has anyone ever joined a csa?
 

Have any of you ever got your fresh produce from a csa(community supported agriculture)? It is like buying a small share of a local farm. I'm thinking about going in that direction this year.

I love love LOVE my CSA! Fresh organic fruits & veggies, & cheaper than I'd pay at the grocery store (although you do pay up-front for the whole season, which might be a challenge for some). Plus, you'll likely get to try at least a couple of things you've never bought before.

I did a CSA last year but didn't sign up for one this year. I think though as a result, I will make an effort to visit farmers markets more often.

Only issue with the CSA I joined last year is it was very fruit heavy and for the 2 of us, we can tear through lots of veggies but eat only a couple servings of fruit per day. We ended up freezing a lot of fruit but still it was a lot :)

We have a small neighborhood one and home grown, organic tastes awesome

I LOVED my CSA...it started us trying all kinds of veggies we hadn't thought of before, including kale, beets, etc. Really useful for expanding horizons and tasting REALLY good food. It hooked me on local produce...last year I went to a produce stand, and this year I'm experimenting with growing my own.

I sent in my check last month for my 3rd season with our CSA...love it. I could never grow that variety on my own. And a friend is looking to start one and I have said I would be one of her charter members so I will have 2 CSA's this year. I better get a plan for long term food preservation.

Ours is very zucchini heavy, but needs more tomatoes, so I am hoping the new one will be more tomato heavy. We get some fruit every week, but not a ton, I still end up buying extra fruit at the farmers market.

I looked into it, but our local csa's are pretty expensive. The savings over farmers' market pricing is fairly slim, and our farmers' markets have amazing variety (much more than the csa's). I buy a lot of produce from the Hmong vendors (and none of them offer csa's). Because the local csa's don't offer as much variety or any of the asian veggies I've become addicted to (and I love the exercise), I prefer the farmer's markets. Also, my favorite vendor is amazing, she gives us free stuff to try and will even set aside stuff for us. I don't think I ever walk away from her stand without free stuff, and often she'll give me at least as much to take home, as I've bought. Last year, I had to find a refrigerator pickle recipe for hot peppers, because I bought one quart, and she threw in three free. She'll also give me vegetables she thinks I won't know what to do with (and she's usually right), and will pantomime (her english is not the greatest) how to prepare.

Thats cool. Our farmers market sucks. It's getting better but it sucks.

Our farmer's market is good, but the CSA is a big cost-savings. I still sometimes supplement with farmer's market stuff, esp. since I can & freeze.

I grow a lot of my own veggies in the summer, so haven't joined a CSA. I absolutely would if I didn't garden myself. You might try it for a year and see if you like it. Most CSA subscriptions require only a one season or one year commitment. Like others say, one of the great things is that it can get you to try new things, or try new recipes when you're drowning in one type of veggie. I have a friend who was amazed at her new found creativity with parsnips after her CSA sent her a large quantity.

I'm considering it this year. Through localharvest.org I found the web site of a local organic farm that does a CSA where you can actually go to their booth at the Farmer's Market each week and pick out what you want! They only put limits on the expensive or labor-intensive things (they give the examples of watermelons and green beans), other than that you can take whatever you will use.

It sounds really neat, but I want to see the quality of their stuff before I drop $500 for the season... the farmer's market starts this weekend, so I'm hoping to find them there before the CSA starts in June so I can take a look. :)