Are you part of a CSA? Or have you ever thought about it?
An acronym for Community Supported Agriculture, a CSA is a group that receives shares of food on a weekly basis from a farm, or a group of farms, in their region.
Each member supports their local agriculture… directly through that farm/farmer.. with pick up locations being at parks, neighborhood farms, or even fitness centers/schools.
Some CSA’s require a commitment for the season – while some afford you the opportunity to pick up your share on an as needed basis.
The growth of CSA’s is pretty exciting actually… it means that many more small scale farmers can do what they love, and it also means that people are excited to get fresh, high quality {Organic} produce that also supports their community at the same time.
Have you considered being part of a CSA?
If you haven’t, there are quite a few advantages … there are also some cons too. But I know we love ours and I can’t imagine not having mine each week.. so we’re going to focus on the GREAT things we love about being part of a CSA.
Who knows.. maybe we’ll convince you to give it a try ;)
1. Supporting a Local Farm
Most CSA’s get their produce from a single farmer, although sometimes a CSA will also organize a share based on contributions from many farmers.
You can, in most cases, buy additional eggs, meat or even fruit/cheese from your CSA, too.
Buying into a CSA is helpful for the farm, because by paying for your seasonal share up front, you are securing them sales through the season (especially when they may have slow days at the farmers market, etc.)
2. Love having Fresh Produce
This is pretty important to us.. the farm to table freshness FAR surpasses the grocery store. In a CSA, your food is harvested just before pick up.. Considering that many grocery stores get their produce from California, Yuma area or even Mexico, sometimes it can travel 2-3 days before it even hits store floor displays.
Your food will taste better, it’s fresh, and it’ll also stay fresher LONGER since it was picked right before pickup— not to mention it doesn’ thave to drive in a truck for hours, and hours – it’s literally coming from YOUR local area.
I LOVE that.
3. It’s Affordable
Think a CSA is expensive? Every CSA varies somewhat – some CSA’s require you to purchase your share up front for the season (it usually runs $20 – $25 a week, depending).
Some allow you to pick up a single or family size bag weekly on an as needed basis – $25.00 is what we pay each week and it’s the best $25 we spend aside from buying our Raw Milk from the farm 20 minutes south of us.
Considering that the produce is enough to last us the week for our family of 6, AND it’s Organic/Pesticide Free, that’s a great deal.
4. Learn about New Veggies & Fruits
For some this might be hard to adjust to.. but for us it was FUN – and a challenge.
Sometimes, when you buy your produce at the store, you stick with the same stuff, week in and week out, because you are certain your children won’t eat (Broccoli), or (Butternut Squash). Truth is, kids really are resilient, and they really WILL eat anything.
I have 4 kids and they eat it all, but that could be because we never limited them from day 1 either – we never picked their food based on what we “thought” they would or wouldn’t like. We simply made everything and fed everything to them and therefore they really do eat whatever we have.
Usually you know what you are going to get in your CSA that week, and it’s fun to be able to try NEW things – things you may not have normally purchased. It’s a challenge to create meals based on those items but it can also open the door to trying new foods, too.
5. Saves Us Some Serious Cash
How does it save you cash when you pay $25 a week (that’s what I have been asked multiple times over…)
We actually go to the grocery store – RARELY.. we have mentioned that we will do one large Costco trip a month of organic staples – but honestly we don’t even enter a grocery store all week long. (I think it’s been about 7 weeks now since we have been).
That in itself saves us some serious cash. What happens when you go to the grocery store for something that’s cheap? You end up leaving with a half of a buggy full of other “stuff” – it happens, to everyone.
So the only option is to avoid going altogether. Our diet relies heavily on vegetables and fruits so being the bulk OF our meals, we base our meals around our CSA drop. It works out great.
6. It Reinforces Healthy Eating
Since we pick up our bag on Thursdays, our meals revolve around our CSA share – it has always worked out. We don’t eat out, so it works PERFECT. Nothing goes to waste. The kids LOVE having produce and different types too…
And I just love having the challenge of creating meals out of our CSA share every week, perhaps stuff we wouldn’t have normally tried. Sometimes people get stuck in the same rut when they shop for food… apples, cheap grapes, etc.
Having a CSA share might not get us Grapes for $.87 per pound, but that is O.K. with us, because we probably wouldn’t have jumped at those grapes anyways, unless they were organic. The CSA we buy from has some pretty fantastic produce, and we love that it’s local, we KNOW where it comes from, and we know we are allowing our kids the opportunity to see that real food is not what you “buy” at the grocery store.
It’s impossible to eat processed food and junk when you open your fridge and see Butternut Squash or Sweet Peppers staring at you – it also pushes you to eat MORE of that type of food because it’s easier, cheaper, and just overall, more satisfying.
And that, is just priceless.
Here in Phoenix we are fortunate to have several CSA’s — I’m in the East Valley so the two that pop up first in mind are Taste of Paradise and Desert Roots Farm.
Taste of Paradise – a local Phoenix CSA with locations all around the East Valley to include Scottsdale. You can order one time or as a regular repeat customer – and choose between full or half share. You will receive a weekly bag of produce that will contain 8 pre-selected varieties of locally grown, organic fruits and vegetables. The produce will vary each week and throughout the seasons, and will come in multiple pounds and quantities.
Desert Roots Farm – another local Phoenix CSA with pick up or delivery available; they have 15+ Valley wide pick up locations and you can opt from a full or half share.
The two noted above are just a few of the CSA’s available in Phoenix – we have many more here locally. You can see a larger list CSA’s for Phoenix HERE.