CSA vs Farmers market
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Anonymous
| How does the pricing/quality compare for a family of 3 (2 adults, 1 kid)? |
Anonymous
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A lot of the CSAs are sold out. Which one are you looking at?
This is my year with a CSA. The quality is amazing. The variety is solely dependent on the weather, and you don't have a choice of what you get each week. I made a thread yesterday about using up lettuces and greens -- it can be challenging when there is not a lot of variety. If you don't LOVE to cook, the farmer's market is probably better for you, because you can pick and choose your products and quantities. I find even with a half-share we are struggling to get through everything, and we cook a lot and are big eaters. |
Anonymous
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*meant to say my FIRST year.
Also, Relay Foods has something similar to a CSA, but with no membership obligation: http://www.relayfoods.com/Catalog?cityId=CHO&query=vendorId%3ARFC&sku=ABC123&name=local-tasting-box-late-spring |
Anonymous
| CSAs are great to support local farmers, since they help offset some of the large up front costs. However, even though it probably costs a little more, I love the farmers market as an activity, and love that we can buy however much of what we want, and from a variety of stands. |
Anonymous
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It really depends on the year, as well as your willingness to cook around what you get.
We had CSA shares when there was drought and unseasonable rain and in both cases it probably would have been cheaper to buy at the farmers market. On the other hand, when the weather cooperates, the CSA was cheaper, except that we did get a lot of vegetables we would not have bought otherwise, some of which we used and some we didn't. |
Anonymous
| CSA is usually cheaper, but it you travel or take vacations you'll end up subsidizing weeks that you can't use, so that balances out the cost. |
Anonymous
| We did a CSA for three years and I hated it... bad weather, pests, and drought all led to subpar yields and I felt that the quality of the produce was not very good (bugs, overripe tomatoes, etc.). Our CSA cost about $20/week and I was spending an additional $20+/week at the farmer's market to supplement our share. When our neighborhood got a really nice Saturday morning farmer's market, my husband and I decided to quit the CSA and set a farmer's market budget. Now, I give myself $40/week to spend at the farmer's market - at the beginning and end of the season I spent about half of that , including on bread, eggs, and sometimes butter, but it is a pretty good budget. |
Anonymous
| Depends on the CSA. They can vary in price quite a bit. I have price-shopped shares for the Bethesda/Silver Spring area and ours is pretty cheap compared to what you could pay (and it's organic). Spiralpathfarm.com. Also, I don't have the patience to deal with the lines, chaos and fetishism at the markets. With a share it's grab and go. |
Anonymous
| We did a year with one of the area's biggest CSAs. We discontinued because we had not received one delivery that was pest-free (or even "pest-lite"). I expected some of that, but it was much worse than I expected. Very wormy. The variety was also lacking at certain times; the greens in those early spring deliveries got a bit tiresome. I much prefer to go to farmers' markets and choose what I need while avoiding anything excessively infested. |
Anonymous
We have bought shares from neighbors who were going on vacation. It was great. They didn't end up losing any money, there was lots of demand. |
Anonymous
How do you get all your vegetables for $20?? |
Anonymous
|
I prefer a CSA because I'm cheap. I can suck it up and pay a big amount at the beginning of the season but if I have $40 in my wallet I don't necessarily spend it all at the farmers market and i end up buying stuff at the supermarket. It doesn't make sense but it's the way my brain is wired.
I also like experimenting with new veggies and have discovered a couple of great ones that I otherwise would never have tried. But, either way, you can't go wrong! |
Anonymous
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We found that our CSA made us eat more vegetables. They were already there, in generous quantities, fresh and delicious. We had some waste, mainly when DH had work travel, but on the whole really enjoyed it. On weeks we weren't able to pick up the share, we could donate it to the food bank (CSA was already making donations and just added another box).
When I was pregnant and our first summer with an infant, we weren't always up and going to get to the farmers market on a Saturday morning, but our evening CSA pick-up worked fine. This summer we're moving, and I can't wait to be back with a CSA next year! |
Anonymous
| What is a CSA???? |
Anonymous
| Community supported agriculture |