CSAs?

doglove

Can you tell me your experiences? The good, bad and the ugly? Whats a reasonable price for a half year (April - October) for two people? I know the last question really depends on COL area.

dizzykates

We pay $535 for a 16 week share (June-October).  We felt it was a good value.  Some weeks had tons of food and some were a bit more slim, but there was always variety and we had to work hard to eat it all.  Considering ours was from a non-certified organic farm, I felt it was a great deal.

Read2Me

We do a full share.  It's $510 for 18 weeks and we typically get 2-3 full shopping bags of produce each week.  I also add on an additional fruit share ($125 for 12 weeks).  Ours is through a collective of local organic farms so we get a great selection and we also have the option to add on eggs and meat once a month.

Katieandjade415

I could never commit to the CSA schedule, and found a local restaurant that offers the same type of service, but I only sign up the weeks that I want the box. They offer a small box for $15 and a big box for $25, and it's a Japanese-American restaurant so they usually pick out veggies I wouldn't normally go for. AND, the guy running the service sends out an email after we pick up the box with the a description of the contents and fun recipe ideas. As an additional bonus, we have brunch there when we pick up the box. I love it because I never have too much produce, which would become a quick problem for us as we have a small refrigerator and no backyard for compost. Whenever I have leftovers or too much, I make a chicken stock. 

SuperGreen

The CSA at the not certified organic farm I work for is $600 for 24 weeks (June-Oct), which works out to $25 per week.  I think it's a good value, you get way more produce than $25 would get you at say Whole Foods.  Most large CSAs offer multiple pickup points, but ours is small so we do on-farm pickup only.  You get everything that's fresh and available that week.  We have lots and lots of returning CSA customers, we've never had any problems.  Lots of people like the idea of cooking with new, fresh ingredients every week.

estherandgeoff2

We did this for the first time last year and liked it a lot. We pay $400 for 18 weeks (June - Oct). DH picks up from the farmer's market near his office. It's about one big grocery bag full. Some weeks were leaner than others but only because we got off to a rocky start with all the rain we had here. They more than made it up for it later in the year. We usually get one kind of fruit and sometimes we get a potted herb as well. I love not having to fret over what to buy at the grocery store, that it's local, and organic. We also got a Foodsaver for Xmas this year so we can package leftovers nicely to freeze. We still have cabbage in the freezer from last year's CSA as well as zucchini.

foundmylazybum

Ours is every other week...it's 225$ for the end of May through October.

You guys have expensive CSAs! Even our full share was only 230!