Joining a CSA can be a great deal! Hubby and I have made a video of my weekly veggie haul that shows you why.
Hi! Chef Blondie here.
Last year, in our post Can Joining a CSA be a Good Deal?, we showed you the many benefits of joining a CSA farm (Community Supported Agriculture).
We are now four weeks into this year’s CSA season. We thought you might be interested in joining me as I head over to Waterpenny Farm to do my weekly veggie haul.
So, read this post for some background info. Then watch the video to see what one might find on a weekly veggie haul.
By the way, you might notice that I’m wearing shades in the video. Well, that’s because I’m still recovering from recent eye surgery and bright light causes me discomfort. I’m expecting things will be much better in a week or two. Many thanks to those who prayed for me over the last several weeks.
What’s a CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a production and marketing model whereby consumers buy shares of a farm’s harvest in advance. In exchange for this, farmers commit to supplying sufficient quantity, quality, and variety of products. The consumers and farmers share the risks and benefits of food production.
If you’re interested in a how a CSA works, check out Waterpenny’s website here. Eric Plaksin and Rachel Bynum give a great rundown of how their CSA came to be and they highlight their service to the community. They also talk about pricing for shares and half shares, describing what products are available over the course of a season. – There’s a lot more to running a CSA than you might think, and Eric and Rachel provide many valuable insights.
SFH and Waterpenny – An Interesting Relationship
In a sense, CSA members support the CSA farm as if it were their own. That means, through the lean years as well as through the good years. And that’s been our relationship with Waterpenny Farm for the past 8-9 years. There are times when our half share overwhelms us. So, we have to give away excess produce to our children and friends. There are other times when we wish the weather had been kinder to our CSA.
But here’s the secret to what makes the Serendipity Farmhouse – Waterpenny Farm relationship so worthwhile to us.
If you’ve read our posts, you know we grow our own herbs, and vegetables. We can or preserve most of what we grow.
We know we can’t grow everything we want or need. So, we stick to our favorites – tomatoes, okra, garlic, green beans, and hot peppers.
Although our garden production overlaps with what Waterpenny provides us, Waterpenny grows a host of other products that are not within our capability to grow. – And when we’re one pound short of tomatoes for canning, Waterpenny always comes through.
The bottom line is, come canning season, we have everything we need. There are no trips to Walmart for veggies during the summer. – In essence, Waterpenny becomes a virtual extension of the vast 1.203-acre Serendipity Farmhouse Estate.
What does a half share veggie haul look like?
I think you’ve got the picture now. By working with products from our CSA, we’ve managed to solve a large part of our original food procurement problem. In answer to the question “Can joining a CSA be a Good Deal?” The answer for us is ‘yes.’ As an illustration of that, here are pictures showing some veggie hauls from last year and last Thursday.
If there’s a downside to all this feast of plenty, it’s difficult to find. But when this much fresh food comes into our kitchen every Thursday, we have to plan meals to ensure nothing is wasted. It’s amazing how many innovative recipes we’ve developed to make the best use of this great bounty.
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Looks like a nice haul. What’s your favorite way to prepare the Swiss chard?
Sauteed with olive oil and garlic.Last night we made sauteed Swiss chard with white beans and gnocchi.It was delicious!