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 don’t have a backyard, so growing basil on my balcony is about as far as I go. (It’s the only herb that can take the shade and still sprout into a bush.) We’re trying out a farm delivery service. Unlike a CSA, the service collects from a bunch of farms in the area. Plus, we get to pick our produce each week.
Good breakdown of the pros and cons of CSAs. We have not gotten involved for exactly the reasons you list as cons. Many of our friends have joined and they feel obligated to stay with it, even though they don’t really want to.
We are on our boat all summer so don’t have garden space. But I do usually have a tomato plant on board. Love fresh tomatoes the best.
Have fun with your garden… it is so much easier than you think it will be. And very satisfying, too.
What a great post! We did a CSA last year, and loved it, but had some of the same frustrations as you. It wasn’t a dealbreaker or anything, but the repetition was a little wearing (though I suppose that’s what old-school farm life was like, eh? ;) ) I never want to see another mustard green in my life…lol! We have the opportunity to garden this year, so we plan to invest ourselves in that and supplement with markets and local farms that sell produce outside of CSAs. Here’s hoping it works out! :)
We did an organics delivery for a few weeks last year and although I LOVED having a guy hand me a HUGE box of organic food, we stopped it. Mostly because a lot of it wasn’t local and that bothered me and the other was there was, like you said, too much repetition.
This year we plan to do something very similar to you, we plan to finally take advantage of the TWO farmers markets that are fairly close to our house and I plan to plant a few veggies that we use most often. I especially intend to plant some herbs!
I’m really looking forward to supporting the local community and I know my boyfriend is also eager to do it!
We have a raised planter bed garden. We start everything from seed in peat pots, it is cheaper than buying the plants. Our little seedlings are coming along great this year. I do get a weekly CSA box, it gets delivered for free if I spend $35.00. The veggie box is $25.00 and the fruit box is $10.00 so it works out perfectly. I do get bored with the produce and some it I just don’t like (kale!) I can’t wait for our garden to be in full force so I can stop the CSA this summer. There is nothing better than picking your own veggies, rinsing them off and eating them within minutes. It is alot of work – but it is so worth it. I really recommend the raised planters. We grow tomatos, corn, squash, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, edamame, green beans, snow peas. This year we are trying pinto and black beans. We add more every year.
My father and I just built our first raised box garden for our vegetables. We, too, have never grown vegetables or anything in our backyard. I started off following Sunset Magazine’s gardening page on their website and have been following their guidelines as best as I could. Most vegetables had to seeded indoors for the first 5-7 weeks or longer until the night frost disappears. We are planting them this week and we’re SOOOO scared to plant these babies! We have a dog and two cats who love the outdoors, so who knows if they’ll be good around garden. hahaha!
I have the same gripes about CSAs. I also think that the quality can be really sketchy depending on which farm you join. I choose to garden myself, and I HIGHLY recoomend you do too! Just start small….I didn’t and it was kind of overwhelming. Plant greens and herbs, both of which are super easy, and maybe peppers or tomatoes or a couple things you eat a lot of. You can still get the scary new veggies at the Farmers Market to try new things.
Can you please share the name of the local organic farm you refer to? I live on the Milton/Mississauga border and would love to know!
Emailing you now :)
Can you email me too? I live in Milton and would love the option of doing mid-week shopping if time does not permit for the Saturday farmer’s market.
Thanks so much! And I love your site. Have been visiting for a very long time and find much inspiration. I’m soda pop free for 4 days now! :)
done and done
We garden every year! It’s a bit of work, but OH so worth it!! Kale is amazing, it’s continued to grow through out the whole winter too!! I start planting seeds in min april… and then plant after the frost is gone!! In my climate (west coast Canada) squash (zuchinni) grows awesome, and kale of course, and herbs are insane… Tomatoes grow good, if they are in a super hot spot!!
Good luck, it’s SO fun to have a garden!
i loved reading your pros and cons of the CSA, angela – thanks for the recap.
i am looking forward to trips to the st jacobs market this summer – hopefully i can tag along some thursday mornings with my dad when he goes – always a fun father/daughter outing. also, uptown waterloo hosts a thurs eve outdoor market during the summer – it’s pretty small, but i’d love to pick up produce and support some local farms.
enjoy our sunshine today!
Reading your blog last summer actually inspired me to sign up for Boston Organics. I had boxes delivered throughout the summer and fall. I stopped in the winter because I felt bad for the poor, frozen veggies on my doorstep. I’m still teetering on renewing this year, because I agree that some of the produce was repetitive, and I’m not sure there was much of a savings. But, it definitely is fun and exciting every once in awhile!
I have a natural food store only a mile from my house, and all they sell is organic, so I do most of my shopping there. The farmer’s market is just across the street, and won’t start until May. I want to look for a local organic farm that sells their produce – that would be great. I’d also like to start my own garden so if you do start one, I look forward to your blogs about it. I have absolutely no clue how to garden!
I would love to build my own garden. It’s such a great idea. I think I would want to start off small though.
I’d really like to do a CSA and think I need to put it on my list. I also love Farmer’s Markets, but often the prices are so steep and the produce doesn’t last very long.
I plan to get my produce from the Farmer’s Market in town. When I go back home to visit I will get loads of veggies from my dad’s garden. He always has an abundance of tomatoes, peppers, and squash. I need to inherit his green thumb but my apartment living doesn’t really allow for much of a garden right now!
I like to use a CSA and Farmer’s Markets – the produce is tastes so fresh when it’s local and organic. I literally put my first carrot seeds in the ground yesterday and will be planting my first real garden this weekend. I’m using a raised bed – which I saw in both Organic Gardening magazine and Martha Stewart LIVING. After some modest success with herbs this winter, I decided it was time to go BIG at HOME. Good luck with yours!
http://bread-n-chocolate.blogspot.com/2011/04/talking-bout-revolution.html
The timing of this article is perfect because this morning i recieved my first email from the CSA I purchased this summer. Like you, we are giving it a shot and I’m super excited about it – mostly because included in our veggies is a bouquet of flowers every week. Score!
The pick up location was disclosed during our purchase, and it’s only a 5 minute drive from our house. Yay!
Like you, I am a bit concerned about the potato/squash overload. Apprantly we get a different potato variety every week.
http://www.eaglecreekfarms.ca/
We planeted our own veg last summer and, although we couldn’t rely on all of our crops actually providing us with edible food, it was great as a top up to our regular shopping :) We currently get a veg box from a local organic famers and we can’t quite work out whether to stick with it or not… seasonal eating is TOUGH! We’ve had potatoes, carrots, parsnips, celariac, swede and onions every week for 4 months :| Occasionally we get a treat like brocolli or cauliflower or maybe, if we’ve been really good, a squash. Generally though it’s just a long hard slog of root veg :(
I’ve thought about joining a CSA, but I’m a little hesitant because of the reasons you named. I fear I’ll waste good veggies if I can’t keep up with the cooking! There is one CSA (in Brooklyn) that is every other week. I am considering that to start!
Awesome your starting a garden!! :)
Great post – I have an adorable farmer’s market every Saturday morning in the summer a block away from my apartment – love it, and its so convenient!
(PS – I just made your Itty Bitty Carrot Cake Cookies last night – they are so yummy! My husband is a huge fan, too. Thanks!)
I have a box delivered to my doorstep on Thursdays. It’s so easy!
I have recently just heard about CSA programs, so I have never been a part of one, but I do buy a lot of my produce at local farmer’s markets that we have in our area. We also have an Amish farm not too far from us, so I buy some stuff there such as flowers, produce, and pumpkins in the fall. :-)
I’d love to join a CSA, but I am such a control freak, I have a problem with other people picking out what I’m cooking with this week ;)
The Square Foot Gardening book by Mel Bartholomew is a great book for starting your first garden. It keeps things simple and is a great resource.
http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027
Growing your own vegetables is so nice – you can plant whatever you want and you can’t beat things that go from the “farm” to table in less than an hour!
thanks! Im so excited!
My husband and I signed up with a CSA a month ago and we got the green light to get our first box last week. We get to go again tonight and we are so excited! We have eaten SO many vegetables this last week! I made stir fry for the first time in my life because we received two heads of bok choy plus cabbage.
I heard about CSAs from a couple of friends at a brunch awhile ago and I did a LOT of internet research before making the final selection. As you mention, there are definitely pros and cons, including selection of produce and location of pickup. Luckily, we live in San Diego, Calif., and the selection is pretty varied. Here’s what is on the agenda for this week: Asparagus, Avocado, Bok Choy, Cabbage, Carrots, Celery, Chard, Lettuce, Limes or Lemons,
Onions, Oranges, Strawberries, Zucchini. I love that our CSA’s website lists what is to be expected each week so you can plan around it– of course a girl still needs her bananas and that is never going to come in a CSA box!
Good luck planting your garden Angela!
We are in the process of building a garden right now! Luckily my husband is a landscaper, so he knows how to do things like that!
We go to the farmer”s market every Saturday. I look forward to it all week. I also grew a garden last year and plan to do it again. We live in Oregon and last year Summer didn’t really start until mid July. Seriously. So a lot of my stuff didn’t grow as well as it could have. I still grew tomatoes and strawberries and radishes, spinach, kale, lettuce, herbs, green beans and peas and zucchini. We had a section of the yard along side the sunny side of the house that we fenced off so the dogs wouldn’t ruin everything, and then I mixed some compost into the ground and then just planted seeds in rows (the beans/peas against the fence.) I started almost everything from seed except the tomatoes and strawberries. I bought those plants at the farmer’s market. My suggestion would be to try a variety and think of it as an experiment. Radishes were ridiculously fast and easy, and so was the lettuce and beans and peas. oh fyi- we had issues with slugs and I found some slug bait that wouldn’t kill a cat or dog that got into it…I’ll be using that first thing this year, they really loved eating all my veges.
We are planning on planting herbs in pots this year, and my boyfriend’s parents have a HUGE garden in their backyard (they filled in their entire pool to make more room for garden!), so we always have lots from them. We also have a local farmers market that goes from May until November. We go every Saturday morning and choose what we need for the week. It is such a relaxing way to start a Saturday!
By the way, I made your Pumpkin Pie Banana Chunk Oatmeal cookies the other day and they were AMAZING! I used raisins instead of cocoa nibs, and they are delicious! What a great mid afternoon snack!
Brenna
We are lucky to be in a CSA that lets us say what we want, like, etc. if I’m making a recipe, i can email them to see what they can include in our box. We are spoiled.
We just planted our garden this weekend! We always do tomatoes and basil, but this year we bulked it up with more herbs, zucchini, beans, and peppers. Yay!
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!!