PROS - There are many positives aspects to participating in a CSA.
1. Health and nutrition: our produce is naturally grown, without any chemicals. It is picked when ripe, at its maximal nutritional value, and it reaches you in less than 24 hours after harvest, so the nutrients haven’t had time to leach away.
2. Environmental health: the farms we work with use sustainable farming methods that foster a healthy farming ecosystem with a rich biodiversity, and they use less water than conventional agriculture or urban developments.
3. Farm crew health: farm crews are not exposed to chemicals; they benefit from year-round employment, fair wages, medical insurance and healthy working and living conditions.
4. Supporting local farming: local family farms are vanishing from our landscapes. If we don’t support them, they will disappear to make room for more urban sprawl.
5. Creative cooking: enjoy cooking healthy meals with a great diversity of seasonal produce. Our farms grows over 200 different types of fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Your refrigerator is always stocked with fresh food and you spend less time planning your meals.
6. Saving fossil fuel: it takes about ten calories of fossil fuel to produce one calorie of food in the average American diet; typical grocery store produce, even organic, travels an average of 1,500 miles from farm to table, or over 40 times the distance to our nearest farm.
7. Connecting with your food: know who grows it, how it is grown and where it is grown. Learn the history and traditions of each vegetable you eat.
8. Less expensive than store-bought organic produce. You also go shopping less frequently and are less inclined to buy processed and pre-packaged foods.
9. Living more sustainably. As a CSA member, you take a PERSONAL and DIRECT step in addressing the flaws of our global food system. By paying attention to what you eat, you participate in a more environmentally and socially sustainable way of life in a direct and rewarding way. It’s a WIN-WIN situation.
10. Tell us your own reason(s)…
CONS - However, CSA is not for everyone. There are aspects to a CSA which can be challenging, some of which inherent to small scale organic farming, and others more a matter of convenience or personal likes and dislikes. .
1. Heirloom variation: Unlike commercial hybrids which have a consistent appearance, size and reliable yield, heirloom vegetables are grown for flavor rather than looks, high yield, long shelf-life, or ease of packaging. While CSA vegetables and fruit generally look beautiful, they vary in size and appearance and do not follow the rules of systematically grocery store perfection.
2. Quality variation: Unfavorable weather and field conditions may occasionally cause partial or complete crop failures, resulting in less-than-perfect quality of one or more types of vegetable for a while, or even their complete absence. CSA farming is not unlike growing your own vegetable garden.
3. Bugs: Your organic produce may very occasional contain some bugs, such as corn borers, ladybugs or aphid. This is the nature of organic farming.
4. Repetition: The same type of produce may show up in your shares for several weeks in a row, to the delight of some members and the dismay of others.
5. No choice: You receive what the farmer gives you and you cannot pick and choose your produce.
6. Seasonal: You receive strictly what’s in season. No cucumbers during winter and lots of them during summer. No greens during summer and lots of them during winter.
7. Dislikes: You are challenged to be a creative cook and to overcome blocks or dislikes you may have toward certain vegetables or fruits.
8. Inconvenience: You have to pick up your share every week on a specific day during a specific time period.
9. Missing pick-ups: Your share comes each week whether you pick it up or not. If you don’t pick it up, you lose it.
10. Upfront payment: You must commit to and pay upfront for a three-month session.
Check our link “Being a CSA member” to see how you can approach these challenges.