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This was our first year in a CSA as well and, like you, we haven't decided whether or not to do it again next year. Ours seemed a bit skimpy in the early/mid summer, but was bountiful in the late summer/early autumn. Still, there was a lot of (self-imposed) pressure to use everything we received each week and I just wasn't always able, especially the more fragile produce. It pained me to throw away so much lettuce and I know I let several cucumbers rot too. I did really love all the potatoes we received, as those are harder to find locally here (and the grocery store ones are not so hot), but the apples, while plentiful, were kind of disappointing.
I'm kind of leaning towards just shopping at local farm stands next year, so I can be sure to buy only what I will actually use that week.

This was also my first year joining a CSA. I live by myself and cook alot during the week so I thought that it would be great to get all those veggies and limit myself to my weekly box and some whole grains, beans and what not. But it was extremely difficult to keep up with it all, I gave a lot away and froze a bunch (I have bags and bags of corn frozen which will be a great surprise come January). It was a rough year for a lot in New England, we had a lot of rain and not a lot of hot days. Tomatoes were rare and ok at best. I too, tossed too much lettuce and kale (I couldnt eat figure out what to do with it)

Although I never would have bought a japanese squash (which was fabulous) there was not much else that was interesting in my box.

Next year I am going to stick with the farmer's market. e have a great one near my office (Copley Square Boston) and I can pick and choose what I get. I am going to stick to my $20 a week budget (thats what the CSA figured out to be) and enjoy it alot more.

I am leaning more toward the farmer's market next year, too. I loved getting the food each week, but so many greens, cucumbers, and zucchini went to waste because we couldn't use them fast enough. Many times they would wilt within a day or two, and I just didn't have the energy to get them all cooked that first night. I was dissatisfied with the amount of fruit we received as well. The variety just wasn't there. If I could find a local farm that guaranteed more fruit and more variety throughout the season, I would definitely try it again.
I will say, too, that my family tried and really enjoyed some foods and recipes that we normally never would have even thought of, and that was a very pleasant, rewarding experience.

love my csa, though I do do a lot of supplementing. wasted tons of bell peppers, but ate most of everything else. just want nothing to do with so many bell peppers.

I documented the CSA on my blog, www.breadbabies.blogspot.org. Just look for keyword CSA.

I was hoping for more herbs OTHER than parsley.

But also more of ONE thing rather than an assortment of tiny servings of thinks. One TINY butternut squash, 6 little beets, etc, makes it hard to cook.

This is the first year participating in a CSA as well and mine will continue through the winter.

I enjoyed being forced to try new veggies that I ordinarily would not have bought (parsnips, cabbage varieties, leeks, etc)

I also grappled with the waste issue. In the beginning, my weekly box was a bit much and I was really struggling to use it all up. I've fixed that problem by opting to only get a box every other week. If I need to, I supplement my veggies on the off weeks by buying at the farmers market. This also allows me to indulge a little and get veggies that I want, but aren't appearing in my box.

Vegetables now make up a much larget portion of my diet which is great as well.

I did a CSA for 2 years, about 3 years ago. I opted out for 3 reasons: 1. Too much of some things, not enough variety, and the waste that has been mentioned above. 2. The price of gas meant the CSA charged more and it cost ME more to drive the 15 miles to wait at my drop-off point. Some days it took me almost an hour of driving through traffic for a round trip! 3. I found that shopping once or twice a week at the local farm stands near me suited my family better. I could also buy large amounts from the farm stands if I wanted to can or freeze. I spent less at the farm stands too, even with the mass purchasing of green beans, apples, and peaches!

It was my first year too. My CSA runs all year round, doing greenhouse greens and stored vegetables (probably mostly root veggies? We'll see).

I'm torn about next year. One of the things I liked a lot was the variety.

I had things show up in my box that I've never tried before, and probably wouldn't have chosen even if I saw them in the market. But because they showed up in my box, I looked up recipes and gave them a try. I learned that I liked beets! I thought I hated beets.

And... I got some fantastic varieties that I would have been reluctant to choose at the farmers market because they were so much more expensive compared to the "normal" varieties. Amazing heirloom tomatoes. Chioggia beets. Purple and yellow carrots. Moon & stars melons.

But... I've got some pretty expensive compost percolating in the backyard too. Lots of lettuce and sprouts went in there. A couple of tomatoes and zucchini. Some beet greens. Some kale.

When we were in the thick of the tomato season it was easy to give lots of them away, but I didn't get any takers for the beet greens and kale.

Will I do it again? I think so. I know I ate better/healthier with it than without. And it pushed my boundaries a bit, which I like.

I did a CSA for the first time last year and opted not to do it this year. As with the others, the amount of food wasted bothered me.

The biggest bother, however, was that I felt like a slave to the basket. I had to leave work early to pick it up, spend a good 45 minutes washing, drying and bagging the produce for the storage, and that was just on pickup day. Then the looking up of recipes to find a different way of cooking the vegetable for the 5th week in a row and not being able to eat any corn, because none came in the basket.

It was a great introduction to what is available locally, and I learned that kale and kohlrabi are kinda awesome.

This was my first time doing a CSA and we made the decision to go with a bit more expensive 100% organic farm. I too had trouble dealing with the small portions of things. We had what was called a "couple" share because we are only two people but what are two people supposed to do with one kolerabe when most recipes call for 5-7? Also since our farm was 100% organic, we experienced a lot of wasted vegetable parts due to them being eaten by bugs. Also, my father has a huge garden and a lot of things i was getting from the CSA, i didn't need b/c they were available to me from my father. I think next year we will sign up with a farm that does a sort of debit card system at the farmers market. you still pay one flat rate in the beginning of the season but you get to pick exactly what you want from the farmer's market and they deduct it from your account (you get a discounted rate different than what the public pays) I think this is a good option because i know for myself i LOVE lettuce but HATE mustard greens which were a standard player in my farms only offered salad mix. As well, we hardly ever use potatoes in my household but eat tons of tomatoes. It'd be nice to be able to have more pick & choose freedom. Im going to stick with the CSA though b/c I think it's a really great way to ensure open land is preserved and not used for WRETCHED housing developments! PS. I do wish that I hadn't picked a farm that had meat options because it's horrible to pet and feed the cutest little black goat you've ever seen for two months to find out one day that he'll be back the following week....in shrink wrap!!! AAAAH!!!

This was our first year, too, and we just reviewed our feelings about it. Verdict: we love it. We have three weeks left, so we're not totally done. We think we saved money (if we compare to buying organic at the market), we loved the wide selection, we ate healthily, the farmers are friendly, and it didn't bother us that we didn't always get to "choose" what veggies we got to cook. Also, the drop-off site is a three-block walk from home. What's not to love? We're signing up again. We're subscribers to Sauvie Island Organics.

Sadly, i think i won't be doing the CSA again last year, although i sang its praises all year to anyone that would listen. At the end of the day, i was too much a slave to the CSA -- planning my day around the pick up times, and basically having to spend my entire Saturday washing/sorting/storing veggies and then hours on the internet to find new recipes and then hours cooking the stuff. Each Saturday was gone -- or else there was a rotting mess happening in my fridge.

Also, summers are for travel and going away, which made the CSA difficult, even though i only had a every-other-week share. I've also crammed my freezer full of veggies that i didn't want to go to waste. While i would like to stock up next year and freeze things for the winter months, i want to be able to pick and choose what and when i do so.

The thing that i will miss most is that my CSA was organic, and the organic stands at my greenmarket are limited with smaller selection... :(

We are finishing up the third year of our CSA. We love it, but I think we have one of the best CSAs in the country, and in CA, the growing season is year round and the variety is incredible. For those of you having trouble using up everything, or not liking everything you get, consider finding a friend to split a box with. We get a large box and split it with two other couples. They get all the onions because I hate them; one couple doesn't like bell peppers and collards; one couple doesn't eat potatoes. It works out perfectly. Plus, it's a good chance for us to get together once every couple of weeks for a "box dinner."

My CSA worked out great- I joined for the first time this year and feel like it was a worthwhile experience. I loved not knowing what I was getting until I showed up at the farm and the fact that we have access to the CSA's "you pick" to snip herbs and flowers we wanted. I never felt like I missed out on anything (maybe we had an exceptionally great season) and the things we got a lot of, I loved (cucumbers, melons, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, garlic scapes, all different types of greens). The CSA farm's "you-pick" was a big incentive for us to drive up there, check out the butterflies, hawks, etc., and be in nature for an hour or so every week. It might have been more work but it was seriously what I looked forward to every week. It was so eye opening to try so many different types of vegetables and to know the taste differences between types of peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and, even, greens. Not to mention a larger portion of my diet is based on locally grown, mostly organic produce. My CSA, Clagett Farms, also gives away roughly 40-60% of its produce to foodbanks, which I think is a cause worth supporting.

I'm lucky enough to live in San Diego and my CSA runs all year. I get it biweekly, that way I can supplement with trips to the farmers market and supermarket, and then I get what I crave as well as what I'm given.

Its introduced me to what most vegetables are supposed to taste like. Wow!

And a lot of bugs, but most things just get a dunk in a large bowl of water which goes on the garden.

The every-other-week option worked fairly well for two of us. Some food rotted, but we also had a small compost bin which eased the guilt. I actually expected a little more variety and quantity, but we live in Chicago and heavy rains damaged a lot of crops early in the season. My CSA is located in Wisconsin and consists of about 20 farms, so that reduces the risk. There are also drop-off points throughout the city based on where you live, which made it easy for me to pick up my food.

I too loved discovering that I enjoyed foods like beets and cabbage, and the taste of all the veggies was far better than the produce section of the grocery store. The experience also inspired me to install baskets on the back of my bike, because while I didn't buy as much produce from the store, I still needed to supplement recipes. I think I filled up my gas tank three times this summer.

For us, it pretty much sucked. It ran my life, and my daughter's husband will never eat another zuchini, even though we are very good at disguising it. We got only one crappy melon, way too much winter squash, and not enough onions or garlic. Next summer we are going straight Greenling.

I'm in Miami so my CSA is about to start up for the season. Last year I had a bit of difficulty keeping up with the vegetable onslaught, and I'll admit that I did waste a good bit of lettuce, but my cooking blog was very helpful in getting me out searching out new and interesting recipes and keeping cooking it all. It's like telling your friends that you're quitting smoking; the public pressure keeps you on the right path.

we signed up for a fall/winter csa for the first time this year. it started in oct and ends in early dec. i LOVE it and wish it continued through the winter. i started out religiously going to the farmers' market every saturday last april, but i've got to admit that it got old. i loved the produce i got, but i got sick of dealing with crowds of people pushing strollers and walking their giant dogs very slowly. ugh. one of my favorite things about the csa is that my husband drops me off at the edge of the market, i run and grab the bin, and then jump back in the car. no hunting for a parking spot, no people to deal with, and no walking to the atm to get cash (which i never seem to have).
having the csa just for the last few weeks has exposed us to all sorts of things we wouldn't have eaten otherwise. we discovered that we like chard, kale, romanseco cauliflower, collard greens, many varieties of squash and have fallen in love even more so with bell peppers because these are just soooo crisp and sweet! i don't like apples, but got 6 of them in the bin and decided to bake my very first pie. it was soooo good! who knew?
the only reason we might not join next year is if i get my butt in gear and plant a garden. we just moved to a house that has space for one. we'll see...

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This is my second year with our CSA. We're into our winter season now, greenhouse tomatoes, root vegetables, apples; got a small pumpkin this week, leeks, and a bit of late broccoli. I did get overwhelmed in the summer, but spring and fall were fine. I think I can live with a little waste (and I get better each year.) Someone must have complained last year, however: this year, we got hardly any zucchini!

I'll be doing the vegetables again next year (it now goes all year round), but probably not the fruit share. The berries in the early summer were wonderful, but I can't eat a bag of apples in a week, and I don't bake enough to use them up in baked goods. It's hard though; the apples are like the ones I remember from childhood--fresh off the trees at my grandparents'. I did a flower share this year, too, which was really nice--but I haven't decided about doing the flowers again next summer.

I'm thinking about sharing with someone, but I'm not sure about the schedule. Thursday is the drop off day, which means if I partner with someone at work, we have to connect on Friday (it's just not the best day on a college campus). Maybe I can find a neighbor...

The main advantage to me is that knowing the box is coming again next week makes me add more vegetables to our meals. Without that, I get lazy. I'm now looking for recipes that use lots of vegetables and figuring out techniques to easily incorporate them into meals. Did you know that if you shred some carrots and zucchini, they cook to just tender in the time it takes to reheat pasta in the microwave? I now actually buy greens when they don't show up in the box--I never bought a bunch of kale or chard in my life before!

And it does make me feel good that I'm helping a farm family keep their farm. I love the idea of a "farm debit card" though--that would be perfect!

This was our first year and we love it! We split our box with friends so usually the portions are okay for 2 people. We get lots of greens too which can be a challenge but it's made me be creative and we're eating much healthier. 2 tips for the people that felt it was time consuming--use a salad spinner and those Debbie Meyer green bags. I did not have those in the spring and spent tons of time rinsing and storing veggies only to have some get wilty and brown before I could use them. Now with the spinner and bags, it's easy peasy.

It's funny that so many people decided against a CSA due to feeling enslaved to the box...My husband and I loved the structure of having something to base our meals off of. I do think we were lucky as our CSA is member's choice, meaning that the week before we logged in to a website to see the available produce and selected the items we wanted. We tried a lot of new things and while a few items went to waste (I love peppers but we just wound up with too many) we were really happy with everything. We also got eggs, fruit and yogurt. We were so sad to see it end that we signed up for a winter CSA that provides a variety of items - meat, cheese, eggs, yogurt, winter veggies, pasta, prepared foods (dried fruit, sauces, etc.).

This was my first year of CSA and we signed up for "every two weeks" share which gave us the best of both worlds: we got a lot of excellent fresh produce but also has an opportunity to shop for at the farmers market on "off" weeks for things that weren't well=represented at our CSA.

I loved the experience, was as if Xmas came every 2 weeks. I will definitely will be signing up for CSA next year, no doubt about it.

But boy, I'll be happy to never have to see lettuce again.