Friday, December 11, 2009

Food Journey Friday: CSA

Nope, CSA is not the newest crime detection show on television. Thankfully.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. In a nutshell, it's like a subscription with a local farmer. I pay a certain amount of money and get a box/basket of fresh seasonal veggies each week for the growing season (usually spring through the end of summer). I was curious what my options might be for next summer.

In my search, I ended up on a great website called Local Harvest which is all about eating locally. I was blown away when I typed in my zip code and found 22 results for CSA in my area. 22! Granted, not all of them are really helpful or applicable. But I did find about 6 promising CSA programs in my area. I was thrilled to find so many!

So, why a CSA, you ask?

Well, the biggest draw for me is just that fresh food is just better for you.

I do love fresh food. As some of you know, I attempted my own garden this year. It was a great learning experience, and it yielded a few veggies. But I'm still mulling over my possibilities for next year's growing season. I have a great opportunity to do a garden with two gardening friends and think that would be very successful- more successful than mine this year. However, part of me wonders if it might be better to leave the gardening to people who actually know what they're doing. And who are really committed with their time. What do you think?

The prices for the CSA are really reasonable in most cases. I saw prices from $15 per week to $30 per week. Some you had to commit to 12 weeks, and some were only 4. I am definitely going to look into this more for next year. If any of you are interested, visit that link and type in your zip! I'm curious to see what you find!

This search also made me wonder: how do we eat healthfully/locally during these winter months? CSAs and farmer's markets are only open during the summer here (obviously-- that is when the produce is fresh!). Natalie? :)

That's it for now. We hope you'll take the challenge too... happy hunting!

Until next week... eat well!

2 comments:

  1. This was very helpful thanks for posting!

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  2. Sarah, I'm so excited you're taking on thoughts for a CSA - we've been doing one for a while now and are quite pleased. Maybe you've read our posts on it, and maybe not. But there are plenty of reasons you'll find you feel drawn to it. My original list of 6 or 7 things has gradually grown to more like 20. Learning to eat on what the land will grow is spiritual. It's a lesson in being provided for and in turn protecting and providing for the land. Our Lord granted us this earth - and whether or not global warming is true (I believe it to be, but that aside, it is the argument of late), we should be good stewards of what we are given. We are to care for our neighbor (our local economy). It is much more rewarding to give my money to a local farm, a grandmother and grandfather that work the land, hard, day in and day out their entire life.

    Yesterday my husband and I went to Meijer. As we walked around looking at things we like to have on hand and things we need to have on hand, we've noticed that we're learning we don't need many things we would have considered staples before. We are learning to live on our midwestern land. Green onions? They came all the way from mexico. Did they really make the bulk of difference in our recipe? No. Leave them behind. Apples? We've been able to select local varieties by eating fuji instead of pink lady for the time.

    I think you'll be enjoying the adventure, as we are! Next year we hope to delve more, and the year after to be growing much of our own!

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