Community Supported Agriculture farms

[girl chow]

I've heard fantastic things about Puget Sound area Community Supported Agriculture farms and have a friend who has bought a "share" with one local farm. He says every week during the summer growing season, he gets a big box of fresh produce that is amazing. He pays a flat fee for the "share" and picks up his box every week from a drop site. The produce he gets is selected by the farm and includes whatever is in season at the time.

Has anyone else ever bought a share in a Seattle area CSA farm? What did you think? Was it worth it? I'm considering buying a share for next summer, but it's a steep investment (about 跌-躔 depending on the farm). I might even consider splitting the cost with another family, but I'd like to hear if anyone has experience with any local CSA farms first :)

For more information on CSA farms (if you're curious), go to:

www.seattletilth.org

They have a whole list of farms that offer shares.

[Blue Heron]

I haven't heard of this before, but it sounds interesting.   As far as produce goes, we always have a big veggie garden every year with more produce than I can even get around to picking.  Right now in the garden I still have New Zealand spinach, lambs lettuce (maiche) and swiss chard that needs picking before frost.  I don't know why I find it so much easier to buy a bag of convenient already picked lettuce, spinach...it does drive my hubby crazy.  He also plants about 30 tomato plants each spring, and there is nothing better than garden fresh tomatoes, but those are long gone now.

[girl chow]

I have no excuse for not having a vegetable garden. I live on .40 of an acre, have great soil... but every year I never get around to it. I also shudder to think what my two very large dogs (lab mixes) would do to anything edible I planted in the backyard. They've dug up some of my favorite plants. Err. It's a good thing they're adorable dogs.

Hubby and I have talked about doing some raised beds in the back that might lend themselves well to veggie gardens (and keep the dogs out). I guess we'll have to see how motivated we are between now and the planting season :)

And, Blue Heron, if you have any trouble getting rid of your tomatoes during the next season, I'd be happy to take them off your hands :) I got a lot this year from friends and family, but it didn't seem a very good year for tomatoes.

[Blue Heron]

It was not a banner year for tomatoes at all.  They were very late coming.  We were lucky we tried an early tomato called 'Stupice' so that kept us in ripe tomatoes until the Early Girls, Champions, Sweet 100's and various Roma's came along.  I'll be glad to share our tomatoes with you anytime next Sept-Oct.

Our veggie garden is mostly raised beds, and they work very well.  We also do green beans on a trellis on the back of the garage, along with various squash, onions, salads, herbs, spinach, chard, etc. in the raised beds. We also tried artichoke for the first time and it was fun, but we got only 2.  It's a perrenial, though, so the plant is already growing again for next year.

[mamster]

I got good tomatoes for exactly one week from the farmer's market.  I never know what to do--I try a few kinds, maybe one is good, and by the next week that one isn't good any more, or isn't there.  Nancy at the Times is always reminiscing about the New Jersey tomatoes of her youth;  I really wish I'd had some tomatoes of my youth worth reminiscing about.  I would settle for some good ones in adulthood.

I wrote a tomato screed a while back, if anyone's interested.

I believe Fat Guy mentioned his CSA on a thread, maybe on the Cooking or General boards.

[Blue Heron]

Enjoyed the article.  Tomatoes are pretty easy to grow, and the flavor is so much better.  If anyone is interested, I'd be glad to share a few tomato growing tips sometime, maybe in the spring would be a good time.  We always put ringed tomato cages around ours, which helps with keeping dogs and neighbor children's toys from plowing over them, in addition to supporting the branches.  Also I forgot to mention my favorite tomato in my last posting, it's the Sungold.  It is similar to the sweet 100 cherry tomato, but even sweeter and has a nice yellow gold color.  The starts are hard to find, but sometimes at PCC or W. Seattle nursery.

By the way, what is CSA?

[girl chow]

CSA=Community Supported Agriculture. But all this talk about growing tomatoes has got me thinking about starting a garden in the spring -- forget buying a share in a local CSA farm. Blue Heron, why don't you conduct a mini class for us all on growing tomatoes. Also, anyone have experience with lettuces? I've heard they can be tricky, but the payoff is fresh salad for weeks :)

[spitzbuebe]

Hi, everyone --

I'm delurking to renew the CSA thread. It's a little over a year later--did anyone end up subscribing to a CSA? I've just read Gary Paul Nabhan's "Coming Home to Eat" and am newly galvanized in my desire to eat far more locally than I do. I'd like to subscribe to a CSA, but have found (joy of joys) that there are so many, I can hardly choose. I'd love to hear if anyone's had experience and if they can recommend one farm over another. Here's a nice list:

CSA list from Seattle Tilth

I'm already pretty good about buying organic, but after finding organic bell peppers from Israel at the Whole Foods, I'm realizing that the issue is more complicated. Who wants to pay for all that shipping and all those CO2 emissions?

Anyway, if anyone has a recommendation, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

[Fat Guy]

I've never really written much about the Yorkville CSA, though I have mentioned that I'm a member. Here's what I wrote in August 2001:

I belong to the Yorkville CSA, and I'm very pleased with it. CSA is an acronym for Community Supported Agriculture. The members of the CSA group purchase shares in the output of a farm in upstate New York. For about 24 weeks of the year, each Tuesday, there's a delivery of vegetables to a church in my neighborhood (there are also fruit, flower and meat/egg options at an additional charge, from a group of affiliated farms). The produce is of outstanding quality for the most part, though it is organic (the vegetables and flowers are organic, the fruit and meat products are biodynamic I believe) and therefore can be a bit bug-eaten. But aside from the inclusion of a few pesticides, I can't think of how they could possibly improve these products. Everything is highly seasonal, of course. You get a particular item for two or three weeks and then it's gone.

There are also some produce coops, though I'm not as familiar with those (and less convinced of their benefits).

For some basic CSA information, start at http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/. It's probably too late for you to get involved this summer, but you can gather information in preparation for next year.

Periodically, I've posted a few words about one of my CSA deliveries:

Just made this week's CSA pickup and things are really getting good. The most amazing red raspberries I've ever tasted, tiny sweet plums I ate too many of to talk about, and apricots that must have been injected with sugar. Potatoes are starting to come in, and these gorgeous purple peppers were there, plus wax beans, lettuce, cabbage, and all sorts of other stuff. The best part: The farmer brought in a sack of overripe yellow squash and said we could take as much as we could carry, so I've now made enough squash soup to feed every current eGullet member.

I'll try to find some photos -- for awhile we were documenting what we got each week -- and post them here.

[girl chow]

Hi spitzbuebe (love that name!). Welcome.

I never bought a share at CSA, but I always wanted to. This year, I'm making a go of my own vegetable garden. My veggies and herbs are starting to look great! We're transplanting them into small containers this weekend and making room for another round of planting.

If you do decide to buy a farm share, please let us know how it goes!

[halland]

I've actually done 2 different farm shares, a summer one and a winter one.

The summer share, with Helsing Junction Farm (http://www.helsingfarmcsa.com), was ok. The pros: Lots of veggies (enough for a family of 2 and a family of 3), good quality. The cons: Too, too many carrots, overall the program seemed a little expensive ($600)

The winter share from Natures Last Stand was much better. More variety, lower cost, and bread and jam every week.

Hal

[spitzbuebe]

I've actually done 2 different farm shares, a summer one and a winter one.

The summer share, with Helsing Junction Farm (http://www.helsingfarmcsa.com), was ok.  The pros: Lots of veggies (enough for a family of 2 and a family of 3), good quality.  The cons: Too, too many carrots, overall the program seemed a little expensive ($600)

The winter share from Natures Last Stand was much better.  More variety, lower cost, and bread and jam every week.

Hal

Bread and jam every week?? Lovely! Thanks for the pros and cons, halland.

I'd also love to find a CSA that includes eggs in the box. We'll see--otherwise I'll follow the advice given here and spend more time at University Seafood & Poultry. At some point last year I bought eggs that actually tasted like eggs, with beautiful, golden yolks, and now I can't remember where they came from. Maybe it was from US&P...

[nwells]

I live in Portland and am very interested in a share of a CSA here. Anybody have any ideas. My sister lives in Seattle and she split a share last year and couldn't say enough good things.

Thanks.

[Fat Guy]

I think the Perlows have also posted about doing something like this. Perlows?

[tsquare]

I grow too many vegetables to subscribe, but at least 6 households I know do - ranging from 1 to 4 people per house. A full share is too much for one person (or even two.) Find a neighbor / friend to share. Plan to eat a lot of greens and onions. Some CSA's provide occassional flowers, herbs, honey/jam, even bread. Those treats would make it extra fun. Don't know which exactly. All of these households are in Seattle, so that might help narrow the selection. They all think it is great. Some even grow supplemental vegetables, just for the fun of it, but rely on the CSA box.

[Schielke]

I do a similar thing. It is year round and sources from local farms as much as possible. I get a box delivered to my doorstep every other week (you can do weekly if you want) full of fruits and veggies. It is fun, I get to figure out what to cook based on my veggies.

It is called Pioneer Organics.

[Jim Dixon]

I did a CSA one summer. The produce was great, but the weekly drop off meant several hours cleaning, processing, and otherwise getting the stuff in condition for even short-term storage. Sometimes I enjoyed the challenges of finding something to cook with 5 bunches of dill, but mostly it was a chore.

I found I preferred going to the Farmers Market. I could support several different growers, get exactly what I wanted or what looked good, and not buy anything if I didn't need to do a lot of cooking that week.

I know that some Portland-area CSAs offer eggs, meat, and other stuff, usually as an option to the regular share. This may be old, but here's a listing of Portland farms for a starting point.

Jim

[spitzbuebe]

Hi again --

Thanks for all of the interesting replies. I've considered Pioneer Organics, but it seems more like a Whole Foods delivery service than a local connection--I note that they have tomatoes in their box this week, for example, which must be coming from Mexico. There's a nightmarish story in that Nabhan book (Coming Home to Eat) about the miles and miles of plastic greenhouses in Mexico that are farming organic vegetables but ruining biodiversity and bees' habitats. (NB that I'm still at Whole Foods about every other day, but trying harder to stay away from the way-out-of-season produce.)

I suppose Jim is right, that just heading down to the Farmer's Market may be the best bet. But I'd love to hear from any other Seattleites who've enjoyed a particular CSA!

On a broader note, are any of the rest of you finding that your love of food is causing you to view eating /shopping/cooking as a political act? I'm trying to find a balance between the local/regional stuff, for example, and my love for French cheese, Italian olive oil, and Swiss Chocolate. (By the way, Mamster, not to cross threads, but you can get Cluizel chocolate at Marketime in Fremont, too. Yum!)

Thanks again!

--spitzbuebe