Adventures in Agriculture: Intro to the CSA
by Eric Richard
About 4-6 weeks ago, my wife and I decided to join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. We were introduced to this concept by one of the readers of the blog.
I figured that this might make for an interesting series of articles. So, this is the first in a series of articles that will likely span several months as we go through our first ever experience with the CSA.
There will probably be a few articles in a row at the beginning as I “catch up” on what we’ve already done.
What is a CSA?
[One note about terminology. Technically, the term “CSA” is an adjective. For example, you would have a “CSA farm”. However, the term has been nouned so people now say things like “I belong to a CSA.” While this is not technically correct, I am going to break this rule and use the term “CSA” as a noun. Sorry to offend anyone’s grammatical sensibilities.]
At its heart, a CSA is an economic model for a farm. The idea is that individuals buy a “share” in the farm at the beginning of the farming season. The farmer uses this money to then run the farm. Then, as the crops are harvested, the shareholders receive a portion of the crop.
From an economic perspective a CSA allows the farmer to offload the risk. If the farm has a bumper crop, the shareholders get the reward by getting extra food. If the farm has a poor crop, the shareholders get less food.
One thing to be clear on is that being a CSA neither dictates what you farm nor how you farm it — it is purely about how the farm is funded and how the crop is distributed.
This model can be applied to lots of different types of farms. For example, the farm we joined is primarily growing fruits and vegetables, but we’ve seen the CSA model applied to flower farms, poultry farms, tree fruit farms, and even beef farms.
In addition, there are both CSAs that farm organically (with no chemical pesticides) and others that farm with chemical pesticides.
Why Join a CSA?
There are lots of different reasons that one might join a CSA.
For my wife and I, we really wanted to try to eat healthier and thought this would be a good forcing function to eat more fruits and vegetables. We’re still not really sure what we are in for, but we are guessing it will be an interesting adventure. I am absolutely sure that by the peak season we will not be lacking in fruits or vegetables. In fact, our biggest concern is that we are going to be overwhelmed by the amount of food we get.
Some people will split their shares with other families to deal with this issue.
A second reason is to get really good, fresh fruits and vegetables. The way most CSAs work is that you get distributions on a weekly basis. As the crops are ready, they are harvested and distributed. So, by the time the food is on your table, it is really, really fresh. As my wife put it, “There really isn’t much better than a pea fresh off the vine or a really ripe tomato.”
A third reason for joining is environmentally focused — buying local food is a far more environmentally friendly than buying food that has been shipped from all over the world.
A fourth reason is to support local farmers and your local economy. I think one of the real gems of the area I live in is all of the natural beauty that still exists and farmland counts as part of that. According to the Sudbury Master Plan, in 1962, the two largest land uses were vacant (47% of the land) and agriculture (21%). Between 1962 and 1998, these two numbers dropped radically down to 8% and 10%, respectively. I am sure that there is a tremendous amount of economic pressure driving local farms out of this area and I’d like to see them stay.
How to Choose a CSA?
When I first learned about CSAs, I started looking to figure out what my options are.
The good news is that we are in an area that happens to have lots of choices.
I found the Northeast Organic Farmers Association and the LocalHarvest websites that had a lists of CSAs.
I then started to look at the options to see how they compared to one another. I broke this down into the following factors that we would use to determine which CSA to join:
- Location Obviously, this is important since it needs to be somewhere convenient to pick up the food.
- Cost Pretty obvious why this is important. Unfortunately, this was also one of the hardest to compare since every CSA has its own way of measuring things.
- Required Work Different CSAs have different philosophies here. Some CSAs require you to put in a certain amount of work on the farm and others require no work. We weren’t particularly excited about doing lots of work here, so we needed to consider this as we evaluated our choices.
- Pickup Times This wound up being one of the biggest factors for us. Since we both work, we needed to find a CSA that was going to be convenient for us to pick up the food each week. There’s no point in belonging to the CSA if you can’t get your food each week.
Clearly, this list is not exhaustive. Some people might want to know whether the farm is organic or not.
Here is a chunk of what I found. (Note: All of this information is likely to get stale from season to season, so I encourage you to check with the farms themselves before making any decisions off this information.)
| Name | Location | Cost | Required Work | Pickup Times |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drumlin Farms | Lincoln | $350 for a “single” share | Optional. $50 discount for 8 hours of work. | Weds. 10 - 5 |
| Lindentree Farms | Lincoln | $675 for a “small” share | 4 hours / adult | Tues. 1:30 - 7:30 Thurs. 1:30 - 7:30 Sat. 12 - 4 |
| Stearns Farm | Framingham | $305 for “alternate week” shares | 6 hours or $48 | Tues. 2-7 Fri. 2-7 |
| Land Sake | Weston | $650 for a “full” share | No | Mon. 1 - 6:30 Thur. 1 - 6:30 |
| Food Project | Lincoln | $650 for a “full” share | No | Tues. 2-6 Thur. 2-6 |
After looking through all of these choices (and a few others not listed here), we decided to join the Lindentree Farm. Honestly, the thing that made the decision for us was the pickup times. On almost every other factor, they “lost”, but we just thought that Saturday pickups would work the best for us and no one else offered times that were as convenient.
In coming entries, I will share our experiences with this CSA. Hopefully this will span over the entire 20+ week season so you can get an idea of how the whole thing goes.
on June 10th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
I’d be interested to know how this effects your grocery bill. Probably you didn’t buy many fruits and vegetables in the past, but now that your spending $675 per season (how long is that, btw?), do you find yourself buying less other food, and so saving money, or does this become an added expense?
on June 11th, 2007 at 12:12 am
I joined Stearns Farm last year. Very highly recommended. Only drawback is that you have to sign up really early (I think it filled up around January this year). Incidentally, you can look through old newsletters at the following link (links for 2007 won’t work yet); each newsletter tells what produce was available in any given year.
http://www.stearnsfarmcsa.org/stonesoup.htm
on June 11th, 2007 at 12:51 am
In response to Josh, I absolutely will let you know how this works.
My understanding is that most of the CSAs summer seasons last about 21 weeks. So, we should be getting food from June (they start next week) through October.
I should have mentioned in the “why to buy” section, that we expect this to dramatically impact how we spend money on food.
Today, we don’t buy many groceries — we tend to eat out a lot. I am expecting that this will replace many (but not all) of our meals during the summer. Not only dinners, but I would expect a lot of lunches too.
As we get into the season I will try to give an analysis of how much I think this is affecting our overall food bills.
on June 11th, 2007 at 2:17 am
We are also members of Lindentree. This year, we are splitting a “large” share with another family (two of us, three of them, we’re going for 1/3 of their share).
I tend to cook a lot. I confess to buying produce that was grown half way around the world and enjoying it fairly guilt-free. This year we ate a lot of asparagus from Chile, broccoli from who knows where, and fruit from all over. I am looking forward to working with and eating veggies that are organic *and* local *and* in season.
We’ve already both put in our four hours of work (actually, more) in two separate sessions. It was hard work — I wondered how people who do it for a living physically manage it day in and day out. But the people we met were just so darned nice. And the farm is in a gorgeous setting. While we worked, we listened to birds singing and heard almost no traffic. We’ve gotten to know the farmers a little too, and they’re sweet and gentle people. It feels good to be supporting their work.
For our second work session, we planted tomatoes and basil (oh my, did they smell good going into the ground). At the end of our shift, we were invited to take home handfuls of the tops of the basil plants that had been pruned before planting. We just happened to have olive oil, pine nuts, and romano cheese at home, so that afternoon, I made pesto. We’ll have at least four meals from that small batch.
I have no idea what we’re in for in terms of quantity. I’m a little frightened of some of what we might bring home. For example, what *do* you do with kohlrabi? But I’m very excited about this new adventure and I hope it’s a huge success.
– liz
on June 11th, 2007 at 6:05 am
a few more thoughts.
. The cost of your share divided by 20 weeks is about the cost of one dinner out for two people. So if you’re just replacing one meal a week, you’re ahead financially.
. Lindentree just bought a refrigerator for produce this year. They were extremely apologetic about it at our orientation. They said that normally all produce is picked on the day you pick it up, but sometimes they have to pick the day before, for example, if a huge storm is coming up. I was amused by this comment, given how much grocery store (and presumably much older) produce I’m in the habit of buying.
. Lindentree has a lot of “pick your own” opportunities throughout the year, especially for labor-intensive items — berries, peas, cherry tomatoes, organic flowers. They’re fairly flexible about letting you come back and pick on a day that’s not a typical pickup day.
on June 11th, 2007 at 6:43 am
I think this post raises some questions about first principles, as well.
I know that there are many benefits to local agriculture, but I wonder how those weigh against some of the benefits of agricultural products obtained on a world market. Theoretically, at least, buying strawberries from Mexico helps to integrate Mexican farmers and labors into the world market and goes some small way toward alleviating poverty there — which, in turn, goes some small way toward giving citizens of that country the resources with which to combat global warming (among many other pressing issues).
So it seems that there’s an environmental case to be made for international trade in food products. What I’ve found on the topic, though, is mostly hedged and inconclusive.
Does anyone else have some suggestions for good reading on the topic?
on June 11th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Good theory, Joshua. I have a few concerns with it, though:
> From the Fair Trade movement with coffee and chocolate, I infer that the growers of far-away food are typically severely underpaid.
> The brokers, transporters, and vendors of the food probably make most of the money.
> I have heard that the average meal travels about 500 miles. The food has to travel so far that I wonder if any local environmental benefit remains.
> I would think that most food for which an infrastructure exists to transport it hundreds or thousands of miles would also be sprayed heavily and bred more for durability and less for taste.
These are all early-morning conclusions, not necessarily statements of fact. I’d be interested to hear if you discover anything different in your research.
– liz
on June 12th, 2007 at 5:51 am
[…] This is the second part in a series on my experiences joining a CSA. For background, you can see the first article. […]
on June 17th, 2007 at 1:20 am
[…] This is the third part in a series on my experiences joining a CSA. For background, you can see the first article. […]
on August 29th, 2008 at 6:58 am
According to a recent study out of Carnegie Mellon University, the distance traveled by the average American’s dinner rose about 25 percent from 1997 to 2004, due to increasing global trade. But carbon emissions from food transport saw only a 5 percent bump, thanks to the efficiencies of vast cargo container ships.
A tomato raised in a heated greenhouse next door can be more carbon-intensive than one shipped halfway across the globe. And cows spew a lot more greenhouse gas than hens, or kumquats, so eating just a bit less beef can do more carbon-wise than going completely local. It’s complicated.
on August 29th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Josh,
That’s a very valid point and one that environmentalists often miss when they give one-size-fits-all advice. With that said, there are a lot of other good reasons to eat locally including knowing where your food comes from. The tomato/pepper scare from earlier in the summer was a perfect illustration of what happens when you are shipping food all over the world.
on August 30th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Right-o. Mostly I put up that comment as a (long-delayed) answer to my own musings, above.