"a bi-monthly journal of environmental news and commentary..."

Hooray for the harvest! The joys of CSA share ownership

By Jef Lucero
photo by Ian Ferguson

The boxes were stacked,
’round the front porch with care
as the CSA members,
each soon would be there.

A friend of mine once asked me what it’s like to have a share in a local farm, and the clearest, most concise answer I could offer was this: "Christmas in the summertime." Was it a bit over the top? Maybe, but sometimes you have to exaggerate to prove a point. What cannot be muted, however, is my genuine enthusiasm for a program so beneficial to all involved.

For those who know, the tangible rewards of Community Supported Agriculture- or CSA- really aren’t dissimilar to those of the holidays. For many of us, there is a certain amount of anxious anticipation that comes with taking your box home and seeing what’s inside.

Picture it: you get into the kitchen and clear some counter space while the family gathers around, and you begin the process of laying out the week’s bounty. One by one, each vegetable comes out: first lettuce, then carrots, followed by leeks, radishes, beets, and kale.

You dig deeper and pull out the potatoes, the cilantro, turnips, snow peas, and basil. Digging deeper still finds a pair of onions, a bundle of radishes, and half a dozen pears. A head of cabbage, a zucchini, and some cherry tomatoes later and the box is empty, but you are now staring down a colorful pile of produce so big, the only thing missing is the horn of plenty from which it should be spilling.

And this is just an arbitrary example of one week’s worth of food- out of a growing season that spans nearly five months.

The benefits of having a CSA run much deeper than the simple pleasure of sizing up a veritable mountain of fresh, organic food. Sure, it’s great to look at- and of course, even better to eat- but the real payoff comes from knowing how the process works, and what those other benefits are.

Much easier than finding out how sausage is made
Local farmers all over Western Washington participate in what amounts to one of the larger "buyer-direct" programs you’re likely to find. There is no middleman: you are getting this food straight from the farm in which you have a share. Once a week, you arrive at your designated pickup site- usually another member’s front porch or garage- and there’s your box, delivered directly from the farm that grew it.

Beat those swords into plowshares!
Supporting local farmers is one of the best things an organized citizenry can do. The farms that offer a CSA program are small businesses. Some function as cooperatives. They provide open houses, send newsletters, and offer great recipes. Supporting these farms not only figuratively but fairly literally grows your local community. Your money is going directly to the farm that truly puts the food on your table. Every dollar invested in your share in turn allows the farm to sustain itself. Your subsistence is theirs alike.

Fresh as a daisy
Have I mentioned how much better the flavor of fresh, organic produce is? Most of the time, participating farms harvest your food the day it’s delivered. This food is coming to you virtually right off the vine. Some store-bought produce is picked weeks before it gets to the consumer, and can travel upward of -- I kid you not -- a staggering 1500 miles to the store from which it’s sold.

With a local farm, the food might not have been picked but the night before, and might travel not more than seven miles to get to you, so not only do you get food of superior quality, you get the satisfaction of knowing you preserved some fossil fuels to boot. I’m sure this isn’t news to many of you, but it warrants saying anyway: organic food just tastes better.

Where’s my squash???
As the growing season turns, so does the variety of your food. Some vegetables grow all summer long; others are available only in limited windows. Not only does this allow for a lot of creativity and variety in meal preparation, it gives you a real sense of appreciation for the effort these farms put in. You actually get to reap all of the full reward of the arc of their work.

That’s great, but what’s in it for me?
If you’re still not sold on the benefits of CSA membership, maybe it’s time to pull out the heavy artillery and appeal to the two parts of your pants that might matter most: your waistline and your pocket... book.

Being a CSA member forces you to eat better -- it’s a fact. You are suddenly a lot less likely to order that pizza, what with all this delicious and nutritious food lying around. And let’s get down to brass tacks: most of us who prefer organic produce also resent how much we sometimes have to spend in order to get it. Buying a share in a CSA farm will save you plenty of money -- not only on supermarket overhead, but on the pizza you didn’t order.

Most shares cost on the average of about $450 per year, depending on which CSA you join. On the face of it, that sounds like a lot of money, but consider this: you’ll get a box every week for roughly 20 weeks, and each box will contain about 15 pounds of food. That works out to about $1.50 per pound of fresh, organic, locally grown food. If you live in a household of four -- for which this allowance of food is more than adequate, if not ideal -- it tallies less than 40 cents per person, per pound, per week. To top it off, most farms offer payment plans, making it even easier on you.

And the winner is... everybody!
Being a CSA member is special on so many levels. Rarely these days, it seems, do true “win-win” relationships have a chance to develop, and this is surely one.

Support local farms! If for no other reason, do it for the ability to say that you delivered to your household, "Christmas in the summertime."

Back to Home page.