Farmers Markets vs CSA

With the farmer's market season upon us, I find myself getting more and more anxious to get out early on Saturday mornings and visit my happy place.  For some, beaches and sun or sitting by the pool on a hot summer’s day with an umbrella drink is their solace from a grueling and mostly cruel work week.  But for me, walking down rows and rows of fresh fruit, vegetables, cheese and meaty goodness, provides a certain serenity that one can only get from food.  But wait, what’s this?  Your produce is not from here?  You didn’t grow this yourself?  Yes, this is an unfortunate trend in some farmer’s markets.  You have to be careful these days in what you buy as “local” produce.  Sellers and purveyors of (fine tasting I’m sure) vegetables, are not always upfront with you on where they have sourced their goods.  One obvious giveaway is what they are actually selling.  Yes, those bananas and mangos look delicious, but I can guarantee you they did not grow them here in Minnesota.  And it’s not always the obvious items either.  I am not here to bash these food stands, but I can tell you there is hope in a grim situation.

If you haven’t heard of CSAs before, you are missing the boat.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  This is the way, my foodie friends; these are the holy grail for localvores.  These little gem farms, in a field dominated by blandness, provide you weekly with a box of produce locally grown and sometimes picked within hours of being delivered to your kitchen.  This is the new farmer’s market.  You can be absolutely positive that the vegetables you are getting were grown here, and only here, and most of the time organically.  This is a great option for foodies like me, who A. sucks at gardening, and B. lives in an apartment and can’t garden (although I am trying to grow broccoli and sweet peas indoors this year…).  Best of all, you only get food that is in season.  Meaning, you are eating the way you were supposed to eat.  Don’t get me wrong, I love pineapples in January, but realize that 100 years ago Minnesotan’s would have to travel many hundreds miles to even taste a tropical fruit.

This year I signed up for a CSA share with Featherstone Farm.  It is a lot of food, so I am splitting the share with two other people.  If you are interested in CSAs check out the links below. 


http://featherstonefarm.com
http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/csa.html