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?
We have a CSA that runs throughout the year. But you’re not required to purchase. You just show up when you want (they’re open 2 days a week) and you can buy the box for $25 or just buy some individual items, or both. I live in an apartment with a tiny patio, so I can only grow stuff in pots, if I want. But I’m always gone for one month in the middle of summer, so I can’t really grow anything at all! I used to grow tomatoes, which I love. Inside, I grow some lettuce and started growing kale. I’ve got a small pepper plant inside too (these are all in my Aerogardens). I’d love to go back to growing stuff in pots outside again, but I’m always gone at the wrong time. I’ll try when I get back, in the middle of summer. There are a few other farmer’s markets around too…..
Plant a garden! You will never regret it!! Start out small cause you can’t imagine how much work it is to weed, etc. but you’ll never regret being outside that much more! Tomatoes are the easiest thing to grow!! Really can’t mess them up unless bugs get a hold of them. Try different varieties too. Cherry tomatoes are the best! Nothing like eating a sun-ripened tomato out of the garden. :)
Gardening advice from a gardener who learned from her grandparents (aka the best gardeners ever)-
Gardening is a learning experience. Trial and error. Even the most experiences gardeners have failures and successes.
#1 and most important= don’t start too big! If you go crazy and plant too much you will not be able to take care for it all and then most of it will not do well. It is hard not to get carried away and buy all kinds of veggies because it all looks good and youlove to eat it all! Pick the basics that are your favs to eat to get started and then you can add more favs later- even as soon as the fall season for greens and other fall veggies. Start smaller and add every year. I try to grow something new every year that I have not grown before. This year I have added fennel, Bak Choy and Napa cabbage to my list. I laughed when I saw your fennel pic. :) As your expierence grows- so will your garden. Gardeners are notorious for expanding every year until they eventually use up every last bit of space available to them.
As your garden is established, it is easier to care for every year. The first couple of years it is more work to keep up (weeded etc) especially if you are planting in a location that previously grew grass. Grass never grows until you don’t want it to.
I ordered all my seed from Territorial Seed this year. I just like the company and they have a good selection of organic and heirloom seeds.
Also I am addicted to my subscriptions to Mother Earth News and Organic Gardening (I started reading OG in the 90’s). They are packed with helpful tips, info and advice. I can’t live without them!!
I just decided this year to add my garden adventure to my blog simply because it motivates me to get out in it more and take care of business if I know that people are watching me. (or something like that).
good luck. feel free to email me ?’s if I can help in any way. I may not know the answer but My Granny will….. I email her all the time. today was asking about my cabbage that bolted before it did anything productive. see failure. lol.
thank you SO MUCH!!!
My boyfriend and I are going to live together in three months, so we were looking for some CSA’s too… I was already wondering if there wouldn’t be too much of the same vegetables in it. So we’re going to grow our own veggies. I read some things about it on the internet and stumbled upon some good books (I would give you the titles, but they’re all in Dutch). But the internet is such a great resource, there are some ‘calenders’ where you can find what you have to plant when. My mom has a little veggiegarden and it’s just lovely to go out, look around, think ‘hmm, I feel like eating zucchini’ and just take a zucchini. Have fun with it!
Our plan is to plant a garden, and supplement with the farmer’s market every Saturday.
As an american who lives in the UK, I have always been impressed with the way the government here subsidizes vegetables over meat. It means our vegetables are a lot cheaper. I have a fantastic local farmer’s market that shows up on the main street twice a week, year round, and from there I can buy a shoulder-bruising bag of organic veg for about $5USD. Because this is so reasonable, I’ve never looked further into buying crated deliveries, although they do exist here. I know my milkman (yes, I have a real milk man, who leaves a pint every morning for us) does vegetable delivery, but his prices are higher than the market.
Anyway, what I really meant to say was that vegetable gardening is a lot easier than you think! I have a plot in our community gardens here and grew quite a bit of food last year, and I’m a novice! There are tons of books and websites to help you. Try growing potatoes – they’re pretty easy and they were SO MUCH FUN to harvest. They were probably the most rewarding crop I had.
I wanted to add an additional pro-CSA voice! Last year was our first year, and we LOVED it. The biggest thing for me is that a traditional CSA truly supports the farmer. You are paying them ahead of time, in full, because you want to vote with your dollars and support a local farm. Our farm last year was quite small and had a hailstorm wipe out their crops early in the season. Luckily it was early in the season and they could replant. We didn’t get any vegetables one week, which was inconvenient, but all I could think was how much more that setback would have impacted them without the CSA holders having provided money up front.
Unfortunately, our farm from last year isn’t doing a CSA this year. We went with a larger farm that gets good reviews from some friends I know. We chose a single share this year, and I’m a little nervous it won’t seem like enough food, but time will tell!
I agree the repetition can be intense, but I love eating what’s in season, and that means a little repetition. We supplement our CSA share with fruit from the farmer’s market (and tomatoes as necessary). I prefer a CSA over buying all our produce at a farmer’s market b/c the markets here are quite large and busy, and it’s challenging to talk to each farmer to learn about their farming methods. I can do adequate research on one farm and it’s much less overwhelming to pick up one box of veggies than to survey all the options at the farmer’s market. Now i can enjoy wandering the market, looking only for fruit, without the stress of making lots of decisions. (Am I the only one who gets overwhelmed by the options at farmer’s markets?)
All this to say—yay for CSAs!!!!
Came upon this blog entry while searching for pasilla peppers on here because I’m obsessed with vegan stuffed pasilla peppers right now haha…anyway, interesting post and it reminds me that I totally have to check out Farmer Markets in Los Angeles. I’ve lived here almost my entire life (except college up at Berkeley) and I’ve never been to one, mostly cause I’m very lazy and always sleep in and they seem to go on during the morning, by and large. Gonna try and go to one, eventually, if can wake up in time and all