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14 Points to Keep in Mind if You're Considering Subscribing to a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program

This article details some downsides and aspects you'll want to consider if you're thinking about a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription.

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by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

Is a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program for you? My article, Why Subscribe to a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program?, describes the benefits of subscribing. This article details some downsides and aspects you'll want to consider if you're thinking about a CSA subscription.

  1. CSA subscribers share in the benefits of CSA farms, but also in the risks. Poor weather and pests can affect the harvests at participating CSA farms. "Know it all depends on the weather so be open to the abundance or the lack thereof and appreciate the risk you're taking with the farmer," advises Tracie Smith of Tracie's Community Farm in Fitzwilliam, NH. Subscribers should also prepare for a bit less variety in their CSA boxes at the beginning and end of the season compared to the bountiful summer harvest. "Our CSA is year-round which we love," says Amy Potthast, who subscribes to Pumpkin Ridge Gardens North Plains, OR, "but the deep winter doesn't offer the same quantity and variety that other seasons offer."
  2. Subscribers who don't like to be surprised may not like CSA. For the most part, CSA subscribers cannot choose the contents of their boxes. Stevens County (WA) CSA Program Coordinator Jamie Henneman explains the rationale: "Since we try to keep overhead very low in our program, we have to create a standard format, meaning each box needs to be put together the same way. That means sometimes people get fruits or vegetables they don't like or aren't sure how to use." Adds Kate Zurschmeide of Great Country Farms in Bluemont, VA, "It is rather like a surprise that arrives weekly at your door step, so clients need to feel comfortable opening a box and using what is inside rather than planning a menu in advance." Says Katie Bezrouch of Chicago, a subscriber to Homegrown Wisconsin: "I don't choose what I receive, but I don't mind at all. It forces me to be more creative when I am cooking and keeps my diet diverse and fun!"
  3. Most CSAs will at least give you some idea of what to expect at various times in the season. For example, Stevens County CSA offers a page on its Website, What can I expect in my CSA box? and a Seasonal Eating page. Zurschmeide suggests asking the CSA for its "produce plan."
  4. While CSA subscribers have minimal options in their basic box contents, optional extras are often available. Subscribers interviewed for this article mentioned extra crops, dried fruit, nuts, olive oil, eggs, meat, poultry, goat and cow cheese, apple/pear/pumpkin butters, salsas and sauces, berries, mushrooms, flowers, and bread.
  5. Not all CSA produce is certified organic. Zurschmeide comments on the fact that her CSA is not certified organic: "I think each CSA farmer has to make this choice and ... consumers will also make their choice. We are glad to educate customers on how we grow using sustainable methods, but if the consumer must have certified organic produce, then we let them know we may not be the best CSA for them. This is part of the American way that the farmer can choose and so can the consumer what works best for them." Smith, whose farm is organic, offers her take: "I think CSA farms and all farms for that matter should reflect what's best for the planet, people and community. At this point the word

    organic' represents our best knowledge of what is best for these aspects."

  6. The seasonality of CSA sometimes means putting the cart before the horse. Most people plan menus and then go out and buy the ingredients they need to produce those menus. The reverse happens with CSA subscribers, who see what foods they've received in their box and then must determine what they can prepare with those ingredients. "If one would like to make eggplant parmesan in June -- it won't be from CSA eggplant as those arrive in August and September for us," Zurschmeide notes.
  7. Some CSA subscribers may be overwhelmed by the amount -- or types -- of produce they receive. "Be ready for vegetables to run your life and determine your menu," warns Nico DeArmond, who first subscribed to a CSA in 2009. "We are getting way too much food (occasionally things that we don't recognize) and losing a lot of it to waste. Just tending to the foods is a part-time job at the least," DeArmond says. Sometimes it's not the quantity that's overwhelming but the types of produce. "The down side for me has been that so many of the veggies we get are things that my family does not and will not eat," says Jeanne Cummings of Asheville, NC. "For example, my husband has a visceral dislike of heirloom tomatoes... As a result, food goes to waste. I've taken to donating the food that I know will be rejected to our local food bank, but I hate to have spent the money subscribing to the CSA and have to reject so many veggies."
  8. CSA subscribers should be prepared to be creative with the food they receive. Luckily, many CSAs provide recipes to inspire their subscribers to make the best use of the box's ingredients. Recipes for all sorts of fruits and vegetables are, of course, also widely available on the Internet. Several CSA subscribers interviewed for this article mentioned freezing, canning, preserving, and dehydrating as ways of handling the bounty. Neither donating to a food bank as Cummings does, nor feeding excess produce to deer, as I admit to doing, is the ideal solution, but they are options. Subscribers can do as Tonya Kubo of Merced, CA, did and share the box with another couple. "We could either split each week's shipment or alternate weeks (great when we were traveling)," Kubo says. "But when the other couple decided to stop subscribing, we found ourselves overwhelmed with the amount of produce compared to the available time we had to prepare it all."

  9. CSA subscriptions are not necessarily cheap. Among the small sampling of CSA organizers consulted for this article, price per share of produce ranged from $15 for a half-share box to $30 for a full share, which then must be multiplied by the number of weeks in the subscription. I'm a CSA subscriber myself and pay $630 for 21 weeks. Price breaks are possible for ordering multiple seasons worth of boxes. Half shares/boxes are sometimes available. In one CSA consulted for this article, one box was equal to a half share; two boxes constituted a full share.
  10. Prospective CSA subscribers should ensure the CSA they're considering is truly local. Bezrouch switched providers twice when the Chicagoan noticed that more than half of her box was sourced form California and Florida. Potthast cautions: "[Be] careful of fake CSAs that may deliver organic food -- from Mexico or Australia when you are in Missoula. Not all are local or coordinated through a local farm."
  11. CSA subscribers will still likely have to source some of their produce from outside the CSA. "We do have to go to the store for some produce, mainly mushrooms and fruit, because those don't ever come in the basket," Potthast notes. Some CSAs include fruit, but many don't.
  12. Most CSAs don't operate year-round. The majority of CSAs operate in the spring, summer, and fall, or a subset of these.
  13. Some CSAs don't deliver, so boxes must be picked up. Our Stevens County CSA, for example, will deliver only for an additional fee; however, the CSAs associated with most of the sources interviewed for this article deliver.
  14. Final thoughts and more advice. CSA subscribers and organizers added more suggestions for those considering subscribing to a CSA:
  • "Be prepared to eat what you get in the quantity you get it. Be prepared to be creative with using what you get." -- Tracie Smith
  • "Ask for a produce plan, ask for years in business, ask for references check it out as you would any other provider for your home and family." -- Kate Zurschmeide
  • "Ask others which CSA they recommend and what the CSA offers." -- Sandra Marquardt, who coordinates the CSA drop to her community through Calvert Farm in Cecil County, MD
  • "Know yourself and your eating habits. Are you adventurous enough to experiment with foods you've never tried before? Are you willing to cook and eat at home? I think everyone should try it for three months just for the experience." -- Tonya Kubo
  • "Go with the little guy. After all, you are not really supporting your community at all if the food is coming from the other side of the country. Look at the stickers. Ask your farmer where it was grown. Get the best bang for your buck. Make sure it's really local." -- Katie Bezrouch
  • Research your options thoroughly. If you can find a place that delivers and accepts half-shares, go for it if it's easier. Our CSA only takes new subscriptions during a brief window in May, so be in touch with your farm as soon as you know you want to join to figure out if they have timing restrictions around new subscribers and when to get your name on their wait list or contact list. -- Amy Potthast
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    Katharine Hansen, PhD, EmpoweringSites.com Creative Director Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., is an avid bicyclist, gardener, educator, author, and blogger who provides content for EmpoweringSites.com, including EmpoweringRetreat.com. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press), as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Study Skills (Alpha). She curates, crafts, and delivers compelling content online, in print, on stage, and in the classroom. Visit her personal Website KatharineHansenPhD.com or reach her by e-mail at kathy(at)astoriedcareer.com. Check out Dr. Hansen on GooglePlus.


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