I know it's hard to believe, but a year ago, "CSA" meant nothing to me. When I first discovered CSA's, I fell in love with the idea right away. I wiki'd CSA, I googled it, I browsed a few sites and I thought it all seemed fairly straightforward. You buy a "share" of produce from your farmer, you pick it up each week, and that's that.
Turns out there's a lot more to it than that. Farms are essentially small businesses, adapting and adjusting to the local market. The end result? As many varieties of CSA structures as there are varieties of apples (fun fact: there are 7500+ varieties of apples worldwide!) All of this makes customizing your CSA experience easier, but it can be overwhelming for a first timer (me).
Everyone has different ways of going about things. I started my search for the perfect CSA by pretending I was looking for a boyfriend.* I made a preliminary list of "dealmakers" and "dealbreakers" to weed out the bad apples and narrow things down.
Dealmakers/Dealbreakers
- Must be located nearby (preferably less than 10 minutes away): If I had to lug a sack of produce halfway across Manhattan...I just wouldn't go. I'm lazy, what can I say? I'm also realistic. It's called "managing expectations." But seriously, if I can't even haul my sorry little ass to the gym which is like... three blocks away from me, there's no way I can motivate myself to drag bags of carrots and lettuce cross-town. Especially in the sweltering NY summer heat. Okay, the more I think about this, the more I realize that I should be ashamed. Three blocks. Yes. Next.
- Must be super fresh: If it's less fresh than the corner deli, what's the point?! Also, remember...I'm a picky person. If it's not fresh, I'm not going to eat it, except out of desperation. And desperate girls = hard times. A situation to be avoided by all parties at all costs.
- Must have convenient pick up times: I just graduated and there are no summer interns yet. This means I'm the very bottom of the corporate totem pole. I know I'm polite and charming and all, but I still can't imagine my boss reacting very well if I casually mentioned, "Oh, by the way, brb. Gotta skip out and pick up my weekly fruits and vegetables. Thx." Yeah, not happening.
- Must be reasonably priced: I'm poor yo (relatively speaking). Student loans and all that. Plus, Manhattan COL is absurdly high. I'm sure entire families live off of my monthly rent for a full YEAR in other parts of the world. I know, I know. #firstworldproblems
- Must be reasonably sized: Somewhat related to the pricing question. I can't possibly eat five cabbages in one week (nor should I for the sake of those around me). I also don't have the time to preserve or can extra produce. So either I find a CSA with individual sized shares or I convince someone to let me split a share with them.
Tip: Local Harvest is a fantastic site for screening CSA's by location.
Nice to have:
- Pretty website/blog (bonus points for pictures): Some of the CSA's I stumbled upon had great blogs with weekly updates on how the season was progressing. They had great pictures of each week's produce as well, which I thought was fantastic. It also helped me gauge share size. I know it's hard work to update and maintain websites and blogs, so I appreciated the effort from the farmers and CSA's that much more. Plus, it adds legitimacy to the CSA/farm. When you see a track record of quality and high performance, you worry less about the competency of the CSA/farm.
- Similar values or customer demographic: I don't think it's a dealbreaker if the CSA or farm doesn't cater to my demographic, but it's nice to have. For example, if someone felt passionately about organic produce, they could search for an organic CSA. On the other hand, if a small family wanted a CSA with a local community focus, they could choose one that allowed for family farm outings, family-oriented activities, kid-friendly produce, etc. Other CSA's tended to cater towards foodies (purple carrots!) or young people with time-suck careers (lower time obligations and commitments). Guess which one I picked.
- Variety of produce: For me, the freshness of the produce is more important than the variety. Having said that, it's always nice to have a wide range of different vegetables to choose from. Some farms go one step further and collaborate with each other to bring a wider offering of local products to their customers. For example, some CSA's have add-ons like fruit shares, eggs, chickens, fresh flowers, dairy products, honey and cheese. Exciting stuff!
After browsing some more, I found The One. Turtle Bay CSA. Nailed all my criteria.
This brings us to the present. We'll see how this summer fling goes. Maybe I'll stick around for the long haul ;).
*No, this is not actually how I go about looking for boyfriends. But maybe I should. haha..
**I just want to point out that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Jeremy Lin is healthy looking (see below for evidence). I bet he eats vegetables too.
TOTALLY RELEVANT:
I would never desperately justify the presence of JLin pictures in a blog about vegetables. Desperate girls = avoid at all costs, remember? Besides, the JLin-vegetable connection isn't really that much of a stretch. I bet you could come up with a dozen horrific Lin puns. EggpLINt? LINteloupe? Community Supported AgLINculture? Ok ok I'll stop. I'm making myself cringe too.
Also, if he ever signs up for a CSA, I call dibs on splitting a share with him. Girl can dream right?
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