I've been looking at Community Supported Agriculture programs in my area and wondering what the benefits are (other than supporting local farms, of course). Has anybody here bought a share in one of these? The one I am considering is a vendor I buy from at the Farmer's Market, and I guess it would save money in the long run, but I wonder if I would prefer to stick with the market so I can pick exactly what I want. On the other hand it might be fun to get a box of goodies and have to figure out what to do with them. It's kind of a big commitment, both financially and in having to pick up the boxes every week. Any words of wisdom?

I did one of those this past summer. It was more food than my family could have possibly used even if I cooked that much. During the summer, I'm not a huge cooker, mostly grilling and light stuff. It made me work since I need to find recipes for all this stuff I've never used before and then to put all that effort in and have my kids hate it was really disheartening. It was also a big time commitment for us because it required quite a bit of picking (3 hours or more) some weeks. It was also pretty far from home.

I know some people swear by it, and I am all for supporting the local farms and the organic ones at that, but it was just not a good fit for us. Next year we will be checking out quite a few farmer's markets to get what we want, in the quantities we want without the hours driving to and from the farm and the hours spent picking at the farm.

Good Luck.
Muggle Mom

Check our Whole Foods forum, we have a few CSA threads there

Thanks!