5 Reasons to Join a CSA or Farm Share This Summer
April 6, 2016Have you ever thought about joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or Farm Share but not sure exactly how it works or if it’s for you? Well, today on the blog we’re sharing our experiences with joining a CSA so you can figure out if it would be a good fit for your lifestyle.
CSAs need to you to commit to a full share or a half share for the season – typically around May/June through September/October. You pay in full in advance. Each week you go pickup your share from the farm directly or specific location. When you go, typically there will be the produce laid out with a list of what you get each week. Typically, they give you a variety of fruits and veggies of what’s fresh in season and in abundance that particular week.
You do sign up in advance not knowing how the “season” will be. For example, in the past, some seasons have been amazing with lots of lettuce, corn, etc. and other seasons it was more kale and apples. So, the variety and amounts differ from season to season, but they provide a sampling to you of fresh produce. Many times, a farm will give you examples up front so you can understand how much food you will get weekly. For my family of 2 adults and 2 toddlers, a half share is more than enough for us to eat on a weekly basis.
Over the past few years, we’ve gotten great enjoyment out of participating in a Farm Share and wanted to share our top 5 reasons to join this summer:
Eat Local
When you join a CSA or Farm Share, you are supporting that farm directly as well as picking up the produce right where it’s growing so the economy as well as you and your family get all of the benefits that come with eating local. There is a reason the EAT LOCAL movement is taking on – it’s extremely important and beneficial to all involved – but that’s another blog post in and of itself!
Teach Your Kids Where Food Comes From
If you have kids, this is the perfect time to introduce them to where food comes from and how it’s grown. Many CSA’s will allow you use of the grounds, so you can bring your kids around to show them the crops and how things progress over the season. My kids absolutely loved going each week to pick up the CSA and wandering around the farm from visiting with the cows to seeing the corn grow and pick their own apples, strawberries, etc.
Try New Foods
My first season doing a Farm Share was a lot of googling, “What is a Kohlrabi?” or “Recipes to use Garlic Scapes”. It gave me an excuse to try new vegetables that I’d never heard of, let alone seen in the grocery store. It was fun coming up with new recipes to use foods and try new things – both for myself and my kids had fun doing it as well. We’d do “taste tests” so even if my kids didn’t love something, they would still try it. I think this also helped them to be open to trying new foods, which is a great lesson for the future.
Eat What’s in Season
I always try to eat what’s in season, as generally it’s more inexpensive and tastes fresh and overall, just better. Joining a CSA, you know the food you are getting is in season and just grown and picked in the recent days. BECAUSE YOU ARE ACTUALLY SEEING THE PRODUCE HARVESTED. I can’t stress this enough – isn’t it better to eat an apple that was picked yesterday over one that was picked a few weeks ago, shipped across the country and then sitting in a grocery store? How amazing is it that we have the opportunity to go directly to the source!
Eat More Fruits and Veggies
It can be tough for families to get their full share of daily fruits and veggies, but with a CSA, you feel like you need to eat it to make room in your fridge for next week’s share. When I started my CSA, I noticed my family making an effort to eat up all of the fruits and veggies because we knew another whole share was coming soon. I could really tell we upped our fruit and veggie intake, which is important to learn as we should’ve been eating like this all along!
So, whether or not you decide to join a CSA this season, definitely think about it and look into your local options. You may be surprised with how much you enjoy it!
Tags: CSA, eat local, farm share, healthy snacks, kids, products, seasonal foods