Some of you might remember last May when we bought a CSA share from Plan B organic farms. It was our first time ever buying a CSA share and we were excited for local and organic food each week.
Well to clarify, it was mostly ME who was excited…but excitement is contagious and I think Eric secretly enjoyed it too.
…I think it was all the cooking I did!
We quickly learned that there were things we loved about the CSA share and things that we didn’t love.
CSA PROS:
1) Value for dollar
At just $20 something dollars a week, we were given a huge box of organic produce. It would have cost much more had we purchased this at the grocery store. Even so, we wouldn’t have been able to find everything organic at the grocery store and I can bet it wouldn’t have been local either.
2) Support local organic farmers
3) Fresh & Crisp produce, better quality than what we find at grocery store
4) Our veggie consumption went way up and we felt amazing.
5) We tried so many new vegetables. Even scary ones!
CSA CONS:
1) Lots of Repetition
By August/September we were getting tons and tons of potatoes and squash (among other things) and we got so sick of the repetition. I’m sure if we lived in a tropical climate, there would be a better selection of produce each week, but around here I think we are more limited.
2) No choice in what produce you get
We often found ourselves longing for some items that were in season and they never came (e.g., tomatoes).
3) Picking up the box each week
We opted not to get a delivery to save money. We found out only after we purchased the share that the pick-up location was a 25 minute drive from our house and it wasn’t overly convenient for us. Plan B does not disclose the pick-up location until your make the purchase. Obviously, this was a con for our particular circumstance, but pick-up location is still something to consider before buying.
Our 2011 Produce Plan
This year, we decided that we are going to change things up and do things a bit differently!
Our plan for the 2011 season is to:
1) Possibly plant a garden this Spring, time willing!
2) Buy produce from the Milton Farmer’s Market. We aren’t working at the Oakville market this summer so we hope to attend the Milton Market (as customers!) as much as possible this year. It opens May 14th.
3) Buy produce from local organic farm. I recently discovered that there is an organic farm not too far from us. This organic farm lets you buy produce on Wednesday evenings and they will also be selling at the Milton Farmer’s Market on Saturdays.
(If we plant a garden, we won’t need to rely on the farm/market as much…but we’ll have to see!)
If we manage to build a garden, I plan on showing the process on the blog. I really have NO CLUE how to build a veggie garden (and I don’t know a thing about vegetable gardening!), but my RMT has been teaching me a lot about it because she is a pro. :) I’m sure I can find some tutorials online too.
I hope our new plan will work out well this season. I will keep you updated on our progress!
Do you have a plan of how you will be buying your produce this Spring and Summer? Do you ever use a CSA, Farmer’s Market, local farm, or plant your own veggies? If you plant your own garden, how did you start it up?
I love growing my own veggies but it IS a LOT of WORK. I was inspired by my Hungarian family whose veggies gardens are insanely productive, and I used to grow a garden in my parents backyard before I moved in with my husband. I grew tons of corn, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, onions, and berries. But since I moved I couldn’t take care of it and my parents . . . well . . . they let my fig tree die so the garden died too. :(
I garden on the patio at my apartment and have tomatoes, zucchini, and loads of herbs. I want to save money and am putting myself on a tight budget for the next few months so my farmers market trips will be limited. Though I do love going there.
I suggest that if you are really considering a garden, that you start growing your seedlings now (indoors to avoid frost) OR I suppose you can wait until you have a garden space and buy seedlings from the store and put them directly in ground once the threat of frost is over. Even if you don’t get the chance to make a garden, you can always pot a lot of veggies or hang them from sturdy hooks. That’s what I am doing and they’ve grown pretty well :) Good luck!
I’ve decided to plant a small crop of veggies in containers, since I have no real garden room. I’m also planning to make trips to the local farmer’s market. I’d love to join a CSA but haven’t any luck finding one that is close enough to be convenient & inexpensive enough.
I can’t wait to see/hear about your garden plans. I would love to have the room for a proper veggie garden. Hopefully some day.
I agree with you on the CSA pros/cons. It lead me to try beets, which I now love! BUT my roommate forgot to pick up the box one week when I was out of town & it lead to some tension since we basically threw our money down the drain for produce that week :-/ I actually would do it again this summer, but its too much produce for just one person & my roommate isn’t interested in sharing again after last summer. Oh well! I’ll probably just continue to go to the farmers market :)
cant wait to see garden pics!
I pretty much have a pros and cons list similar to yours about our CSA – except because we didn’t have a car we did opt or delivery and it cost $5 a delivery. We only had it over the winter but I swear if I see one more cabbage … I’m going to skip it for the summer and hit farmers markets
BUT – I am going to look into the meat share they have since Brad eats meat and it kills me to buy it from the grocery store for him
I LOVE OUR FARMERS’ MARKET!!!
http://www.deliciouslydense.com/index/pics-from-produce-land-
i did a CSA last year…enjoyed it, but had to drive a long way to get to the farm every week. the market is every saturday from 8-noon and is only 5 minutes from our house! and the farm i was a member of last year has a booth, so i try to buy something from them every week. when we move, i totally plan to build a garden, but will need some serious help!!!
I also recommend Square Foot Gardening to keep things simple and easy. It is less work too.
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
We just built a “square foot” garden and I think it’s gonna work out good! I plan on using the farmers market a lot more this year though as well. For the garden deets, check out my blog!
http://taterandkeela.blogspot.com/2011/04/square-foot-gardening.htm
I have the same con list as you… minus the pick up option because I went with an organic delivery service. I did some searching around, and without a car, it would have been a huge hassle for me to pick up the box. I love the service (still do!), and you can fully customize your order (it does cost an extra $2.00 which is negligible for being able to sub everything out of your box). The biggest problem for me was repetition as well; throughout the winter I got a lot potatoes and broccoli – while I love both, eventually I started getting sick of seeing the same produce week after week.
The other thing I really missed was my trips to buy produce – I get a lot of joy and satisfaction from just browsing through farmer’s markets and grocery aisles, looking through fruit and getting inspired. Picking off a list from a website isn’t the same thing. So for now, I’m going to get my deliveries bi-weekly since my schedule doesn’t allow me the time to grocery shop as often as I’d like, and when I can, I’ll make a few trips to the grocery store here and there.
Of course, my #1 choice would be to grow my own produce, but living in an apartment doesn’t really afford the luxury of having that option…
I’m a huge fan of the farmer’s market- I feel lucky to live in Guelph because our market is open year round! My mom and I also planted a bit of a vegetable garden last year, so we had some fresh zucchini and sugar snap peas, though the rest of the veggies didn’t work out. The zucchini was particularly prolific- we were trying to find zillions of zucchini recipes to use it all up!
We have a garden that my husband built for us. It’s 4 raised beds. Last year we had to build it and start the planting, so I got my seeds in kind of late. This year we’re doing better with that. I like the raised beds because they make it easier to garden, but there are also a lot of garden quality reasons to use them. I think gardening is a miracle. I plant little seeds and next thing I know there are plants growing. I keep up with the weeding, but I’m still learning about pruning and rotating crops and those things. It’s not nearly as hard as I thought it would be, and also doesn’t take a huge amount of time. It would be simple to at least grow some tomatoes in pots on your new deck. Good luck!
My entire blog is actually a product of my adventure in gardening in 2010! I started a large garden last year and jumped in full throttle. My parents’ garden, but this was a first for me. I work full time, and my fiancé works 60+ hours per week in the summer. We are very busy but we still made it work. We were fully involved in the garden daily and we canned/froze all of our excess produce. We are still eating our fresh, organic produce in April because we preserved it last summer (we live in upstate NY so there isn’t anything edible and green right now ;) ). I LOVED this adventure and this year we’ve more than doubled our garden and have committed to growing all of the decorations for our wedding this fall! If I could make one recommendation it is JUST DO IT. It’s scary at first, but then you realize that the worst thing that could happen is the plants die and you visit the farmer’s market instead. It isn’t the end of the world ;). You will never feel more proud than you do the first night you make a meal out of all the foods you grew! It is an amazing feeling. One that I don’t ever want to let go of. So this year we are embarking on Garden Version 2.0 and I can’t wait!!!! :) Good luck, I would LOVE to read about your gardening adventures! It’s a learn as you go process and it is incredibly rewarding.
I really want to plant a garden this year but I am terrified that I will kill everything. I have contemplated about the CSA but have the same doubts…
I want to plant a veggie garden soooo bad! But I just don’t have the room or climate for it I don’t think. The only thing that I’ve been able to grow are cherry tomatoes and some herbs. But I would love to plant fruit and veggie plants! I hate relying on over priced grocery stores for fresh produce.
I use the small local farmer’s market when I can/remember. Unfortunately, it’s from May-October, so I end up buying almost all of my produce from the grocery store. We have a CSA-type thing for the whole state, and it’s about $20-25 dollars a week for the smallest plan. I haven’t bought in though because I’m not sure if it’s worth it yet for how much produce you receive. I’m also a college student, and I’m not sure that fits into my budget either. I really need to look into it.
I don’t have my own garden, but I did grow mint last year on the front porch which made many a spiked mint lemonade and mojito as well as panini. :)
I love the “scary veg” face! :D
good luck with the garden Angela! I have been enjoing my amateur (weed) garden for 4 years or so. lemme tell ya, tomatoes grow no matter how not-so-green your thumb is :) I also have lots of luck with herbs and zucchini.
A work colleague and I are splitting a CSA share this summer. will cost me $7.50/week…so even if it’s not very good, I ALWAYS spend AT LEAST twice that much at the farmer’s market every week anyway. We do have to go and pick the produce up, but it’s only a 10 minute drive, so shouldn’t be too horrible. I also have one small raised bed with (so far) snow peas, mixed lettuce, spinach, and swiss chard. A bit later I’ll be planting tomatoes (cherry and slicing) and peppers and maybe some beets.
I can’t wait for the farm’s markets to start up again, it is within walking distance to my house. Every Saturday I try to take a walk over. ! I’m going to try and buy most of my fruits and veggies there this year!
Over the winter, I have used a home delivery service that delivers a box of organic produce every week. The veggies are really good considering the time of year and they do as much local as is possible in the Winter. I like that you can do substitutions so you can always get rid of an item if you don’t like it. I LOVE farmer’s markets in the Spring/Summer/Fall! That is where I am planning to buy most of my produce this year — I’m also going to do some looking around to see if I can find a local organic farm. I am so happy it’s that time of year when we can start getting local, fresh produce :-)
Have you ever gone to the Big Carrot in Toronto?? Apparently its an all organic food co op. This beautiful boy I adore works there.. I am going to check it out on Thursday..
I had a CSA for a few months, but I just cancelled it because I moved. I also found there was a lot of repetition (swiss chard, namely), and I felt that I wasn’t really getting $25 dollars worth of produce. I know that I can go to the local farmer’s market and buy the same amount of produce for much cheaper. Granted, it’s not being delivered to my doorstep, but there is something I LOVE about shopping the local farmer’s markets on saturday and sunday mornings. So for this summer, I will be back to the sunny farmer’s markets to get my fruit and veggie fix!!