Farm co-op, love it or hate it?

[Anonymous]

We've been on the fence about doing a farm coop (in DC) where they deliver a box of produce every week. Most of the ones I spy in town (at pickup points, a neighbor's porch) have more leafy greens than we could eat and don't feature enough of the foods my kids can be relied on to eat. Not sure if that's a sad reflection on how we've capitulated to their tastes or what!
Has anyone found a great coop they've stuck with, or tried it and bailed? What was your experience?

[Anonymous]

Every couple of years I join one and then realize it's not for me. I'm not one of those people who gets a box of veggies and looks up recipes for how to use all of them, which means a fair amount of veggies get wasted. And often when I get veggies I do want to use I don't get them in a helpful quantity (2 ears of corn or sweet potatoes, for example).

Also for me it matters a lot when the produce is available. This year I had a CSA where pickup was on Sat. morning, so I could organize shopping around that-- but in the past sometimes I wouldn't know what I was getting until Monday which made it very difficult to do menu planning/grocery shopping on the weekend.

We did washington green grocer for a while too-- they are sort of halfway between Peapod and a CSA-- there's some ability to pick what you want, but it's also not necessarily local produce and in the end we gave that up too.

[Anonymous]

I have a love/hate relationship with my on-again, off-again CSA. Love it in theory and when I have time on my hands. Hate it when the box is 3/4 full of kale or vegetables that I'm not used to dealing with and I have no time. Under those circumstances, too much food goes to waste.

[Anonymous]

You might want to look into South Mountain Veggies. They are a CSA of a sort but you order every week. They send out an email every week with what they have and you decide what to order. They have "boxes" that you can customize and you can order extra produce if there is something you want. Also, they deliver to your door, which works way better for me than having to pick up produce at a central location.

Go to their website and you can see how they work.

[Anonymous]

I belonged to a CSA for years, but it was one where I had to go to a certain pickup spot to get my vegetables. Once they opened a farmer's market in my neighborhood I decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

[Anonymous]

Not for me. I prefer to pick my types quantities at the Farmers Markets. I did it for 2 years, just too much Kale. I do however have my own garden with pleanty of what I like...swiss chard, tomatoes, herbs, and beets.

[Anonymous]

This is our first year of belonging to one and we pick it up at at specific location.

I really enjoyed it at the peak of the season. We had a great variety of fruit and veggies and I was excited to come up with new ways to eat kale and eggplant. However, we are at the last two weeks of the veggie pick up and I couldn't be happier that it will be over soon. I cannot eat any more of eggplant, squash or greens.

[Anonymous]

I documented my summer & fall farm share with photos on my blog if you want to see what mine looked like...

http://www.babiesdesignfood.com/search/label/CSA%20Farm%20Share