But.
It's a lot of money. Sort of. It's around $600 for around 6 months. So I need to take $100 a month out of our food budget. That's a bit scary. Mark's income gets cut dramatically, I mean really dramatically starting in July, and when I look at our budget for August and beyond, let's just say there are big scary red numbers. Really scary. The kind that mean that every penny needs to be scrutinized and we need to be super smart about how we spend our money.
So...is a CSA a smart use of our grocery dollars or not?
Pros:
- organic produce
- picked the day we receive it--doesn't get much fresher than that
- experts agree it's good to eat local and in season, this would guarantee that
- supporting a local farmer and family whose farm is their only livelihood
- opportunity to attend a monthly potluck on the farm, so my kids would really know where their food comes from.
- opportunity to explore produce I would not normally buy and hopefully discover new things we like.
- chance to build more produce into our diets--something we all would benefit by
- chance to buy beef and pork raised the way I'd like it to be raised--pastures, no hormones, antibiotics, etc.
- do I really want to eat in season? I just had a terrific honeydew, certainly not in season, but absolutely delicious. Ditto the corn on the cob we had night before last.
- $600 is a pretty big chunk of money for us. If I spend the money on the CSA it will limit what groceries I can buy for the next 6 months--a pretty long time.
- I'm pretty picky, what if the produce we receive is not really up to the standard I'd like it to be? I like lettuce that isn't full of insect holes, etc. I like high quality produce. If I buy from a farmer's market and one farmer's produce is not up to my standard I can go on to the next stand. With a CSA, that option's eliminated.
- What if we don't like kohlrabi, beets, celeriac, kale, collards, etc? Then I'm stuck with produce we've paid for but don't really want.
- I'd still need to buy the produce we like but would not be receiving in the CSA plus all fruit we consume--we really like our summer fruit, I'd like to still have the money to do that.
- I'm not really sure that I can reduce my food budget by $100 a month from the CSA. That would be a problem.
4 comments:
I've heard of this idea before but, like you, wasn't sure I would actually use what was delivered. I think, if it was me, I would try to shop at the local farmers market rather than the supermarket. That way you'll still be supporting local producers AND getting exactly what you want.
I agree with Mum-me. Instead of participating in a CSA, shop at your local farmers market so you can get exactly what you want, when you want it.
I LOVE being in our CSA. BUT--we split a share (unofficially) with a family we know who enjoys things like kale far more than we do. Saves money and waste. Highly recommended.
I have loved it because I discovered we all like beets. Who knew? The things in cans don't work for any of us but the fresh ones, roasted, with a little butter? AWESOME. Purple carrots and potatoes? Fabulous.
But. If you can't pick and choose (I have a friend whose CSA lets her pick 10 items every week--perfect) and just take what they send--well, the quality will probably be awesome, but the quantity might not be enough, or too much.
Really--try to find someone to split it with. Still beats the farmer's market by a mile on prices if you can.
once upon a time i was in a co-op. i loved it. not exactly the same as a csa, but close. every other week one of us made a trip to the local farmers market and purchased for 10 families. there were staples that you were guaranteed to get, but each trip whoever was shopping had some freedom to get their favorites, too. i tried many veggies i'd never tried before. didn't like them all and learned which of my friends i could pass them off on.
and i learned to make a mean veggie stock!
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