Several people have asked me recently about purchasing “shares” of a harvest from a local farm. The shares, usually full – weekly – or half – every other week, are carefully packed in a veggie box and delivered to areas for easy pick up.
Last year, we picked up from a relative of the farmer. This year, our pickup spot is just down the street at Buzz Cafe.
This is our second year participating in what the ag industry calls community supported agriculture. I missed out the first year I was interested because I thought all the area farms had sold out of shares.
What I learned, however, is that there are often shares still available well into the season, especially when the crops start coming in and it’s looking like there’s more than enough to go around.
I read a tweet from Flour Girl that shares are still available – for this summer’s crop – from Angelic Organics, which has an excellent reputation. And I’d, of course, recommend King’s Hill Farm, which sells half-shares. The half shares were more than enough for our family of four.
We opted for a full share this year with Sandhill Organics (sold out) because we’re splitting the season with another family of four. We’re hoping this share sharing will make it easier to take full advantage of the harvest and be more convenient when we’ll be on vacation or out of town during some of the summer pick ups.
Another way to find out about what CSAs are available is to check out Local Harvest, a great resource not only for CSAs, but for a whole host of locally-produced information.
Even though we’re in an urban area, it’s impressive to see the Local Harvest map for our region, showing how many farms are within reach. Overall, as of Saturday, Local Harvest reported it had 21,966 listings.
If you decide to join a CSA this season or next, be sure to also join a support group – like Flour Girl’s Cooking Away My CSA – to help you manage the bounty.
Virtual Farmgirl 