CSA = Community Supported Agriculture - you pre-pay per month or per quarter and receive a box of produce every week /every other week, usually organic from local farms. Ours is $25/week for a small box (plenty for a week for 2 people).

I recently started back up. We got strawberries last week (yay!) along with beets, tons of lettuce, carrots, artichokes, mint, wheatberries, and of course kale

It's great in that it makes me eat more greens, and try new things that I wouldn't normally buy.

I belong to two! I LOVE IT

I have a guy that brings me a box of produce + eggs and sometimes free range chicken and grass fed beef on Wednesdays and I do Bountiful Baskets on Saturdays. We have produce coming out of our ears! The only reason I ever go to the store is for dairy. It's awesome! My kids and I eat so many fruits and veggies and feel amazing .

I am such a fan of supporting local agri. and telling Monsanto to shove it .

Ooh, I am jealous. I would love to get eggs and chicken (we don't eat much beef), but haven't found a good CSA-type option. I should scope out the local farmer's markets.

Our pickup is at my son's school, so I am not sure how it will work over the summer - fingers crossed they keep it going!

My husband and I have talked about doing this. My only worry would be the waste if there things in there we truly didnt like.
I love veggies and Im always willing to try new ones, but there are a few things I just cant eat, like beets. I'd hate to see good food go to waste.
Did you have any problems with that?

organic buying club -- not quite CSA. But I enjoy the weekly box!

A.

I don't, because there isn't a single veggie or fruit that I dislike. Sometimes you have to get creative with recipes! Do you have anyone you could give things away to? Sometimes I get more than I can use and I take it over to my parents house

I've done different delivery systems/coopsbuying clubs and some are a la carte (you pick what you get) and some are variety boxes that will sub out things you don't like.

If a CSA doens't work for you perhaps one of those works better?

A.

I have been thinking about it since I don't think I will plant a garden this year. It helps out the local farmers.

I will try anything - my only challenge is figuring out what something is! Some people in our CSA will swap with others or leave items at the collection spot for later people to take if they choose.

I will take your beets - I discovered I love them!!

We were going to join this summer, but then we're taking a 3 week summer vacation.

I just have a hard time figuring out which ones to join. There are TONS of them and their pricing is all over the place and it's hard to get a feel for how much food you get. How do you know?

We eat a TON of veggies in a week. I worry about joining and finding that I have to supplement way more than I thought and find it's actually more expensive.

For now, i'll just go to the farmer's market and try next year with a CSA.

Around here, many of the CSA farms are also at the farmer's market, and it's even a pickup location for some of them. Maybe you can get a look at some sample boxes next time you go?

(My son requested I add this for you: )

Oh that's a good idea! There are two farmer's market near me during the week (one Tuesday, one Thursday). The Tuesday one doesn't have a CSA pick up, but the other one days.

Our farmer's markets are lame here too which is the big reason I'm looking at a CSA. I went from a fantastic farmer's market in Waterloo, Ontario (like phenomenal - year round, part of it under a roof ), to Des Moines Iowa which is HUGE. To Fairfax, virginia which was pretty good to here, Columbia, MD that has the TINY little tents with barely any food. It's like selling the leftovers from your garden. I could buy out an entire stand with JUST m family's order for the week they bring so little. And of course, they bring so little as so few people are buying from them.


And tell your son, cute carrot!

I recently discovered Bountiful Baskets, which is a buying co-op (not quite the same as a CSA) and they have many locations in several states.

I'm also looking into a CSA that's near me. They actually have a storefront for both members and non-members, so I'm going to check them out tomorrow to see what they have to offer. I may join them, instead of Bountiful Baskets, because they are all local, whereas BB is not.

We did a CSA a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it, plan on doing another one this year.

I'm signing up this week but waffling between a few farms. We will be traveling this summer for 3 weeks, and I still enjoy hitting the farmer's market for odds and ends, so I'm trying to decide if I want to just do biweekly this year instead or sign up with a different farm that offers "flex plans" (every week except the weeks we choose not to get boxes, up to 6 total).

But I love that the farm we went through before includes fruit at no extra charge and everything we got from them was great before. Sigh!

Meanwhile, my husband keeps making fun of me for being so indecisive!