Community Supported Agriculture, also known as a CSA, is a fantastic alternative to your local grocery store. It’s also a great way to access fresh produce and support farmers without having to make a trip out to the farmer’s market among the weekend crowds. The structure of a CSA is where community members purchase a crop share from a local farm, and throughout the growing season, share members visit to the local farm weekly to pick up their already-paid-for shares of just-harvested vegetables.
Seasonal Produce
Each week’s share follows the seasons, so you’re truly receiving flavorful and nutrient-rich produce. In the earlier months, the produce shares typically include kale, garlic scapes, radishes, turnips, lettuce mix, and snow peas. During my first pick-up as a CSA share member, I tasted the best snow peas of my life. I nearly finished the entire bag of snow peas before I made it home. The freshness and quality of the produce is unmatched. In the later months, you can usually expect to receive summer squash, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, herbs, corn, onions, and eggplant. Toward the end of the season, the amount of winter squash I received doubled as decor!
Eat Your Veggies
One of the great things about a CSA is it encourages you to eat your veggies. It makes grocery shopping much easier and cuts down on your grocery bill too! Our CSA also partnered with other farmers to have egg, mushroom, and fruit shares available as well!
Support Local
Aside from encouraging you to eat healthier, CSAs also support the farmers and community. CSAs support farms through improving cash flow for farms due to early payments from shareholders and eliminating unnecessary packaging and transportation. At CSA’s you bring your own bag to pack up your veggies. There isn’t a single plastic bag or container in sight! You also help cut down on CO2 emissions through minimizing the energy required to transport and refrigerate produce. In order to continue supporting the community, CSAs often donate leftover produced to local food banks and Headstart programs.
I encourage you to consider purchasing a CSA this season. When picking up the weekly share, it’s special to see old and young alike get excited about vegetables. Kids especially loved picking out their favorite colors of peppers, counting carrots, and weighing tomatoes. The experience is so interactive and puts you back in tune to the privilege we have of accessing healthy produce. As an added bonus, I can almost guarantee you will be exposed to a new vegetable. I had no idea there were so many varieties of squash!
