Anatomy of a CSA

By Michael Morowitz
February 26, 2010 at 8:00 am

Editor’s note: We’ve got a lot of CSAs for you.  From newly initiated Tomato Mountain to the stalwart Angelic Organics, our list of CSAs is huge.  As you work through the list you may wonder what a CSA will look like.  In 2008 Michael Morowitz dissected what he got.  We bet you’ll find something not that far off at the end of 2010.

As 2008 comes to a close, winter markets are in full swing, I get my first winter CSA delivery this week, and 2009 CSA sign-ups are getting started. For those of you considering purchasing a CSA subscription for 2009, now is the time to sign up. Spaces can fill up fast and you can sometimes get a discount for early purchases.

I know that if you’re new to a CSA, it can be hard to take the plunge. I thought I’d take apart my 2008 CSA half-share from Homegrown Wisconsin to help demystify the whole experience.

How did it work?
I purchased a half-share since there are only two eaters in my household (not counting the twins who are not on solid food yet and who didn’t exist during the 2008 sign-up period). A half-share equals ten deliveries, every other week, from June to October. I also added a dozen eggs to each delivery for an extra fee. (You can also add a lb. of cheese for a fee).

My deliveries went to a residential home not far from my neighborhood. One of the reasons I chose HGW last year was the ease of the pick-up locations. Every Wednesday I went to this home and picked up my delivery from their garage (there was a four hour window for pickups). The pick-up process could not be easier. Pop-in, grab your stuff, sign the sheet, and leave. There was only one delivery I couldn’t make, and a friend was able to pick it up.

So what did you get?
Since HGW is a cooperative of farms, I received a nice variety of produce every week. As expected, deliveries can vary in size due to harvest times but each delivery had a good variety and plenty of stuff to keep me busy cooking and storing. My goal was for 100% usage of what we received. I didn’t quite achieve that, but I was certainly in the neighborhood of 95%, with some items currently in the deep-freeze or fridge.

Green Leafy Things 7 Lettuce (summer crisp, bibb, little gem romaine, green leaf, Red batavian) 2 bags of fresh spinach Collard greens Napa cabbage Wild grape leaves Lacinato kale 2 Arugula Mizuna Frizze Green cabbage head Red cabbage head Red radicchio Bok Choy Sunflower micro greens	Misc. above-ground produce Kohlrabi Cauliflower 2 broccoli heads asparagus Sugar snap peas (first pick of the season from this farm) x2 Italian romano beans 2 Cucumbers (Diva variety?) Japanese cucumber Eggplant Small celery stalk 4 ears of sweet corn Many tomatoes (heirloom, green, red slicing, saladette, green zebra, sungold cherry) 3 mushroom deliveries (white and crimini)	Underground Produce 4 bags of carrots Parsnips Turnip 2 daikon radish radishes 3 sacks of potatoes (wide variety) 2 sweet potato deliveries (various varieties and sizes) at least 6 large beets white turnips
Peppers Banana pepper 5 green bell peppers Red bell pepper (already chopped up in a quinoa salad) 2 Italian frying peppers Unknown hot peppers (four or five)	Squash Gold summer squash Yellow summer squash acorn squash butternut squash spaghetti squash pie pumpkin 2 delicata squash zucchini	Garlic/Onions Garlic scapes green garlic 7 heads of garlic spring onions Red bottle onions (twice) 5 red onions 2 white onions 2 leeks
Sweet stuff Strawberries (twice) rhubarb (three times) Small yellow watermelon Raspberries Musk melon Apples three times(honeycrisp, mutsu, dolgo crabapples) Plums Pears	Herbs Flat-leaf parsley (twice) Mint Chives (twice) Sage Basil Dried mint	Stuff in packages Jar of pear butter Jar of Honey 10 dozen eggs

There are two practical things I enjoy the most about being a part of a CSA: I love to cook, so I like to receive new things that I might normally pass up in a market. This year I cooked mizuna, romano beans, and delicata squash: three great things that I’ve never cooked before. Also, I love having a base of produce always available that I can easily supplement with farmers market trips. I always found myself heading to the Federal Plaza market for peaches, blueberries, spring onions, and a few other things. But, I didn’t have to go overboard because there was always a steady stream of good, local produce at home.

I’m not affiliated with Homegrown Wisconsin in any way, and I don’t want this to be a commercial for them. There are a lot of CSAs out there that cater to a variety of different needs and locations (We’ll be publishing a 2009 guide soon). I just hope this helps de-mystify a CSA subscription for those of you who may be considering joining one in 2009.

 

 

 

2 Comments

1. Rob Gardner says:

   November 17, 2008 at 5:28 pm

   Gosh I wish I could be so organized! Very well done.

   I’ve said this many a-time around the internets. I really enjoy and appreciate being part of CSA even as I have certain CSA reservations. Like you, I enjoy cooking, cooking new things and having a base of material. I also enjoy (maybe too much see forthcoming blog post) shopping. I like the challenge of cooking what is there, but I also like the pleasure in finding something at the market. If nothing else, I rue two things about CSAs. First, the quality of one particular item is often screwy, like not really enough kale. Second, there’s always somethin’ I’m not wild for, mostly an Asian green-ish type thing.

   That all said, I would not even consider ditching my CSA. The most important thing about a CSA, it aligns you with a farm and a farmer. You are there when she needs you. She is there when you need her. It is altruistic, but beneficial too. To paraphrase something Michael Pollan said, by belong to a CSA, you learn about the real and true issues that affect farmers and affect our food. The forced interchanged from a CSA from country mouse to city mouse helps all.

   A CSA helps in other ways. It affords one, typically, a chance to visit a farm, learn more. At times, a CSA might get produce too limited for other outlets. CSA subscribers earn extra benefits. The biggest one, I believe is ongoing access to the CSA, including access to other wise closed CSAs such as off-season CSAs.

   Michael’s done a good job of selling a CSA. Hopefully, I’ve sold some of the side benefits.

   Reply
2. Mary Beth says:

   February 28, 2010 at 10:32 pm

   Hi!
   I’m just wondering what happened to Homegrown Wisconsin, do you know?? There website doesn’t seem to be up any longer. I also had a share with them in 2008 and loved it- I didn’t renew in time last year and missed it so much!

   Reply

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