Are you familiar with CSA Agriculture/Local Harvest?

15 years ago

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

This concept has been growing steadily over the past fifteen years or so. Some farms offer memberships to the people in their local community. Members can receive weekly boxes of seasonal produce grown by the farm. The URL is for Local Harvest.

We have had some discussions about buying locally grown produce. So I thought some folks might be interested in this.

Lorna

Here is a link that might be useful: Local Harvest organization

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Comments (11)

thinman
15 years ago
Thanks, Lorna, that is an interesting link. I've been there before, but when I visited this time, I started reading some of the topics in the forum. It was interesting to hear from a few of the folks using the CSAs, and some of the farners too.

We have one farm in our area that is trying to participate as a CSA farm, but most of their business seems to come from selling at the farmers markets. CSA seems like such a good idea that it would be great to see it keep growing.

ThinMan
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
15 years ago
Lorna, we have an organic farm just outside our city that is doing the same thing. The hundred mile diet is another concept that is growing here.

Annette
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Truckloads of free compost and manure is all you need. I think starting with a small amount of shares at a low price and prioritizing that and then bringing the extra to market is the way to start. In 2009 before I had a CSA, we had a tremendous growing year so in 2010 I added 5-6 shares and kept the market. in 2010 we had a very poor year and I didn't bring as much to market but always had something and gave the CSAs more than needed to make them happy (that was stressful and in some cases fruitless due to poor marketing on my end and the wrong clientele for a CSA). In 2011 it was another tough growing year but I chose to do more CSA shares and didn't go to market all the summer. It takes many more hours to prep and sell at market than the CSAs. For me it is like this: I can make only about $175 at market but it is a 14 hour day. If instead I do CSAs it may be a little less money some of the time but it is 8 hours less in the day. That way I can get more weeding done. I work 2 days a week at a job and one day a week is family/homework day so I am always busy and cutting market in favor of the CSAs saves me time. So in 2012 I plan to go to market 4 weeks in spring before the main season CSAs start to sell mostly plants. Then I plan on going to market again in fall (Sept and Oct and then indoor markets later) when there is no weeding to do. Hope it is a good year!
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mle17
15 years ago
I love my CSA!! I'm picking up my first fall share this afternoon. It's been a long 6 weeks since the summer share ended. Quite a few farms in the Charleston area jumped on this bandwagon this spring. It's a fast growing movement, the one I belong to is in it's first year and has 800 participants and a long waiting list!
lorna-organic
Original Author
15 years ago
Unfortunately, there is only one CSA farm in New Mexico, at the far northern end, which is nowhere near me. :( I used to belong to a food coop years ago. The coordinator made deals with various folks, farmers and stores, to get large batches of produce and other food items. We had a check list we could tick off every week for our choice of non produce items. The produce was whatever they could get a good buy on, usually a box of five or six types of produce.

Oh, I was bad today. I bought a bag of kids' Halloween candy, Autumn Mix (candy corn and mallow pumpkins). I'm probably going to end up feeling sick from eating this stuff. I also bought colorful gourds for table decor, a tiny Jack-o-Lantern and black cat decoration with an air plant stuck in it, and five autumnn colored chrysanthemums. That was the seasonal stuff, all on sale. I got a big pot of mixed snapdragons and a six pack of pansies as well, fell off the wagon bigtime!
Lorna
solana
15 years ago
I'm happy to report that CSA is alive and thriving here in New England for several years. If I didn't grow my own, there are a half-dozen choices I'm aware of without research.

I even flirted with the idea of doing my own small-scale version until I realized gardening might become an obligation instead of a joy.

Suggestion for city folks in the US: if interested, contact your County Extension Service. They'll be able to give you leads.

A blessing of rural life: road-side honor boxes are still common here for everything from extra transplants in spring, to summer harvest, to bundles of kindling in autumn. Sometimes there's even a scale so you can pay by the pound.

As Annette mentioned, local-vore is big here, too. I'm not ready to give up chocolate or coffee. But, as the cost of transportation becomes more evident, local products are competitive in price as well as outstanding freshness. Side-benefit: keeps our landscapes in farm vistas.

Ana
who's so far out in the sticks that she indulges in the really good stuff for Halloween treats in case any one shows up
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
15 years ago
I don't want to get on my soapbox but there should be a universal law about building on farm land. A
girlgroupgirl
15 years ago
We do CSA distribution at the store where I work. The local CSA drops off the boxes and their customers come and get them. We also have a local farmers market directly in front of our store on Thursdays!
DYH
15 years ago
Sorry that I'm late responding...we have a very active CSA here in our area. We've not subscribed. With just 2 of us at home and retired, we are more concerned about not using everything every week from the smallest box available. There are several companies who do the employee-share subscription. It's a wonderful concept and most of the CSA farms around here have a WAITING list to subscribe! That's great news!

We have a Farmers' Market almost everyday within 5 minutes of our house, so we can run out and buy produce.

Cameron
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
15 years ago
I don't know if we have these in Canada, or Ontario!! I'll have to check it out when I get home.
I am participating from Athens, Greece today. Just came off a 1 week island cruise - what fun! These islands are very self-sufficient - they grow lots of tomatoes, cukes, melons, etc. They are very water concisous, and use green-houses to conserve moisture. Almost everything served is FRESH. If a frozen item is on the menu, it has an asterix beside it!! Very nice. Food is wonderful.

Gas/petrol is EUR1.16/litre on the islands, sometimes higher. In Turkey (Bodrum) it was 3.56/litre in Turkish lire, which are worth a little less than the Canadian dollar. In Athens, this am, I saw one station with gas at EUR0.97/litre. They sure love their cats and dogs here - many are feral, but fed and cared for....respected, for the most part. Very big on conserving water, and recycling.
When I get home, I have lots of flower pics to share.

Nancy.
DYH
15 years ago
Nancy -- What a wonderful trip you're on. That is a great part of the world. Enjoy Greece! My son is an archaeologist and he was in Knossos, Crete this summer working on a project for the British School. He's been on another dig on Crete, but I can't remember the name of that site. He was also in Jordan, Turkey and Israel this summer -- 25 years after I was in Jordan and Israel. Many years ago, I celebrated my 36th birthday in Athens. Great place to visit. If you get a chance, go to Delphi (should be bus trips out there).

Cameron
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
15 years ago
We went to the the historical Athens Plaka today, and did much shopping for the ancient jewels, pashminas and Turkish carpets!! ;-)) We plan to do the Acropolis tomorrow!!

Nancy.

Are you familiar with CSA Agriculture/Local Harvest?

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thinman

aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada

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Are you familiar with CSA Agriculture/Local Harvest?

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