How much is your CSA???

[babygrant]

I've ordered my first CSA box (home delivered!!) and I'm excited but wondering if it's going to save me money, stay the same, or get more expensive. Does this seem like a good idea. I ordered the basic large box for $43.00 Canadian.

[cristeen]

It really depends on how much you get in the box and how much of that you'll use.

I pay $31.50 per box, and I get 2 boxes every other week (one fruit, one veg), and 1 box (fruit) on alternate weeks.

I discovered it does save me money over shopping at the farmer's market, I eat things I wouldn't normally buy (like kale or chard), but I still wind up tossing some stuff each week from the veg box. I was tossing some from the fruit box too until I got a dehydrator and just started being realistic about what we'd eat... at the end of the week I put whatever's left from the last box in the dehydrator and call it good. But ultimately it allowed me to only buy the produce I needed for specific recipes/uses weekly, and depend on the box for everything else (I buy carrots for DH's lunches, potatoes or squash if I have something planned, but otherwise just use what's in the box).

When we started with the CSA, we got a mixed box weekly, but it wound up not being enough fruit for us, so I was still buying fruit at the market, and not saving any money. So I switched boxes and timing until I figured out what worked for us... which was 2 boxes every other week. And then once summer hit, and summer fruits started showing up in the box - those won't last 2 weeks, so we went to 1 box on alternate weeks. Now that we're back into winter fruits, we'll probably go back to just 2 boxes every other week, or else we wind up with a huge pile of apples, pears and oranges going bad.

[LauraLoo]

I've been watching a few farmers at our farm market who offer CSA's this past summer and fall to see what's offered on a weekly basis. Most of our local CSA's are around $475-500 USD for a full share for the season (roughly 22 weeks over spring, summer and fall) which equates to approx. $22-25/week. I'd still need to buy some additional fruits and veggies for our preferences, but it wouldn't be breaking the bank. If I went with a half share, I'd even have more money to play with on a weekly basis.

There are only a few farms around here that offer winter CSA, so I don't know if that would make a difference in terms of price. We aren't going to be doing it this fall/winter.

[Peacemamalove]

we can not afford the shares around here it is $748 for 17 weeks and you have to pick it up yourself.

[elanorh]

Ours is seasonal - only twelve weeks (although actually there were three more weeks after all; our growing season is short, but they had lettuce ready a week early, and two 'after harvest' deliveries of things like winter squash as well). I believe our membership is $360 and at the beginning it's not enough to feed us for the whole week in veggies, but by August it's more than we can eat and I'm canning or freezing leftovers.

We don't get fruit or berries; this is the very beginning with our CSA and their trees are several years out from producing anything, likewise with berries.

We are really happy with our CSA, though. The produce is amazing. I don't think we are saving much over what we'd buy at the store, but the quality (and organic!) that we get from the CSA is vastly superior. Also, I figure that if I'm spending roughly as much on the CSA as I would have spent at the store, I'd rather spend it on the CSA, which is locally grown/local farmer, vs. spending it for foods which were grown elsewhere and trucked in.

Our CSA has a deal where you can have a discount if you come out and help them during the summer. I believe it's $40 off -- my girls would damage more than they'd help, though, so we haven't done that yet.

[Cristiaz]

Our local share was $275 for 13 weeks which is about 21 bucks each time. I think its worth it, even if we had to scramble to get the 275!!

[Sativarain1]

I finally live in a area that offers csa. I hope next spring I'm able to participate and get lots of yummy local produce.

[SeekingJoy]

Ours is spring-to-fall and works out to $32 a week for a large share, which is equal to 3/4 a bushel of veggies. We spilt a large box with our neighbor and typically supplement with only carrots, celery, fruit and potatoes.

As to whether it will save you money, it depends on what you were buying, how much you were spending, and how much you will spend now.

[savithny]

Ours is $485 for mid-June to the last farmers market of October (this year, 10/31). That's what -- 18 weeks?

Ours works on the principle that you "shop" the farm's stand at the farmers' market each week, taking only what you and your family need for the week. That price is for two adults and any number of children in a household; you can add additional adults for $100/season or get a one-adult share for less ($100 less?). So you're not supposed to be getting extra to freeze or can. I have asked about buying extra beets to can pickled beets and been told to just take what I need because they have more than enough... I"ve also had a lot of learning about how much to take each week so I don't have wastage, even though this is my second year. Sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach when it comes to all the gorgeous produce.

My general policy is that once CSA season starts - that is what we eat, vegetation-wise. I supplement it with other market purchases that our CSA doesn't grow (eggs, potatoes, tree fruits), but I try very hard to work within what I'm getting rather than planning meals and then having to buy additional ingredients. We also grow a bunch of herbs at home and DH is a crop scientist with research plants that can be eaten after they are studied (they need a few of every type of tomato, for instance, and after they have that, the rest of the tomatoes on the plant are available for DH or his field crew or the food bank).

I know our CSA costs more than we'd be spending at the grocery store since I dont' buy 100% organic there, and we pay more for it than we used to spend each week when we just shopped the market and paid for individual veggies, but I still think its worth it. We eat a ton of delicious veggies, and some of them are just revelations -- so much of the stuff at the grocery store - even if it is tasty -- has been picked a long time ago and shipped a long way and is usually of a breed meant for shipping. I also am able to lower other costs -- with meals heavy with veggies all summer, I coook a lot of dishes where meat is not the main course, or the fruits the CSA offers become desserts that we don't normally have (There is nothing better than a fresh June NY state strawberry. Half the size of a supermarket strawberry, with all the flavor stuffed into the smaller package).

I've already signed up for next year's CSA, and I'm going to miss it from November through May

[williamsmommy2002]

Ours is more of a coop of organic farmers rather than a true CSA but it means the same basic thing for us. Anyway a small box is 19.20 a week and the large is 33. We are vegetarian. Two adults and 2 very picky kids are in the house. We can usually go through a large box but there is too much fruit sometimes. With a small box we eat it all and need to add a bit from the store. Depending on what is coming we change up what size we get.

[chinaKat]

Ours is about $30/wk. We get as much produce as we can eat, plus enough to put some up. There's almost always a you-pick option in addition to the standard pick up box, and some weeks the you-pick winds up being all you can pick. Additionally we have full access to as much as we need from the herb garden every week.

Totally, totally worth it IMO. If they only offered fruit, too, I'd (almost) never have to go to the store during CSA season!

ETA -- I'm in MA, location probably impacts price somewhat.

[laohaire]

We paid $890 for the full year (last week in May through end of February). I forgot what it works out to, but probably about $20-something a week. Based on how it affected our grocery budget rather than a head-to-head comparison of what the same produce would cost at the store, we are paying a little less overall for our fresh, local, organic produce than for conventional grocery store items. Thus a really good deal.

We pick up our produce ourselves (only every other week in winter, but we get twice as much per pickup so it works out to the same amount of food).

[dillonandmarasmom]

CSAs in California vary quite a bit in price and variety. I have paid as little as $17 a week for a box to as much as $35 a week for a box that was about the same but home delivered.

I currently own a CSA that utilizes neighborhood yards, we deliver, and offer seasonal veggies, herbs and flowers (and fruit on occaasion) for $20 a week. It comes out to less than grocery store prices for organics inn our city, and we only plant heirloom varieties.

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

I got a small box for $23, every 2 weeks. It wasn't enough to last me a full 2 weeks, but a box a week was too much (I'm single). At first I figured I was breaking about even, but once school started back up I wasn't staying on top of using the produce in it fast enough and often threw things out. I canceled after about 6 months and think I do better hitting the FM. Delivery is convenient, but FMs run year round here and you can find one nearly any day of the week (though they vary in quality).

[Llyra]

I pay about $600 US for what's called a "family share" ("individual shares" are also offered) that goes for about five months-- from mid June to late November. It's a lot of food, often way more than we can eat, but I've learned to can and freeze and dry a lot of it, and we eat it year-round. It costs more than conventional supermarket eating would for us in this area, but not much more, and it's definitely WAY less than organic produce would be at a supermarket or the farmer's market.

The first few years we bought the smaller share size and still a lot of it went to waste. It took time for me to learn how to plan meals around the contents of the share, and how to preserve what we couldn't use right away.

[katmann]

Glad someone started this. I'm a farmer and I offer a CSA with three seasons (spring, summer and fall), and each season has the option of a full or half share. The summer is the most expensive at $23 for full and $15 for half. the only (slightly) negative comment we've ever gotten is that it's too much food, not too much money. We supply a newsletter each week where we discuss ways to prepare the food and how to store it properly or put it up for the winter, and I think people really like that.

[snowbunny]

We pay what averages out to be $50/week for our vegetable CSA, $25 / week for our meat share, $25 / week for our egg and dairy share. Beyond that we don't need to much - some olive oil, fish, grains and honey or other supplementary foods.

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by snowbunny

We pay what averages out to be $50/week for our vegetable CSA, $25 / week for our meat share, $25 / week for our egg and dairy share. Beyond that we don't need to much - some olive oil, fish, grains and honey or other supplementary foods.

Oh, that would be DIVINE for us.