CSA - Community Supported Agriculture - You buy shares in a farm, and get a box of produce every week. Your box will vary depending on what's in season.
For more information, go to http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

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I just received sugar snap peas, green beans, cucumbers, summer squash, greens, red head lettuce, a huge bundle of rosemary, and gooseberries! Everything is organic


I know some of you do this, what did you get?

Nuthin! (Seriously, my CSA switched to dryland farming methods last year, making the growing season really late , more or less the end of June through the beginning of November. I am anxiously waiting for my first box, but it is interesting to hear what other people are getting, depending on where they are. It sounds like you got a lovely box. I love gooseberries!

Wednesday is our CSA "veggie day" as well. It makes the middle of the week more exciting!

Today our box contained:

Celery
Carrots
Snow Peas
Baby Red Onions
A Very Small Broccoflower
Cauliflower
Zucchini
Green Leaf Lettuce
Red Leaf Lettuce
Butter Lettuce
Savoy Cabbage
Strawberries

Everything in ours is organic too.

Thanks for reminding me , I used to get this when I lived in another community and could not locate it when I moved I remember we just called it SHARE, I checked on CSA after seeing your post , there is a pick up location less than a mile from me.Thanks!

Is $500/year about average?

I see ours is $400 for a growing season of June-September. Ouch...Years ago we belonged to one in Colorado. I thought we paid $300...

Where I live, there was a program called "SHARE" which was a discounted food program but not a farm support program.

Ours is $672 for the entire growing season, April through December. It's actually less than I was spending at the farmer's market here anyway. We eat A LOT of veggies.

Suzanne, being that you are another old maid like me, do you find this cost effective? I am worried about getting too much or things I cannot stand and having it spoil.

soulbliss, I think you are right about SHARE ,you had to agree to do volunteer work and it was $14 a week.This quite a while ago. I realize CSA is not the same , but the benefits are similar.

LindaT I see you are in San Jose,too, well, I am actually in Saratoga. I live alone and would punch anybody's lights out if that called me an old maid.I haven't started CSA yet but I will share with someone what I cannot use.

-black rasberries
-green beans
-broccoli
-squash
-more squash
-yet more squash
-zucchini
-cucumber
-white onion
-yellow onion
-tomato
-lettuce

Oh, almost forgot about the eggs!

hehehe Suzanne cannot reach me all the way here!

onions
chives
scallions
lettuce (2 kinds)
chard
strawberries
heirloom broccoli
purple potatoes
carrots
radishes
garlic scapes
dill

Just saw this topic today! Thursday is my pickup day so I'll post an update in a couple of days! I absolutely love doing the CSA thing! You eat differently with a CSA that is for sure!
I have got to tell you all that I had a beet left over from the previous week. I had seen Rachael Ray on TV at a friend's house - making crab cakes using potatoes as a binder. I thought it sounded good and I got some fresh crab meat. I used the purple potatoes, since that is what was in the bag - and the beet with it (as well as onions, garlic scapes, spices) and I had the most brilliantly bright purple crab cakes!!!! Really - they were wonderful!!

My mom and I thought about going in on a CSA share, splitting the box, but we didn't get to it this year. They're an awesome program! We did SHARE a while back too, and that's a good program. Back then it was called Fair Share.

I'm envious now!