Your CSA
CSA stands for community
supported agriculture. This is a venture where a
farmer sells shares of his or her future crop,
with full payment made up front. This provides
capital for the farmer when it is needed, before
the growing season. This money is used for seeds,
equipment, labor, and all the things needed to
grow our food. It also allows for marketing
during the less busy winter months, before the
work of planting, maintaining and harvesting take
up every spare minute. The customer then receives
a box of fresh, local produce every week for the
duration of the growing season. The veggies may
be different from those many people are used to,
and of a larger variety. Additionally they have
their season and are replaced by new crops, you
won’t see tomatoes or lettuce all summer long,
but when you do get them they will taste better
than any you’ve ever found in the supermarket.
They’ll have more nutrients too! If you find the
amount of veggies is too much for your family to
plow through, many CSA’s offer half shares for
smaller families, and many single people split a
share three or four ways.
The drawback to this system is that if the crop
fails you don’t get the food or your money back,
you are essentially taking the risk right along
with the farmer. While this will surely get you
invested and in tune with nature more than eating
non-local produce would, it may not be for
everybody. You need to think about what happens
if there is a crop failure, can you afford to
lose that food money? Also, a lot of CSA’s are
not set up to use EBT cards, and the large lump
sum at the beginning of the season may not be
feasible for many. Some CSA’s are addressing
these needs by allowing a percentage of customers
to spread their payments through the season.
Even if you can’t find a way to pay for a share
there are options. Oftentimes farmers have a
surplus of food that is perfectly edible and
nutritious, but not pretty enough to sell. Look
into gleaning, combing the fields for food left
behind or dropped during harvest. Ask if you can
do work trade for a share of less marketable
produce, or if you can buy a product the farmer
needs with your EBT card and trade it for an
equal value of veggies. Maybe you can do what I
do and milk cows in exchange for dairy products,
talk about fresh!
To find a CSA in your community visit
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
or
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml#find
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