D.C. Area Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
csa's are not for me
this past weekend, someone gave me their veggie share for the week.
i was disappointed... i guess i'm surprised that people pay like $20-something per week for 4 ears of corn, 2 cukes, 3 tomatoes, a teeny thing of lettuce, and some green beans. (I'm sure there were a couple other things in there, too....)
i mean, i definitely appreciated the fact that she gave them to me. but, i feel like i could do better picking things out myself at a farmer's market or whole foods!
i always hear people raving about csa's - did anyone do a csa and *not* like it? or, am i a total weirdo?
Re: csa's are not for me
I didn't like my CSA but that's because we cook large batches of things & eat leftovers. Our CSA would give us like 1 eggplants, a few zucchinis & tomatoes, etc. when we'd rather have one week with 5 lbs of eggplant, the next with 5lbs of zukes, etc.
At the farmer's we go to, tomatoes are like $3/lb, lettuce is $6/lb (or $3/head), corn is like 4 for $2, cukes are $1 each...so it's easy to add up to $20 especially when you factor in convenience of not having to attend a farmer's market
I am not a member, their prices have always turned me off! You can buy organic at Wegman's, that you pick out yourself, for much cheaper IMO.
For many, CSAs are not about organic (in fact, most around here aren't organic or at least certified as such), it's about supporting *local* farmers & eating the freshest produce possible. A lot of the organic produce is grown in Mexico or South America so that you can still have organic tomatoes in January (but they will have been picked green & gassed to "ripen")
We did one last year and found that we got a lot of certain things to the point where it was just completely ridiculous. We had tomatoes in insane quantities. We got a lot of eggplant as well. While I appreciated that there was "a lot", I actually felt like we got a fair amount in a full share, it was a lot of the same stuff. We ended up having to cut up and freeze much of the eggplant as we just couldn't eat that much of it. We chose not to so it this year for other reasons and Im glad we made that decision as the summer has been so hot I don't know the we would have yielded much from the CSA this summer. I know my garden peeked weeks ago and the only things still growing are tomatoes and basil.
So overall I think it just depends on the CSA you join. We always had two full bags of veggies (not fruit unfortunately) but it wasn't necessarily a large variety. On the plus side we did get some things that we just wouldn't find in a mainstream grocery store. My husband felt like you though, that we could do better on our own and get what we "wanted" instead of what had grown really well that week.
I totally agree. I've tried 2 different CSAs and now do FMs instead. I try to stick to a $20 budget, and get about the same volume as in the CSA. The only difference is, I get what I want-- instead of 2-3 beets every week for a month. Blech. Or a bag full of apricots. Delicious, yes, but not veggies, which I need for meals.
I've heard about CSAs that let you go online to select what you get, so that seems to be good. For me though, we travel so much in the summer that a CSA still doesn't work.
But in terms of getting a good value compared to the FM, it's about the same, or even slightly cheaper with CSA since they may load up with things that are abundant and therefore cheaper.
The Wegmans I grew up with actually stocked their regular produce from local farmers, but I'm kind of from farm country, so it was the logical thing to do... I haven't really seem that around here though
Also, I too am not all that interested in CSAs.
We make the rockin' world go 'round.
Wegman's and Giant both have local produce when it's in season. So does Whole Foods, I think. And unless you do your research, what you're getting from a FM isn't necessarily local either. I think CSAs are all hype, like most things in this area
Yes, some grocery stores do sell *some* local produce. But it's hardly the same thing as a farmer's market or CSA where it's all local, all the time.
Actually, all of Fairfax's (and I believe Arlington's) markets (which are the ones that are most convient for me) stipulate the distance the produce must come from. There are people that actually visit the farmers to verify that if they are going to sell, say, cucumbers, they actually grow the cucumbers. In the case of Arlington, I'm fairly certain it's a city employee b/c all the markets are currently operated by the city. (my neighborhood is trying to start a FM. So.much.red.tape!) And, actually, visiting the farm where your food is grown is another reason to support a CSA, isn't it?
The Woodbridge Wegmans stocks local VA produce.
I dont think they'd be for us either. We grow our own but we were just at the farmers market in Olney this weekend and got several things for a dollar. We bought a handful of peppers for $1. Then we bought several plums for $1.
I have about 10 cucumbers in my fridge from my garden and I'll give them away for free!
I'll take them! I LOOOOOVE cucumbers!
I'll have to try the Olney FM. I stopped at Silver Spring and Kensington this past weekend. I liked Kensington a little better, probably because it's smaller and seemed a little cheaper (even though they had less selection). I really want to get some lobster and/or scallops from the salt river lobster people.
Ch ch ch chia I will gladly hand them over to you and anything else I have stock piled in the fridge. I picked a huge zucchini today too and I know that I have more than one right now to deal with. Let me know when you want to pop over to Kensington
I thought some of the vendors at Olney's farmers market (which is on Sundays) were really cheap. I liked that. They didn't have anyone selling meat though which the Kensington market sometimes has a guy who sells buffalo and I buy the buffalo burgers from him. I've bought some bacon at our market too.
I need to check out the Bethesda market sometime