CSARelated Links
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Thank you! My sister in law and I were just discussing joining a meat CSA.
view Robbybird's profile
Slow Food Los Angeles is considering sponsoring a meat CSA or buying club. The local vendors love the idea.
view JudiAU's profile
We belong to a meat csa in Nashville, TN (Peaceful Pastures) and we love it. It has actually helped us to eat less meat since now we know how much we get every month and then plan around it instead of shopping every week for meat. Our grass fed meat csa is $85/ month for 25 pounds of meat. This feeds our family of 4 perfectly with us eating about half vegetarian meals and half omnivorous meals. This is really the only way we can afford to eat such high quality food and we love supporting a local farm.
view sar3j's profile
It's great to hear about this new extension of CSA - even though I'm personally vegetarian, I'm glad to know that there is so much "responsible meat eating" going on these days.
The sad thing is, it doesn't seem to have found its way into the kosher world yet. Many of my free range-minded, kosher-keeping are frustrated that they can't find meat through a CSA or otherwise that fits both of those descriptions.
Also, my organization is planning a conference out in Asilomar (near Monterey), and we'd love to find a way to serve kosher, sustainable meat at the conf - but it's been such a challenge! If anyone out West has any leads, let us know... Here's more on our conundrum:
http://jcarrot.org/food-at-the-food-conference/
view The Jew And The Carrot's profile