My CSA!

I LOVE my CSA. For those of you who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It pretty much works like this: you pay them an amount of money ahead of time for a weekly produce box of goodies that come from their farm. Many CSAs are different lengths, prices, sizes and contain different items. Mine goes from June-October for a total of 20 weeks. Here is an example of a weekly share: basil, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

Not only do CSAs give you local, seasonal, and most likely organic produce, but you are helping the farm out too. In fact, I signed up and got a discounted early bird rate- which the farmers said helped them buy seeds for their crops! You are supporting them through thick and thin though- if there happens to be a drought (like there was this year) you face the risk of getting only what the farm has to offer. So, if the farm loses their crop of spinach, broccoli and cauliflower to the really hot temperatures, you don't get those ones. Even though most of the midwest was in an actual drought this summer, my CSA didn't seem to cut back on what they included for us weekly.

The Local Beet is a great website to find out more information about which CSAs are available in your area.

Over the course of my 20 week CSA (I'm on Week 16) the produce has varied widely. Lately I have been getting a ton of hot peppers! I don't know what to do with all these!

The farm my CSA is from is called Grass is Greener Gardens. They are located in Monroe, WI and are at a couple farmer's markets here in Chicago including the Green City Market on Saturdays in Lincoln Park. The awesome thing about them is that they blog every week about what will be in your share.

I will definitely enroll in a CSA next year and recommend it to everyone who wants local, seasonal produce all summer long.

Do you have any experiences with CSAs? Where do you get yours from?