Farmers market vs. CSA

[wulfbourne]

I don't know what I want to do! I love the idea of the CSA and supporting a local farm like that. I love the idea of getting new vegetables I might not normally pick and figuring out what to do with them. But the up front cost makes me pause as well as the idea of not getting to pick what I want. A CSA would be more convenient with young kids (3 and 1), just pick up the crate and go. A farmers market could be more fun. A CSA would make me stick with the local fresh vegetables since they're prepaid where as a farmer's market I could just decide I don't feel like going that day.

 

Too many pro's and cons to both sides!

 

 

 

Do you do farmer's market or CSA's? Have you done both? What do you like better?

[patchfire]

How picky are you? :)

 

I have done both. I decided just to go the farmer's market route this year, mainly because I get just what I want at the quantities I want. Plus, it's fun! I almost always see someone I know, I get to know the farmers, etc.

[Heather in WI]

My local farmer's market stinks! Last year 90% of the people there seemed to know absolutely nothing about the produce they were selling. And, suspiciously, these same people were all selling the exact same products. Dh and I couldn't figure it out.

 

I asked a lady if her sweet corn was organic and/or non genetically modified and she started yelling at me that she tried it at a party and it was the best corn she ever tasted. :confused:

 

I was thinking about trying a CSA that I found at http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ , but am not sure. I haven't ever done that before and am a little nervous about getting a box of vegetables each week that my family might not eat.

 

 

I'd like to hear about other's experiences, too. :bigear:

[sparrow]

We did the CSA route last year. Our CSA was paid up front for a full share and each week we went and *chose* $25 worth of produce/locally produced honey or maple syrup. It was our first year doing a CSA, and I totally expected to just receive a box of stuff, but we got to choose! We could choose $25 of arugula if we wanted.

 

While we enjoyed it, we won't be doing it again this year. I'm going to plant a small container garden at home (and try my best not to kill anything!) and utilize my dad who is an AMAZING gardener. He felt slighted last year that I was cheating on him and getting my veggies elsewhere :001_rolleyes:.

[Annie]

We did a CSA last year. I loved the idea of trying new things and supporting a local farmer, and it worked out fairly well for the most part. I learned to like a few new things, and the quality of the produce was great. We had an easy time eating the produce that came at the beginning of the year, but it got harder as the season went on. The fall veggies were difficult for us. We had kale and mustard greens coming out of our ears. We like greens and all, but it was honestly getting to be way too much.

 

We're not going to do it again this year, but we might do it again in the future

[myfunnybunch]

You can do both. We get a CSA box every year, June-October. We go to the Farmer's Market occasionally for a fun outing or to get something specific that didn't show up in our veggie box for the week.

 

Go for the CSA! :) It's convenient, and the "con" of not being able to choose can be a "pro" as well. The challenge of preparing something new is fun. We discovered that we actually like some veggies (eggplant, Swiss chard, beets) we'd never have tried. And some (rutabagas!) not so much, lol.

 

Cat

[Carol in Cal.]

I used to belong to a coop that got produce and some other foods from the same supplier that provides Whole Foods with most of their items, only at a 30-50% discount. We had pick up every two weeks, and had to commit to spending $150 per pick up.

 

That was just great. I found that the produce lasted for the whole two weeks that way, even the greens! It was all so fresh, and transported in a refridgerated truck. $150 was a little more than I really wanted to spend, which forced me to get creative and order more fruits and veggies than I would have bought on my own, and then we ate them, which was good. (I also noticed, after a while, that I could get things like Maggie's organic tie dyed socks at a deep discount as well. And egg candles at Easter time. And natural shampoos and such. So I ended up doing a lot of really creative gift shopping, which cut back on the produce a bit.)

 

Once that fell apart, I started to plan to attend the farmers' market every week on Saturdays. That did not work as well. I didn't go consistently. I never knew what they would have, although patterns were noticable. If I saw a lot of things I wanted, I would have to walk home and get the car. It was hard to park because the market took up the main local parking lot. Bottom line, great idea but I didn't actually use it very well or very often.

 

So just recently I got into a CSA. I'm liking it, but we are not using everything. It's not cheap. OTOH, I've tried veggies I have never eaten before in my life, and some of them are really good! I'm doing this in support of making a healthy choice, and I have decided to feel good about it even if some of the braising greens end up in the compost pile. We ordered extra fruit for our share starting in March or April, I forget which, and I think we will be drowning in stuff at that point, but it will more likely be things that we are very enthused about eating. The thing about the CSA has been, it's abundant. I always have some fruit or veggie to eat, and I don't have to pick them out. So I'm eating them more often, and feeding them to the family as well. It's a good thing!

 

Of the three, I liked the coop the best, but the CSA is working out better for me than that farmers' market.

 

The other thing I'm doing is gradually planting fruit trees. We now have a fruit basket peach (3 varieties), an apricot (those are SO good!), a dwarf orange, and a dwarf lemon. There is nothing better than picking your own fruit in your own yard!

[Dobela]

Ask folks locally which they like and why. Our local CSA has some members but it struggles because they charge a significant fee to be a member and then the people that provide the produce/meat to the CSA also provide to the farmer's market for the same price. So they can get the same thing for less (minus the CSA fee) by going to the farmer's market or just buying direct from the farmer. A few farmers will even make deliveries to other groups for the same price or you can go directly to the farm and pay less when it is convenient for you. The problem with the farmer's market here is that it is only open from 6-10am 3 days a week making it difficult to get there for some and that is why they pay for the CSA.

[hillfarm]

Regarding the Farmers Market situation, each one has different rules for the types of products vendors can bring. Ours has the requirement that everything must be locally homegrown, homemade, or handmade. If a local farm member has something, then it cannot be imported by anyone from outside a 50 mile radius. If no one has it locally, then it can be imported but must be labeled as such (citrus, for example, coming in to Ohio from Florida). It is common that everyone will have many of the same things, as all in the same area generally experience similar growing conditions. For example, everyone's green beans may produce a bumper crop while everyone's tomato plants may have been damaged by a recent heat wave and no one will have good tomatoes. A more troublesome flag would be anyone who consistently has the same crops week after week. An example of this might be corn. While a vendor may have early corn, a mid-season corn and a late corn, they will be of three different varieties, not the same one. In my area, if someone has the exact same produce, then they have most likely gone to a produce auction a couple of hours away and are buying it from commercial sources there. Not necessarily a deal breaker, but certainly not worth local, homegrown, organic prices.

 

The first question to ask a vendor is whether they grew this specific product themselves. Then ask whether it is chemical free. Be careful with the term "organic". In most places, that word has become a political term and bears little meaning to the original. In Ohio, I can use the term at will as long as I sell under $2500.00 worth of produce per year. But if I sell $2501.00, then I have to get licensed and be inspected to use the exact same word. So it's based more on dollar volume than actual agricultural practices.

 

Avoid anyone who gets offended or huffy about being asked the specific questions. Farmers who use organic methods (in the true sense of the word) are usually very forthcoming about that fact, knowing that it adds value to their products. Those who hem and haw about who grew the item did not grow it themselves. Be assured that if the farmer put in the hard work to bring the crop to fruition, they will be proud to let you know that!

 

Regarding CSA's, if you have a dc who is interested in farming or rural life, the CSA farms often have family/customer weekends and workshops where they invite people out to help with a bit of light farm work and to see the farm. A few will even offer to sell you seedlings of some of their plants for you to try your hand at growing at home in containers or wherever. Get to know the farmers. Then if you get a box with something fantastic in it and you would like to have more for freezing or canning, contact them. They may well be sitting on several more bushels of the product wondering if there's any way to sell it or whether they should just feed it to the pigs.

 

IME, anyone in either type of outlet who is evasive is a bad sign that something is not quite right. Most farmers are glad to talk about their products that they have invested so much time, money, and energy into. HTH

Edited February 10, 2010 by hillfarm

[Corraleno]

We're really lucky to have a fantastic organic CSA here with about 1500 members, so we get a great variety of stuff 12 months of the year. They grow a really wide variety of stuff themselves (even mushrooms!) and they buy fruit and other exotic goodies in bulk from other organic suppliers. They also raise their own chickens and pigs so you can buy chicken, pork and eggs, and they provide honey, cheese, bread, jam, and various other organic products from local artisans. And they do home delivery! We are truly spoiled. I found that since we joined the CSA, I'm spending much less than I did when I was shopping at Whole Foods, and we're eating more fruit and veg and less snacky stuff. We also belong to a natural foods coop, where I buy bulk goods and sometimes organic meat.

 

There's a farmer's market in our village twice a week in summer and once/wk in winter, but I found it's mostly things like homemade candles & soaps and banana bread, so I rarely go.

 

Jackie

[mollies73]

We have a local "farmer's market." I just found out recently that many of them buy from wholesalers; same as the grocery stores. Then they try to pass them off as homegrown. You have to know which stands are local (for us, the horse and buggy amish and mennonite are the ones to buy from).

[Jane in NC]

You can do both. We get a CSA box every year, June-October. We go to the Farmer's Market occasionally for a fun outing or to get something specific that didn't show up in our veggie box for the week.

 

Go for the CSA! :) It's convenient, and the "con" of not being able to choose can be a "pro" as well. The challenge of preparing something new is fun. We discovered that we actually like some veggies (eggplant, Swiss chard, beets) we'd never have tried. And some (rutabagas!) not so much, lol.

 

Cat

 

What she said!

 

We subscribe to a CSA which has a spring to middle summer growing season. I still pick strawberries for jam, freezing and eating in the spring. In the fall, I buy produce from two local farms, neither of which has a CSA. Essentially, my produce money is going to three different farm families throughout the year.

 

Too many beets for your taste? Share! I found have that presenting a bag with some of my extra produce to an elderly neighbor or a busy friend is well received. And you can also freeze the bounty. If you feel like you just cannot eat one more eggplant in July, make ratatouille which will be a taste of summer on a cold December day.

 

Another thing you might consider if the upfront cost is disconcerting: How about splitting the share with a friend? I once did this with a neighbor. One week she'd take the kale and I'd take the chard. The next week we swapped. This worked well for us.

[Carrie12345]

The farmer's market is best for us.

 

My kids will eat several pounds of broccoli or green beans, but don't put a single radish in front of them! It's much more reasonable for us to take the money that would finance things we may not be too fond of and put it toward our favorites.

 

I usually bring 2 or 3 kids with me to the market, which means they're seeing the variety available and often take it upon themselves to suggest something new. They've been able to talk to a farmer about the different parts of cows, pigs and chickens. They've met Amish children who delight in informing them that they picked the kids' food with their own hands, and that leads to awesome discussions about the Amish culture. And there's just something about browsing the aisles without harsh lights and wax coatings that makes it very enjoyable (as opposed to dragging the kids through the grocery store's produce department).

[Melinda in VT]

Last year I took a break from our CSA (tired of feeling guilty about wasting kale every summer) and decided I would go to the farmers' market instead.

 

This year I'm going back to the CSA.

 

The main advantage of the farmers' market is that I can spend all my money on tomatoes during tomato season. :D

 

The main disadvantage to the farmers' market is that because I haven't already paid for the produce, it's easy to decide not to go one week. Or two. (It didn't help that we had an especially rainy summer last year.)

 

The CSA isn't any more convenient to get to, but because I've already plunked down the money, I don't miss any weeks.

 

Also, when the kids come with me to the farmers' market, they want to buy lemonade and cookies from the other stalls. When they come with me to the CSA farm, they want to pet the cows and the stinky pigs. The stinky pigs are healthier.

[ReneTL]

We have done a CSA for two years, but have decided to forgo it this year. Mainly because we never did get the knack of eating the unusual stuff. The same farm that offered the CSA is at our farmer's market 3 days a week, so we'll continue a relationship with them. I just didn't really enjoy the pressure of having to cook a box of veggies every week, whether it suited our schedule or not (we run a LOT during the summer) and whether we liked it or not.

 

I don't think you can make a bad decision here - either option is a good one.

 

Peace,

Rene

[McKay]

We did CSAs for a couple years and then dropped them in favor of buying from 3 different growers. The CSAs were good, however the inconvenience of pick-ups, summer vacations, and the fact that the produce was often the same as what we had from my dd's garden - tomatoes and zucchini, caused us to discontinue them.

 

We probably consumed more produce with the CSA, but there is less waste with buying from the growers. The growers that I go to farm organically, plus they all seem to have something a little different, which makes for a greater variety than I experienced with the CSA.

[Haiku]

 

Do you do farmer's market or CSA's? Have you done both? What do you like better?

 

We participated in two different CSAs for a total of four summers.

 

We decided not to do it again.

 

My kids like regular stuff: carrots, corn, green beans, spinach.

 

We got kohlrabi, turnips, beets, and chard.

 

It didn't go over well.

 

In addition, I plan out my meals a month at a time. Being in a CSA made this impossible to do.

 

I much prefer the farmer's market although, to be honest, I get the bulk of my produce at Trader Joe's.

 

Tara

[Tammyla]

We tried the CSA two years ago.

 

My kids like the more traditional veggies...

 

As mentioned above we got turnips, chard, arugula over and over by the bag full....Regular salad veggies were few and far between; I really expected to get salad fixings weekly.

 

Our grocery bill went up, since we ended up purchasing regular produce at the farmer's market or grocery store.

 

Our first few shares were delicious, but then the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers ran out. After that pick-ups were a depressing chore knowing we wouldn't eat most of it.

 

However, the CSA did sway my entire family to eat only organic veggies when possible. The regular grocery store stuff tastes like chemicals now. We started our own organic Squarefoot garden last year, because we were hooked on the taste. The CSA was worth finding that out; even if our farmer has plan to get the world eating chard:tongue_smilie:.

Edited February 10, 2010 by Tammyla

[hsbaby]

I debated about this as well and opted to go with the farmer's market. I want to be able to buy exactly what I want and how much of it I want. I have family that does a CSA and some of the stuff they get would just go to waste here. Other stuff I enjoy, but don't need it in the mass quantities they sometimes get it in! I prefer to plan out my recipes and then buy the ingredients as opposed to getting the ingredients and trying to build a menu from them.

[wulfbourne]

Thank you everyone for your input. I'm still not quite sure which way to go, but I have more information to think about that's for sure, lol.

[6packofun]

Wow, now that is a cool way to do a CSA!

[G5052]

We liked what we got, but driving there and back once a week was too much wear-and-tear. His road was horrible in bad weather. There's one that's a little closer and more convenient, but I'm not sure yet because he does mostly greens and we do pretty well growing that.