Are CSA shares cost-effective?

[Anonymous]

I'm tempted to do a CSA this year, but am having trouble figuring out what the cost difference is vs. buying seasonal produce at the grocery store. We're a family of four and eat almost all our meals at home, cooking from scratch. I use whatever's seasonal/on sale, so I'm not doing gazpacho in April or watermelon in January, nor am I wed to the same six vegetables all year round. I'm not averse to paying a bit more for things that are local, farmed responsibly and actually have a real person's work behind them. But I'm also not willing to pay a superpremium for what I think of as the "farmer's market halo" -- that crazy hypnosis that makes it seem perfectly normal to pay $11/lb. for tomatoes.

If you've done a CSA in the past, have you been satisfied with the value received for the money? Would you recommend your CSA this year?

[Anonymous]

IME, if you were going to shop at the farmers market and buy (or at least use) those veggies, then yes it is. In general I would say it's not, but I sort of treat some of it in my head as a contribution to the farmer so I think it really depends on how much of a premium you are willing to pay.

[Anonymous]

It is if you totally enter into the spirit of the thing: you stick to what is in your box, and don't buy other veggies in addition. If in addition to your box of veggies you are running out to get some cucumbers and some herbs for a recipe you want to make...that makes it expensive. But if you really just use the CSA box for all your veggie needs, planning meals around what you have (rather than around what your cookbooks say) I think it is very cost effective.

[Anonymous]

I think we paid a premium when we did the a CSA. We also worked very hard to have no waste - really used everything we got. This was part of the fun of it actually, but not everyone feels that way. It helped that our CSA would give us a heads up a couple of days in advance about what was coming so we could think about menus.

The vegs were definitely way better than the grocery store. I think if you frequent a farmers market you can probably do about as well although would be less likely to buy stuff like swiss chard (which it turns out I really liked but never would have bought).

We end up being away too much in the summer so stopped doing the CSA and are doing farmers markets instead, but I don't always get there so I miss the discipline of the CSA.

[Anonymous]

Maybe. I calculated that the CSA was less expensive than what we spent at the farmer's market each week. And on one hand, it was a great deal because sometimes we'd get really unusual items that would have been pretty costly if we had to pay per pound. On the other hand, we did end up giving away much food (partly because we should have gotten the 1/2 share, partly because we'd be overrun with one type of food for several weeks).

[Anonymous]

PP here. My other criticism of the CSA is that we didn't get enough of certain things that we love to eat all summer - tomatoes and corn, for example.

[Anonymous]

PP, this is the thing with the CSA - you enter into the farmer's risk with the farmer. So if there is a ton of corn, you get a ton of corn. If the corn fails...no corn for you. So if you are someone who wants what you want when you want it, and you would be bummed out by, say, four weeks of non-stop peppers and not enough tomatoes, you really should go to the farmers market and buy what you need. It still supports the farmers, just in a different way. The reason it can be cost effective is that you accept the risk and also give up control of how much corn you eat, to some extent. If you can do that, it makes financial sense.

[Anonymous]

I know it wouldn't be worth it for me, tempted though I am by the idea. I already waste too much grocery store/ farmers market produce, and that's me buying what I think I want! Just don't get around to preparing it. If I had a box half-full of chard and kale, I'd be throwing cash in the trash every week.

I've looked into those CSAs where you choose what you want more or less of, but I'm just not organized enough. Perhaps if I'm still unemployed and have time on my hands this summer, I'll give it a go. I think that as my child gets older and can appreciate the fact of fresh-from-the-farmer food, that might help.

[Anonymous]

It does depend a lot on when your pickup is. I found one with a pickup at a farmers market on Sat. morning and that was great because 1) I knew what I was getting before I did shopping/menu planning for the week; and 2) I could decide whether to buy something that wasn't in my box.

We had another CSA that would email us on Monday what was in the box, and we would get it on Weds., but that meant I had to guess when I went shopping on Sunday what would be in next week's box and inevitably if I expected corn there wouldn't be any, and vice-versa.

[Anonymous]

Reviving this tread bc I'm thinking of joining a CSA. It's $450 for 15 weeks (so, $30/week). It's one that you can select your own produce, to some degree, each week. I live in VA about 1.5 hours from DC, and it's harder to get organic produce (especially in grocery stores). We just bought a juicer, and I think we really could stick to what we got. So, my question is, do you think spending $30/week on produce is more than you would pay at grocery stores (including Trader Joe's, which we go into about once/month) for organic food?

[Anonymous]

Your CSA is a bit more expensive than some - mine is about $25/week, and $30/week is probably more than I spend on veggies now. But if you shift how you eat, too, and really base your meals around what is in your box it can make financial sense. I don't think it is a money saver, though. But if it helps you eat well (it helps my family eat well, for sure) then it is money well spent.

[Anonymous]

Last year we paid $29/month + $10 for fruit.

We had a full share and were very excited to try new recipes and cook with vegetables that normally I would not pick up at the store.

cost effective? probably not, but like the PP said it helps you eat well.

[Anonymous]

We use Bending Bridge Farm -- which allows you to pick what you want.

[Anonymous]

The bending Bridge seems extremely flexible. I might try that one. Also, you can start with $250 minimum. Are you happy with the produce? I saw bad reviews for Bull Run Mountain, which would be the most convenient but I did see a lot of bok choi being handed out...

[Anonymous]

We got ours on a Tuesday night, which was not good because I tend to do most of my cooking on the weekends. That, plus the fact that the produce was super-dirty and time-consuming to wash (which we should have expected but somehow didn't) meant we often didn't use it in time. Well, also the fact that I grew more tomatoes, zucchini, etc than we could handle as it was, so I wound up taking those CSA items into the office and distributing them. For us it wasn't cost-effective because we just didn't use it appropriately. We are much more of a "buy some greens and have a quick salad or saute" family than a "let's see what's here and what I can do with it at 9 pm on a weeknight" family. So we are not doing CSA again. If you can use it all, though, then it could be a lot of fun.