Does anyone out there have experience with a CSA?

I have been wanting to join one and am currently looking into my options (many of them deliver right to the farmer's market down the street from my office, which is ideal!)

I'm just curious what your experiences have been!

How much have you had to supplement?

Do you think a 1/2 share would be enough for 1.5 people (there are 2 in my household but I am assuming I will be the primary user, with her using some of it occasionally)

My husband and I joined a CSA last year and renewed for this year. Ours is kind of nontraditional because we get an email each week with the produce available and prices and we choose what we want up to (or over) the dollar amount we signed up for - it's more like pre-shopping the farmer's market than a traditional you-get-a-percentage-of-everything CSA. I don't think we bought hardly any other vegetables during the season because we got so much from the CSA we couldn't eat it all! We did have problems with produce going back many weeks because of the volume or we didn't have room in our fridge or we didn't wash it off. We signed up for a "family" share for one half-season and a "couple" share for one half-season - we only tried the family size because our CSA offers meat and eggs as well as vegetables, which we bought on occasion. It wasn't a perfect experience but it was good enough that we're back again with the same farm.

This will be my fourth year with a CSA.

We get half a share for 2 people and it's plenty. I like shopping at Farmers Markets in the summer, too, so it's good to have a little bit of a gap to fill with even more variety.

Between the CSA and the Farmers Market (where I get chicken), my grocery cart in the summertime sometimes has nothing but liquids (milk, oj, soda, alcohol)!

I love it! It does take a bit of a mindset change. The question is not "what's for dinner?" It's "what produce do I need to use up?" It helps to have a couple of foundation recipes that can use up any vegetables left at the end of the week -- we use a veggie stir fry or sauteed veggies and pasta.

Yay! I signed up for one! We signed up for 1.5 shares and are splitting it with my sis and her hubby. I have never done one b/f, but I can't wait until it starts! (Starts in May!) We had the choice between the "box" method and the "pick it out" yourself method. We went with the box. They siad it would end up being more veggies... and everything they have looks good to me (except the beets - but my BIL says he loves them!)

I loved my CSA! My boyfriend and I had a full share last year and we were usually able to finish it all before it went bad, but we eat mostly vegetarian meals. Be prepared to get lots of one thing for a few weeks in a row - like cucumbers, zucchini, etc. We had so much basil at one point that all of my tupperware containers were full of pesto in the freezer - a nice problem to have We didn't supplement much in terms of vegetables, maybe just some lettuce and a few other things here or there. Our share did not include fruit though, so we had to buy that separately.

Overall, it was a great experience and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. It's a great way to find new recipes and get introduced to new veggies too. We discovered a love for green garlic scapes (they make a fabulous pesto!), kohlrabi, and kale...mmmm.

A half share might be good if it will be mostly just you using it or if the other person is really picky. That way you won't have as much pressure to use stuff up each week.

I also LOVED my CSA. I no longer do it because I had issues with things going bad, planning things to use up the produce, etc. BUT what made it invaluable was that, for the 6 months I did it, my produce world was exponentially widened. I learned how to cook nopales, found recipes for beets, became a master of kale, and in general filled my cooking with things that I'd never tried before. I no longer get the CSA box, but I do still make my rockin' beet risotto, roasted kale chips, and grilled nopales for fajitas.

Three farms are planning to start a meat CSA here. My plan is to try to be a cooler host, so I can get some of my organic, free range meat subsidized. They have a beef farm, a chicken farm, and a lamb and pork farm all included in the CSA. Heaven!

I had to look up the green garlic scapes. I'm going to be on the look out for those. I wonder if it would work with the green onion thinnings we have.

You seem to have a variety of pesto recipes. Would you please share some with me?

Also, you can refrigerator dry basil and other herbs. Then you can put them in plastic bags and keep them in the freezer. We do that with our different types of chives, chervil, basil and other herbs we grow.

lol, yeah, we're big fans of pesto over here Here's the page from my CSA with the green garlic pesto recipe and also the green garlic white bean dip recipe which we also tried. They were both awesome! http://www.redfirefarm.com/recipes/sauces.html (you have to scroll down)

I don't recall how I prepared the basil pesto, but I think it involved basically just the food processor, a bunch of garlic, and some olive oil. super easy! I think I also threw some walnuts in there. It's more common to use pine nuts, but they're too expensive!

We also froze a lot of herbs since our CSA had unlimited pick-your-own herbs. In fact, that's how we ended up with so much basil. We ordered some extra in bulk from them (for pesto), then picked a ton on our own, and then got some in our share for the next few weeks after that. We also froze dill, thyme, oregano, chives, and some others and they all kept pretty well.

That is an excellent idea There's a farm here that does a meat CSA that's really popular! I haven't tried it because we don't eat much meat, but they also always have coolers of meat at the farmer's market. My CSA has an egg share, but we haven't been able to get it yet because for the past two years the egg shares have sold out really fast

Thanks everyone! I totally think I am sold. It's just a matter of coughing up the check... which will sting, but I think it's a worthwhile investment and will be at least even in the long run. I found one that offers 1/2 shares- so a full bushel every other week. I am a little bit worried about it going bad before using it, but it'll be a fun challenge, and I don't have to do it again if it doesn't work out for me!

Right now is also a great time to start. There are a few things left from the winter and lots of spring and summer veggies coming out. I'm eyeing artichokes.

Love the farmer's market. Especially when the market managers do their job and keep dogs out of it.

I'm curious. If the farmer's market is that close why don't you just buy what you need there in the quantities you know you can use?

That's a really good option and I'm actually probably going to end up doing that... It actually turns out that I was wrong- they do not deliver to the farmer's market, and the closest CSA is pretty far away.

I do the CSA box thing too and I love it because it forces me to eat vegetables I otherwise might not pick out on my own.

Yes, my city has Whole Foods and plenty of farmer's markets, but I tend to stay in my own routines about what produce I buy and eat. I am just not a curious eater (in other words, I won't buy a vegetable just because I've never had it before.... I'm just not that curious....).

So, the CSA box forced me to expand my horizons and to learn to cook more stuff and to actually focus on vegetables so they don't go back, rather than relying on the stuff I normally eat and was bored of eating.