Why CSA?

First blog post!

I guess it would be appropriate to use my first post to touch on why I started this blog in the first place.

While I've never really been a picky eater, I’ve always been picky about my produce. If it's not fresh, I generally won't touch it. Lately, I’ve become ever more interested in local sourcing, as I’ve long maintained that local produce tends to be fresher and taste better. Farmer’s markets, apple picking trips, and diligent searching through grocery store produce aisles usually worked for me, but after moving to NY and starting a job, I realized that these are time-luxuries that I just can’t afford any more.

Farmer’s markets are generally held during my work hours and they’re not exactly conveniently located either*. The grocery stores and delis near my apartment offer an acceptable collection of produce, but after biting into one too many mealy apples, I gave up on that as well. In my search for a viable alternative, I stumbled upon the world of CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture). The more I read, the more intriguing I found the whole CSA concept. I decided to give it a try.

However, as I signed up for a CSA, it dawned on me how difficult it had been for me to pull the information I was looking for. Compared to finding a local grocery store, finding a good source of local food was definitely more of a challenge. Plus, not a lot of people know what a CSA even is. I imagine there’s a lot of people out there who would be interested in CSA’s and locally sourced food for a variety of reasons, so I set out to chronicle my own adventures in an attempt to gather more information and put it in a format that might come in handy to someone someday.

In addition, the whole dialogue around local sourcing and CSA’s is fascinating and ever-evolving. I wanted to have a place where I could muse out loud and sort through my own opinions on the many discussions being held in the local food space.

So there it is in a nutshell: this blog is really just my place to ruminate on CSA’s and serve as a place for me to collect information so that I can pass it on to my friends and family should they ever decide they want to know more.

*Or I'm lazy?