Two years ago, H and I decided to sign up for a CSA. We had some friends that had gotten one from the same farm and enjoyed it, so we signed up for 26 weekly deliveries of fruit. Initially I was disappointed by what we got because of some late spring/early summer hail ruined the fruit crop I was expecting, but as the summer wore on I was happy with our purchase. There was even a time where we got 15+ lbs of pears in one week.
Last year, we decided that we’d up our purchases from the farm share, and got vegetable shares in addition to fruit shares. The veggie shares were OK. We got lots of great stuff that we used frequently, and we got some stuff that really became a challenge to use. H cooked a lot of squash breads, and I made a lot of grilled beets. All in all, I was happy with it for the most part, but I wished there was a better way to get what I actually wanted for my veggies. The fruit this year was less productive than I remember it the year before, but we were also gone for about 4 deliveries because of our wedding and the honeymoon. I wasnt totally sold on the veggies again, but could have been convinced and was willing to do the fruit again.
Unfortunately, I wont even get the option. About a month ago, we got an email from our farm saying that they were going into chapter 7. Right now, the whole thing is a huge mess, with no one really knowing exactly whats going on (or so it seems). It’s unfortunate for the community, because the csa portion of the farm was enjoyed by a lot of H and I’s friends and neighbors.
What this does mean though, is that we are in for another decision. Should we sign up for a CSA again, and if so, to what extent. One of the first questions about this is where are we going to find another csa? H said that some people she worked with belonged to another in the area, so we may head that direction.
We were thinking about doing a type of CSA this year, but we’ll be moving out of the state this summer and we didn’t want to buy in to something when we didn’t know how long we’d be around to use it. We’ll look into it once we arrive in our new hometown.