While some of you have started your own organic gardens (yay, you!), there is another option for those of us who want cheap, fresh, organic veggies but who have black thumbs and/or live in a concrete jungle.
Here’s how Community Supported Agriculture generally works:
Instead of paying a farmer after the harvesting of his/her veggies, you pay one lump sum before the planting season even begins to help cover the costs of planting, growing, and harvesting. You essentially buy a share of the farm and then partake of its bounty, which generally lasts about 24-25 weeks of the year. Depending on how the CSA is set up, you can either pick up the produce every week in a central location near you, or it gets delivered to your door.
Just a few advantages of joining a CSA:
- It’s recession-proof. If you break down the cost per week, it usually comes out to $18-$22 for more fresh, organic veggies than you know what to do with.
- You can share your CSA share with a friend or neighbor, and it costs only $9-$11 per week. My hubby and I have only ever shared shares with neighbors, and it’s definitely enough.
- Since you’re given what’s been harvested that week, you eat seasonally.
- If you’ve never cooked squash before, you will learn how to cook squash.
- Some CSAs also offer fruit shares at an additional cost.
- You can impress your friends with the cool-sounding ingredients you’re working with: “Yes, I’m making a tatsoi and mizuna salad with hakeuri turnips and a gooseberry-cinnamon dressing.” (Please don’t make this salad; I just made it up.)
- You can visit the farm and talk to the farmers.
- You get a serious boost in green street cred when you can brag about owning a share in a local, organic farm.
So….
1.) New Yorkers can search for CSAs near them on Just Food’s map.
2.) Everyone else can conduct a search on LocalHarvest’s CSA locator.
Better do it now if you can, since demand is skyrocketing, and programs fill up fast!
Guest blogged by beautiful Marisa Miller Wolfson, who is the Outreach Director for Kind Green Planet, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching people about healthy, humane, eco-friendly living. When she’s not working on her documentary about veganism, she’s busy coaching people on plant-based living through Vegan at Heart, a free email mentoring program for treehuggers, animal lovers and health nuts who consider themselves vegans at heart but not necessarily in practice.