Posts Tagged: CSA

Subscribing to vegetables adds diversity to the menu

For some families, acquiring to a "community supported agriculture" membership gets children more interested in vegetables, reported Debbie Carlson in the Chicago Tribune this week.

"We've heard some people say when the box gets delivered, it's almost like Christmas. The kids unpack it and they get very excited," Ryan Galt, professor in the Department of Human and Community Development at UC Davis.

But subscribers should understand being a member of a CSA is not the same as going to the grocery store for their produce. Some suggestions from the experts:

• Be aware there's more growing on vegetable farms than just carrots and potatoes
• Be willing to take risks in the kitchen
• Take time to research recipes and to cook
• Because some farmers need up-front money to start the season, you may have to pay a substantial sum before receiving produce
• Food is provided strictly in season for the farm, so don't expect asparagus in September

Galt said it's also worth asking how the farm is doing financially for committing to the CSA.

"It's hard to ask because it's not a normal conversation topic in the U.S.," he said, adding that the point of CSAs in the beginning was the community figuring out how to help small farmers survive. "Farming is extremely difficult on all ends."

Larger CSAs are typically diversified businesses

A community support agriculture farm (CSA) with a large customer base generally makes a large part of its income selling through more traditional channels, reported Grace Hood on the NPR program The Salt: What's on Your Plate.

The reporter included a comment in the story from Ryan Galt, professor in the Department of Human and Community Development at UC Davis. Galt conducted a study of CSAs in the Central Valley

"Very often the larger farms [with CSAs] actually have a smaller percent of their sales from CSAs," because they have other, bigger points of sales, Galt said. "They're more likely to rely on a huge number of different outlets: farmers markets, CSAs, direct to restaurant, direct to retail and also wholesale."

The story related the tale of Grant Farms in northern Colorado, a CSA with 5,000 clients that went bankrupt in 2012.

"The problem with our farm was not its size," said farmer/owner Andy Grant. "In fact, within the farm, the CSA was probably one of the most dynamically well run, profitable things we did." (The story didn't give the reason for the failure of the enterprise.)

A typical CSA box.

UC's Small Farm Center director comments on CSAs

The director of the UC Small Farm Center, Shermain Hardesty, said there are a number of hurdles California small-scale farmers must overcome to compete in state's highly industrialized food production and distribution system, according to a recent Bakersfield Californian news story. The article, written by Jeff Nactigal, centered on Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, a system in which consumers pay a monthly subscription and receive a weekly supply of produce, typically organically grown.

Featured farmer Vernon Peterson started his CSA 10 months ago with 50 subscribers and now delivers more than 1,000 boxes of organic produce to 20 cities between Tulare and Simi Valley.

“There’s growing interest in local foods. So he’s taking advantage of the locally produced, and the identity about who’s produced what in the box,” Hardesty was quoted in the article.

She noted that marketing, developing a customer base, offering a steady variety of products and maintaining a customer-service mentality are important elements of a successful CSA.

The article also cited information from "Riding the Organic Wave," by UC Davis Cooperative Extension agricultural economist Karen Klonsky. The publication says organic sales in California are growing at double-digit rates while the number of growers has stayed the same.

Don't miss the video produced by the reporter himself, which is available on the same page as the story, to the left of the text.

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