I had to laugh. Over at Modern Alternative Mama, my friend Adrienne (from Whole New Mom) wrote an article recently about whether a CSA is worth it. The article came across a bit negative, and many of the commenters talked about how expensive it is. Yet Modern Alternative Mama didn’t mention the article I wrote for her last year, which I’m reprinting below since I don’t think it’s appeared on my own site. If you’ve seen it before, sorry about that.
Yes, I know that CSAs aren’t for everyone. But for those who are thinking about the monetary aspect, there are a lot of tings you can do to maximize your investment. Below are some thoughts about that.
Making the Most of Your CSA Share
CSA is shorthand for Community Supported Agriculture, where you pay up front for a “share” in the farm. Then, during the growing season, you pick up your share of the vegetables each week. This is a great way to get organic vegetables relatively inexpensively, as well as support local farmers and build community.
For some, the upfront cost seems like a lot of money. OK who am I kidding; it IS a lot of money! Even if it is cheaper than buying comparable goods at the farmer’s market, it’s still a large investment. So it’s important to maximize the return on that investment. Here are some ways that I’ve found to make sure I’m getting the most for my money:
- Get a working share. Some farms require you to work a number of hours, where others don’t require it, but you can get a discount if you agree to spend a certain number of hours working on the farm. This can be anything from weeding to helping out with the website. So if you have more time than money, you might want to look into this.
- Take advantage of U-pick opportunities. Many shares offer u-pick opportunities. The first CSA I was part of had an inconvenient location, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. The CSA I have now is right down the street, so I make sure to go and pick my full allotment. Sometimes they even have all you can pick; you can be sure I stocked up on beans when that was offered! I froze them and had beans all winter. You might also ask fellow members who might not live near the u pick area if they would mind if you picked their share. I had two friends who did the “in town” pickup option and never made it out to the farm, so they let me pick theirs and keep it.
- Learn what freezes/cans well, and what doesn’t. For example, there’s not much you can do with lettuce. So you’ll want to eat that right away. But green peppers, chard and kale, and other vegetables don’t take much preparation to freeze well. When you pick up your share, assess what you’ll be able to eat and focus on preserving what you won’t.
- Meal planning. This item goes hand in hand with the above. When you have a CSA, you need to get used to menu planning from the perspective of “this is what I have, what can I make?” vs. “this is what I want to make, what does my shopping list need to look like?” I’ve found it helpful to take a sheet of paper and divide it into three columns. On the left hand side, I write down the produce I need to eat. In the middle I write the recipes I want to make. In the right hand column I write what additional items I need to make those recipes. I also draw arrows from the side columns to the middle so if something goes bad or someone eats it I know I need to replace it or not do that recipe.
- Be adventurous. Don’t be afraid of new vegetables. A helpful book for figuring out what they are and what to do with them is From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce
- Be flexible. There are lots of recipes out there. Oodles of cookbooks. However not many are going to include all the neat varieties of vegetables that you get with a CSA share. So, don’t be afraid to substitute various greens (for example, Swiss chard for kale or spinach) or other vegetables.
- Choose a few go-to recipes. Some recipes lend themselves to flexibility. Salads, for example. Stir fry. Soup. Learn a few of these by heart and you’ll never be stuck wondering what to do with that random carrot or kohlrabi again.
Although the above tips were written with a CSA share in mind, they are helpful for gardeners too! How about you, how do you make the most of your share or harvest?
This post shared at Kitchen Tip Tuesday
Hey Wendy!
I am glad that you mentioned your post. I am a monthly contributing writer now at M Alternative Mama and Kate knew that we had had a not-so-positive experience with our CSA. So she asked if I would write about the “negative side.” She said that she was going to link to a post that included the positives, but I think she just forgot (it was Memorial Day weekend when my post “aired” and initially she had forgotten to have my photo on the post and there was no link to my site either :-)).
Your points in your post are all great. I LOVED the A to Z cookbook and I still depend on it. And, in fact, we ended up joining a local start up CSA at the last minute since the prices were a bit better and I am going to “work off” some of the money by teaching a class (and we are not sure if our garden will survive our brown thumbs :().
And I think that flexibility is the key to saving money in the kitchen always – not just w/ a CSA. Well put!
What CSA did you join? I’d love to have u-pick options! Hopefully I’ll be Me-picking in our backyard :-).
When I was a member of Groundswell they had some upick. Trillium seems to have more upick each year. That’s great that you are teaching a class
I came across this post on Hearth and Soul Hop and am so glad I did! We signed up for a CSA for the first time this year. We’re only a week in and I’m having loads of fun already! These will be great tips. Thanks for sharing.
We aren’t members of a CSA, but we do have a little garden. This is just our second year, and last year was a learning experience. We’re hoping to get a bigger harvest this year. Thanks for the tips!
I’m drowning in CSA greens right now! What a lovely way to go, huh? Umm…please tell me how to freeze kale. Will it still be suitable for say, Kale chips?
It is better used in soups, stir fries, that sort of thing. All you do is stir fry it a little until it wilts, then put it in a freezer bag. A vacuum sealer works great but you can just try to squeeze out as much air as you can.
Unlike other greens (like chard or spinach) you can freeze kale WITHOUT cooking or blanching it first. I don’t think it would work well for chips after freezing but it’s great in everything else.
Chard, spinach, beet greens, etc need to be cooked or blanched before freezing, to my knowledge.
Because it is so easy, I always end up freezing my kale and eating the other greens fresh.
A CSA is very much worth the expense. I actually find that it’s much cheaper to go through a CSA than buy the same quality produce in the store…if you can even find the same varieties of produce at your local grocery store. We’ve been a CSA share holder in two different states and have liked all the farms that we have dealt with. I guess there could be some bad farms out there but I think they are few and far between. I wrote about our CSA experience yesterday as well.
http://gluten-freefoodstorage.blogspot.com/2011/06/csa-what-is-it-what-it-does-for-you.html
I’m just not convinced a CSA is for everyone. But, I do whole heartedly believe in supporting our local farms. I’d just rather do a pick and pay for the things I want that week. As I’m writing this, I can hear my husband saying “control freak”… and he’d be just a little bit right. 🙂
It’s definitely not for everyone, but for me it’s been an awesome adventure.
What an excellent and balanced post. Thank you for telling us of your first hand experiences.
That’s it. I’m doing a CSA share next year for sure. Would be awesome if it was a working share! I could learn a few things before testing out my brown thumb on something other than herbs and tomato plants in pots! 🙂
Take my advice…NEVER join a NEW CSA!! We did this last year and got so little produce it wasn’t funny! $400 and very little to show for it. (She admitted in an email that they needed to get better at estimating how much food they should allow per person). They advertised “enough produce for 4 people”—there are 2 people in our family and there wasn’t even enough for one person!
Read reviews and talk to people to get recommendations BEFORE you join a CSA! I doubt that I will ever try a CSA again!
I totally agree, a friend of mine had something similar happen.