Locavores Rejoyce – It’s CSA Signup Time
Photo: One Straw Farm
For the past several years, we have purchased shares of One Straw Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Registration opened this week and we just signed up again for this year, and I wanted to bring this wonderful program to the attention of those who may not know about it.
In general terms, a CSA is a mutually beneficial arrangement between a food producer and consumer. The consumer pre-pays at the beginning of the growing season for some number of shares. The farmer is then able to fund the operation of the farm using the proceeds from selling the shares. In exchange, the consumer receives food throughout the year for much less that it would have cost to buy that food a la carte.
One Straw Farm’s CSA shares include 8 “items” per week for the 24 week growing season. An item could be anything from a pint of grape tomatos to a head of green leaf lettuce to a watermelon. The items that are available each week are, of course, dependent on what is in season.
When we originally learned of this program several years ago, we jumped at the chance to participate. One Straw Farm grows their food organically, and they are local to the Baltimore area. We originally picked our shares up at the Waverley market on Saturdays, but we switched our pickup site to the Mt. Washington farmers market (in the Whole Foods parking lot) when it became available.
You can find out more about One Straw Farm and their CSA program by heading over to their website. You can even sign up and pay online.
In conclusion, I’d just like to say that the best strawberries that I’ve had in my life came from One Straw Farm, and due to their limited supply, they were only offered to CSA members. This is seriously good, local, organic food.
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