Community Supported Agriculture boxes have become more familiar in the last few years, and it sounds like many of you subscribe seasonally or yearly to a farm share CSA. Subscribers pay a set amount to support a local farm, and in return they receive a weekly box of the farm's in-season produce.
This is a superb way to stay linked to local growers and to eat seasonally. The only down side, as some of you have noticed, is that you usually don't have any say over what you receive each week. This can lead to head-scratching dilemmas of what to do with that rutabaga, or the third head of cabbage.
Eating seasonally! It does involve some learning, doesn't it? Well, we want to help out a little and so we're starting a weekly feature looking at some piece of produce that is showing up in CSA boxes that week.
We need your help, though! Can you tell us what CSA you subscribe to? If they have a website with their weekly listings we'll check it to see what they're sending and what's in season for you, in your part of the country.
Also, feel free to email if there's something new and strange that shows up in your box and you'd like to share what you did with it, or ask a question about it. Email me at faith (at) apartmenttherapy.com
And if you're intrigued by this idea and want to try a CSA share for the first time, check out listings at LocalHarvest and The Farm Locator.
(Image credit: Future Casa CSA)
A couple of friends and I subscribe to Kings Hill Farm. They are in Wisconsin but deliver to the Chicago area year round.
Lately:
Lots of cabbage, beets . . .
Last month we got a young coconut. The inside was purple with hardly any flesh and I didn't know what to do with it. Later my Filipino co-worker told me this kind is used for the juice.
Great idea for a feature! I desperately need it. I subscribe to Boston Organics. Click my name for the link to their weekly boxes.
Great idea - I just joined a CSA here in Michigan in January, and it's only during the summer season (June - October), so we haven't gotten anything yet. It's Maple Creek Farm, and the link to their summary of what is typically in a share is at the link in my name. They also sell a cookbook which I plan on getting but haven't ordered yet.
We've subscribed this year to Red Earth Farm here in Philadelphia. They offer a fruit and egg share as well as the veggies.
Anyone in Los Angeles subscribe to a CSA? I've done searches and asked around at my local Farmers Market, but I have yet to find one here. Which seems kind of crazy, being that there is a Market everyday. Many of the organic farms are up in the Santa Barbara area, but none of them deliver shares this far south. Any leads?
i like the challenge- mustard greens became a favorite. we had one farm for the past two years, and are switching this year to the brookfield farm
(http://www.brookfieldfarm.org/)
What a great idea. I have not heard of these operating here in New Zealand - however I have to say that we seem to have an informal neighborhood vege swap going on. In our street we all have vegetable gardens and swap what ever excess we have with the neighbors. Just this week I have been given bucket loads of potatoes, zucchini and a bag of pears, and have recently given away bags of lemons and carrots. It is a good reason to talk to the neighbors!
NYC here. I did Chubby Bunny CSA last year (chubbybunnynyc.org) and the quality of produce was very very good. But, the variety was not so good and the fruit share was sort of a joke (and I think Chubby is slightly pricier than other CSAs).
I'm not doing a CSA again this year. I decided I could develop a better relationship with a few farmers at the Greenmarket and spend about the same money on the best produce of my choice. (As it was, I always ended up augmenting my share with more greens and tomatoes from the market anyway...) Faith, the Chubby Bunny site keeps a log of what they distributed each week and they did supply a weekly set of recipes, also online, but those recipes were all sort of lame. For all you folks in NYC looking to get into a CSA, best to sign up early - like now. They fill up fast.
My household subscribes to Full Belly Farm (weekly listings at http://www.fullbellyfarm.com/newsletter.html) and absolutely love it. Because of them I discovered my love of rutabagas. Michael Pollan also belongs to the Full Belly CSA, in case it needed any more cred. We in the Bay Area are totally spoiled by the year-round fabulous produce.
this is a *great* idea to share info and ideas about various vegetables contained in a csa box!
i'm also in nyc - my csa is farmspot, in jackson heights (www.farmspot.org). we do not have a winter share this year, though we hopefully will next year. last season was our first year and our vegetables were fantastic (from golden earthworm farm in l.i.) and we anticipate filling up our membership slots quickly. fyi - to see a listing of all csa's in new york city visit www.justfood.org
i love the idea, but ultimately, i have to spend my money on the produce i want. i'm not a picky eater and i embrace the occasional challenge, but i think my money's better spent at the farmer's market.
oops, those links are:
http://www.farmspot.org
http://www.justfood.org
Kirby, as far as I know there's only one CSA delivering to Los Angeles area: http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M3359
We were going to try it, however, it's expensive compared to what we spend at the various ethnic markets in our neighborhood. While we don't see much organic produce, what we get at the Armenian, Korean, and Mexican markets around here (Northeast part of the city) is really, really fresh and inexpensive.
we recently started with a csa, but aren't in the US, so what is seasonal might be slightly different.
they do have a website (not in english, so i'm not linking) where they list what they sent, with a newsletter and recipes - so i've found that helpful to at least be able to identify some new things. and my 6 year old discovered he loves tatsoi!
I just subscribed to the produce box service from Newleaf Natural Grocery in Chicago. It's similar to a CSA in that it's local produce (as much as possible, they say) and they select what goes in the boxes. My first one arrives this Saturday, and I'm so excited. This sounds like a great feature.
http://www.newleafnatural.net/index.html
Great idea! I recently joined the Purple Dragon Co-Op in New Jersey (sounds like it's the same principle as CSA - here's their site: http://purpledragon.com/ )
and so far love it! Some of the items I got this week included a cabbage, collard greens, and carrots. Which turned into a great slaw that I was able to bring to lunch almost all week.
I LOVE my CSA in the San Diego area - it's Be Wise Ranch - they post their weekly pick list at their site
Oops!
Which is...
http://www.bewiseranch.com/picklist.htm
Does any one have any reccomendations of CSAS on the UWS of NYC? I saw the talk around Chubby Bunny, but would like to look into others and get a read on the quality.
Jess
Jess - I've heard good things about Roxbury Farm and really thought about joining them this year. Fyi, Roxbury fills up fast and we enrolled too late last year. Roxbury shares are a bit more diverse and better priced than Chubby (full Roxbury is 498, full Chubby is 595) and Roxbury actually gets fruit local whereas Chubby gets fruit from Red Jacket.
If you do consider doing Chubby -- again, the produce was of very high quality but overall I didn't think the CSA was a good value for me -- you might think about the half share. Each week people only tended to get like one squash or one watermelon each in the half and whole share. The only difference really was that whole share folks would get double or triple the onions, cabbage, collard, braise mix, etc.
Joanna,
would you mind posting your thoughts on the New Leaf box after you get it? I am also in Chicago and debating signing up. I would really appreciate it!
Sure, corks. It was recommended to me by a friend who gets their fruit-only box and really likes it. I'm getting the mixed fruit and veggies. Hopefully it's just as good.
I love this idea!! It was tricky cooking all the kale, fennel, greens and beets in yummy & interesting ways. Here's the CSA's (Washington Heights, NYC) url: http://home.earthlink.net/~littleseed/location.html
Fantastic idea! I just bought a share from Honey Brook Farm in Pennington, New Jersey and would love ideas on what to do with the rutabega. (www.honeybrookorganicfarm.com) Thanks!
I subscribe to Los Poblanos Organics CSA in Albuquerque, NM: http://www.lospoblanosorganics.com
corks -
I got the first box from Newleaf Natural on Saturday. My $15 mixed veggie and fruit box contained 1 mango, 3 gala apples, 2 bananas, 1 avocado, 1 acorn squash, 4 parsnips, mesclun greens, cilantro and a package of mushrooms. It all seems to be good quality, fresh produce. I'm happy with it.
I subscribe to Spiral Path Farm in Loysville, PA and delivering to Baltimore, Philly, and points in between!
My husband and I (and another couple) just subscribed to the May Farm CSA here in MN. This is a challenging area of the country for this, and we're looking forward to our weekly boxes!
Rebecca,
You mentioned that you subscribe to the Kings Hill Farm CSA program. Can you describe a little of what each box contains? And, how big is a bushel. I am thinking that we will only need 1/2 a bushel for two.
Thanks,
Miffy
Out here in Washington, I found a CSA which operates year round. They bring organic produce up from CA and even Mexico during the seasons where it can't be grown locally. But let me tell you about how great this particular CSA is. Take Root Farm (takerootfarm.com) has U-pick crops along with your weekly box. You can pick your own herbs and greens and during the summer, a bouquet of flowers each week. And they let you trade things. Don't like turnips, trade for more apples or squash. Too many salad greens to use up? Trade for extra carrots or radishes. And you can also buy extras of the week's bounty so when you have company or want to preserve something. And you are welcomed to go wander through "your farm", something that is especially fun with small children.
I really enjoy having a box of fresh produce all picked out for me each week. It IS a challenge, to use all of those things up in 7 days but often, I can keep some of the longer shelf life items from one week to the next. And trying out the unfamiliar things has been a real joy.
One way I have found to use up a lot of the veggies is in "breakfast burritos". On most weekends, I saute a batch of whatever veggies I have in a large frying pan, add a few eggs and stir and cook over low heat. When the eggs are almost done, I top with grated cheese and cover it for a couple minutes to melt the cheese. Then I take warm flour tortillas, fill with the egg mixture, wrap individually in foil and refrigerate. I take these to work each morning, unwrap from the foil and microwave for about 40 seconds. The tortilla stays moist and soft. Fresh salsa of any kind is a nice accent. My grandson loves these, too.
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