Is this a good deal on CSA produce? - Page 2

[honeybunmom]

Originally Posted by prairiebird

My CSA share is 36 weeks for fruit, vegetables, and bi-weekly eggs, and it costs $1700 (for a 4-6 person share), but mine is delivered either to the door or to a central pickup location in town that's within 5 miles. I am in the Chicago area.

So for me, it's not the prices that would seem too high, but I think having to go out and pick it up weekly would get old after a while. It'd be neat for a while, but then kind of annoying. I do like the option of boxing my own though, because it would mean that I'm seeing the condition of the produce before it goes into the box.


Hmmmm. Hard to say. I only have three that eat the vegetables heavily, but my younger ones have started trying them bit by bit.

May I ask which CSA this is? I am actually in Chicago and would love to not have to drive to pick up. But, since you're in the Chicago area, I'm wondering if you are in a close suburb with delivery and the city may not have it. Worth checking into for me, though!

[jewelsJZ]

Originally Posted by tinuviel_k

The difference in price per week between a delivered and pick-up share is about $7.50.
The round trip drive would be 56 miles. What kind of MPG does your car get? Since it is an older minivan I'm going to guess 20 MPG. That is about 2.8 gallons of gas. I don't know what your DC gas prices are, but I'll guess about $2.75.

That would put your round trip gas cost at $7.70 per trip. If you were driving out every week you would save NO money by picking it up yourself. If you and another family would be splitting the pick-ups you'd be saving about $75.00 by picking it up yourself.


As for the cost of the CSA itself... I don't know exactly what you are getting in each box, but almost $50 a week seems really high to me. In my area the price-per-week for a CSA ranges from $21- $37.

I'm calculating that it would be $20 per week if I split a full share with a neighbor. Also, if we drove out every other week to pick up, then that would save on gas and wear and tear on the car. Also, we'd probably spend several hours there, letting the kids play so it would be our entertainment whenever we made the trip out. Plus we like to go to two or three of their festivals every year and we'd get in free for that. Sometimes, the reason we don't go it because it costs too much to get in for the 5 of us.

Someone asked about traffic. Not much traffic, really quite a pleasant drive and they just extended their pick up hours and days so that should be okay. My only concern is that I may supplement from the other farm's road side stand that we like because we won't always get everything we want. And what to do when you get a box full of kale. Hmmmmm. Decisions, decisions.

[MamaMelis]

Oh lordie the kale.........I live pretty close to you (outside of Philly) and the kale season is loooooooong I came up with ways to get kale into everything to use it up! Count on lots of kale!

All my raving about CSA's aside, we are going to drop out of our CSA this year ~ I am due with out third May 28th and hoofing a newborn around the farm in the buggy humidity, along with my then barely 3 and barely 2 year olds, just sounds like torture rather than fun to me. I am interested to cost compare out weekly trip to our local farmers market vs. the CSA over the course of the entire season. We will do our orchard share again at a different farm (starts late summer runs through christmas) but that has a pick up at the farmers market. Hopefully we will be back at our farm the following summer

[BetsyS]

We drove 50 miles to pick up our last CSA, so I don't think that the drive is totally crazy.

That said, we are also CSA drop outs. Around here, they run about $30/week, and they are about 12 weeks long. Just as the vegetables get good (the eggplant, peppers, okra, tomatoes start coming in), the season is over. We did it 3 different years (different farms), and we never got enough of those vegetables. Honestly, though, I'm not sure that we would ever get "enough" of some of those. Last year, my dh grew something like 35 tomato plants for our family of 4 (2 are toddlers), and it was barely enough. And, I never get enough okra or eggplant or peppers, either.

We do plan our meals completely around CSA vegetables, and I found that we often had to supplement a "4-5 person" box. That was true when it was just the 2 of us, and it was true again when it was 4 of us (1 being a very, very picky toddler, and 1 being a normal picky toddler). I'm not sure how much they expect a family to eat, but it was around 1-2 brown paper grocery bags full each week, and that just wasn't enough for us. It lasted us probably 4-5 days.

We do better taking the $30 and spending it at the farmers' market each week. If you don't get there early, you don't get the premium vegetables (that okra again and cauliflower is really finicky where I live), but we'd get there early, and we ended up with a lot more food for our $30. One of our market farmers had a CSA, and every week, I'd compare what I bought to his baskets, and I almost always came out ahead (save for maybe 1 week in summer).

[mnnice]

Originally Posted by MamaMelis

Oh lordie the kale.........I live pretty close to you (outside of Philly) and the kale season is loooooooong I came up with ways to get kale into everything to use it up! Count on lots of kale!

Learning to like kale was one of the best parts of being in a CSA for me. It went from dreaded to something that always got eaten.

[BetsyS]

Originally Posted by mnnice

Learning to like kale was one of the best parts of being in a CSA for me. It went from dreaded to something that always got eaten.

Kale is quite beautiful in a vase as a flower arrangement, too.

[shayinme]

Originally Posted by MamaMelis

Oh lordie the kale.........I live pretty close to you (outside of Philly) and the kale season is loooooooong I came up with ways to get kale into everything to use it up! Count on lots of kale!

All my raving about CSA's aside, we are going to drop out of our CSA this year ~ I am due with out third May 28th and hoofing a newborn around the farm in the buggy humidity, along with my then barely 3 and barely 2 year olds, just sounds like torture rather than fun to me. I am interested to cost compare out weekly trip to our local farmers market vs. the CSA over the course of the entire season. We will do our orchard share again at a different farm (starts late summer runs through christmas) but that has a pick up at the farmers market. Hopefully we will be back at our farm the following summer

Kale makes for some lovely roasted chips (even my picky 4 yo will eat them) as well as my new fav white bean and kale soup. I will admit though its taken years to actually start enjoying kale.

[nwmomof2]

Maye it's just me, but I would be very hesitant to drive 28 miles each way for 20 weeks. It might sound like fun at first, but what about after 2 months? 3?The CSA we did last year had a drop-off site where we picked up our box each week. It was only 5 miles from my house and on some summer afternoons it really seemed like a hassle to pack the kids up and drive that short distance across town.

However, I will admit I liked learning how to cook foods I'd never bought before, even though I shop at a great local HFS and Farmer's Market. Our CSA included a recipe sheet each week and we did have fun with tomatillos, beets and kohlrabi! An open mind and willingness to work with what you are given is essential.

[mommy2naomi]

Personally, I think its too far of a drive for a weekly pickup.

[jewelsJZ]

Originally Posted by mommy2naomi

Personally, I think its too far of a drive for a weekly pickup.

Well, we have decided to do it and we are going to drive out there every other week, as we are splitting a full share with another family. It's a pleasant drive so I think it will be fine. Might be a tight fit once school starts in the fall though, but we just won't be able to hang out there for as long as in the summer.

Thanks, mommas, for all of your input and all the suggestions, things I hadn't even thought of.

[Poddi]

I'm a CSA drop-out, too. I was tossing out lettuce every week. Nobody in my family like lettuce. Now I just order organic delivery online. It doesn't cost much more than CSA and deliver right to our door. I do think CSA is worth it if your family isn't picky about eating various veggies.

[bobandjess99]

Originally Posted by laohaire

I am NOT being sarcastic and just can't figure out a better way to ask this - but how else would you do it? Honest question.

I plan my purchasing around what I want to eat, as opposed to planning what I eat around what i purchase (get in a CSA box). Does that makes sense?

For families who are willing to eat whatever they get/willing to plan their meals around what comes inthe CSA box each week, the CSA might be a great idea...but we only eat certain fruits and veggies here, we're not horribly picky, but we have a few dislikes, several of which would comprise a significant portion of what we would get in a CSA during parts of the season. So, we would be paying for CSA food we wouldn't eat, and having to go pay even more money to buy the stuff we would actually eat. Totally bad financial move on our part.

[russsk]

Originally Posted by bobandjess99

For families who are willing to eat whatever they get/willing to plan their meals around what comes inthe CSA box each week, the CSA might be a great idea...but we only eat certain fruits and veggies here, we're not horribly picky, but we have a few dislikes, several of which would comprise a significant portion of what we would get in a CSA during parts of the season. So, we would be paying for CSA food we wouldn't eat, and having to go pay even more money to buy the stuff we would actually eat. Totally bad financial move on our part.

Our CSA lets us pick our items from everything they have at the farmer's market (and they sometimes put aside special items just for shareholders). This works out really well for us financially, because we only get stuff we want, but are adventurous enough to try new things because we already paid for it.

[artemis33]

The way the CSA is structured can really make a difference. Some have lots of options to personalize and others don't.

I was in one last year after we moved out of the city (where we had tons of great access to local produce on demand and didn't need a CSA). I found a very small CSA only 1.5 miles from my home! GREAT! Well it turned out that the woman was really great, her eggs are the best ever and her gardens are beautiful, BUT unfortunately her focus during most of the season was on veggies that we aren't super fond of. Things like bok choy, beets, chard and snap peas are ok, but we only eat them occasionally and we were gettting bags and bags of those and not much else. We would have much preferred spinach, mesclun greens, arugula, kale, romaine, leeks, green onions, etc. Since her operation is so small, you just get what you get.

Anyway, the end of summer there was great since she did have fruit trees as well so we got lots of apples and pears and raspberries, so there were definitely weeks we were happy, but overall we decided we'd rather focus on growing more of what we know we love at home, or just buying local produce from the farmer's market.

It is probably worth a try in your situation though - you can always opt out next year if it doesn't work for you!

[lmk1]

Originally Posted by BetsyS

And, I never get enough okra or eggplant or peppers, either.

What do you do with the okra? I'm usually fine with one serving per year, but I obviously have a limited imagination as far as okra. Do you generally make soup out of it or fry it? Or...?

[BetsyS]

Originally Posted by lmk1

What do you do with the okra? I'm usually fine with one serving per year, but I obviously have a limited imagination as far as okra. Do you generally make soup out of it or fry it? Or...?

Fried, gumbo, stir-fried (this is really, really good), in Indian food, in okra and tomatoes (over rice usually), in vegetable soup. It's a surprisingly versatile vegetable. And, as a true okra lover, I even like it steamed and slimey. LOL. But, most of the other ways get rid of the slime.

[StarJune]

It seems a bit expensive. Ours works out to around $20/week. There is a good variety of 10-14 different items. The best benefit is that there is a local pick up just 5 minutes from work. I bring our own boxes.

I fully understand about not using everything and it is hard for me to waste so I took a break for the winter months. Will probably start back in April. I really like that it is year round though. Having one of Canada's best and oldest Farmer's Markets close by helps to fill in any gaps. There are really good products there. Like shayinme says, I really don't like planning food based on the box especially when it is something we don't like. I have been meaning to make a sweet, creamy coleslaw with the cabbage since forever but have not been motivated. We really don't like it but I don't want to waste it. As a kid we used to have it with corned beef so maybe I will try that.

It is good to give any CSA a try since it usually works out to better if not cheaper produce than a grocery store. And if it does not work out you can cancel. We can pay monthly which is great so not much is prepaid.