My Annual Plea to Get You to Sign Up for a CSA
In these uncertain times, get your food from a small farm
I am a seasonal cook. I love treasuring ingredients for a brief period of time, soaking in the flavors of the season. When I’m sick of winter, I include a meal with herbs I’ve preserved from the summer in olive oil, or pull out some green beans in our freezer that just need a quick, hard sear to bring me right back to August. Last week I made a red pasta sauce with the last of the summer tomato puree. This week I’ll use red peppers, pickled jalapeños, onions and garlic from our CSA box in a chili. Then in a couple of months, I’ll start craving salads and rhubarb and early season radishes. My cravings and the seasons are aligned and I am so grateful for that.
There are so many reasons to get a CSA (community supported agriculture) box, many of which I wrote about in this post. Since the publishing of that newsletter in May of 2023, the world seems more unstable than ever. Food supply is in flux because of climate change and natural disasters, and policy decisions meant to keep profits high for big companies while depleting the land and farmers that provide all of us a basic need. I’ve been a CSA girlie for eight, maybe nine years now, and my cooking and preservation skills have only gotten better.
From my first CSA post:
A CSA is where you pay a local, small scale (i.e. not industrial) farm to get a box of produce for a set amount of time, usually the main growing season. Here in the Deep North that is usually from June to late September. Vegetable CSAs are most common but there are lots of other kinds - meat, dairy, herbs. Many farms offer boxes based on season too. We get the spring, summer, fall, and winter box from our CSA, and our farmer also offers add-on shares like a kimchi share, pesto share, salsa share, and tomato share if you want to preserve these foods for the year.
Before you get scared off by the cost (often due now or at the start of the season), let’s break it down.
For a summer share (17-18 weeks), it costs $830 for a full share at Shepherd Moon Farm. One full share can feed a family of four or two heavy veggie eaters according to the website. Either way, that works out to $48.82 for 17 weeks or $46.11 for 18 weeks.
Now let’s imagine that you preserve (dehydrate, freeze, can, etc.) half of the veg you get for later in the year, which is what we do. We can then double the amount of weeks that that share feeds us, more than half the year, for 34-36 weeks. When you take the cost of the summer share $830 and divide it by 34 weeks, that’s $24.41 a week for vegetables.
A little more than $20 per week for vegetables 65%-69% of the year seems like a steal to me honestly. Do I have to round out what we have by occasionally buying veggies from the store? Absolutely. I’ll never have enough alliums and I do need a Cobb Salad once every two months or my spirit will fade into nothing (hyperbole). But a few dollars for supplemental veg here and there is far preferred to the amount of money I’d spend at the store getting the same things I get in the CSA box.
Here are some of my favorite meals (plus one bountiful counter pic from an August of years past) I’ve made mostly from CSA ingredients for some inspo. These were taken in all seasons!
If you too are convinced and want to find a share that’s right for you, check out Shepherd Moon Farm if you’re in the Twin Cities, or you can find one near you using this directory.
With 2025 kicking off this way, I am relieved to know that our veggies are taken care of for half the year. Even if there are local environmental stressors or pests that reduce the bounty of a vegetable crop or two, I know that I’ll have lots of other things to eat every week for almost five months, and food that is preserved for the fall and winter to come.
In the summer of 2023, I wrote A LOT about our CSA and how I preserved and used the vegetables we got. Is this something you’d like me to return to?
Here’s to the flavors we crave, the foods that sustain us, and the farmers who make it possible!
Things I Like
Dan Pelosi’s Vodka Sawce is on constant rotation in our house, and it should be in yours too.
When you make chicken pot pie, throw canned biscuits on top instead of a pie crust before baking. Just brush on melted butter, chopped up herbs (fresh or dry), and some flaky salt. It’s my go-to.
I rarely drink anymore but on Monday I went to a happy hour with one of my oldest gal pals which just filled up my lil heart. I got my fave order at this particular restaurant: a dill & garlic infused vodka shot served with a pickle and a club soda with bitters. It always hits just right. I like having a signature order at a place that other people eventually like so much that they end up ordering it too.
This sandal in this colorway is one I’m considering for summer. Vionic, my trusty arch support shoe brand, has a couple great shoes that have colors matching the Audrey’s brand colors - an extra plus!
My husband and I are travelling in early April and I started my outfit board! Inspired by a dear friend of mine, I put photos of clothes I already have on a slide as my own DIY Pinterest board. This helps me plan the colors I want to wear, make sure that every piece can be mixed and matched no matter the weather, and ensures that I am not buying lots of new clothes for a trip. Here’s a snapshot of my headwear and a couple warmer layers:
May your week be gentle and may you eat well. 🌲🥣