WHAT IS A CSA?

CSA is short for Community Supported Agriculture.  A CSA is a membership group formed in cooperation with an organic farm (or farms) whereby members assist the farmers by buying shares in the farms’ harvest, which is then delivered to the members on a weekly basis.  Huh?

This is how it works.  CSA members pay money up front to a farm in the spring.  That helps the farmer(s) finance their planting, and, later, harvesting, of crops.  Once a week, during the season, the farmer delivers freshly harvested vegetables to a designated distribution site, and the members come and pick up their “shares” of the harvest.  (It is important to note that the harvest share is often a surprise to the members , although some farmers do post on their websites what they will be harvesting, i.e. what members can expect to receive in their shares)  

The advantages of this system are that the community supports the local farmers, and shares in the farmers’ harvest (sharing both in the bounty as well as in losses – a few years ago, a tomato blight resulted in wide-scale losses of tomato crops, which CSA members also experienced. Last year, a rainy spring resulted in small shares, as many crops were drowned at the beginning of the share season)  Normally, CSA shares provide an abundant number of vegetables, although CSA members might need education to learn what to do with “what’s In the share”, as the shares may well include unfamiliar vegetables (you learn as you go, and some CSAs have on-line member forums for recipe sharing and tips).

Another advantage of joining a CSA is that, if you can anticipate, and save money to pay for the share when the spring enrollment comes around, you save a lot of money over the course of the season, and, if something goes wrong in your finances during the season, the vegetables keep coming anyway (that has happened to me twice, so I am a firm believer in CSAs).  If fresh organic vegetables are important to you, joining a CSA is the easy way to get them at significantly lower prices than you would pay at an organic market.

One interesting aspect of being a member of a CSA is that, when you get “mystery vegetables” in your share, you have an opportunity to taste something new, and to learn ways to make that “mystery vegetable” into food you can enjoy eating (my own palate has been expanded by my being introduced to new vegetables and having to find out what to do with them to suit my taste. I have learned about quite a few new vegetables, and found myself incorporating new-to-me vegetables, and tastes, into my diet.

If you are interested in joining a CSA, in New York City, you can go to Just Food to find a CSA near where you live or work (for ease of weekly pick-up)

In other areas, you can go to Local Harvest, and key in your zip code to find a local CSA, or you can google CSA plus your zipcode (for example: CSA 23456), to find local CSAs.