Well, after a solid year of being a member of the Beneficial Farms CSA, we have decided to place our shares on “hold”, which essentially means that we’re cancelling it. We debated about this a lot over the last few months and ultimately decided that it is just time.
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| One of our CSA shares |
Why? Well, here are our reasons:
~ We became members of the CSA to save money on local, organic produce and haven’t been saving money. Our CSA sources from a variety of local(ish) farms. This winds up giving us variety in the form of a bunch of random items. We then find ourselves needing to purchase other items in order to make complete meals/pull it all together. Maybe if we were more experienced in eating and cooking such a mish-mash of foods this would be OK 🙂 By the way, I say local(ish) because we have seen things brought in from Texas and Colorado, and while those states are next door neighbors, I wouldn’t really call them “local”.
~ We are growing our own veggies. While we still have lots to learn, the goal is to, ultimately grow most of our produce. At the height of the season, we were growing the same items as our CSA was providing, which meant too much food to consume at once, with too little time to preserve it all (our summers at work are very, very busy). Our chickens were eating better than we were and again, we weren’t saving any money.
~ As we learned more about the produce we were getting, we learned that it isn’t all organic. Now, we understand that the actual label “organic” isn’t the point (and is very expensive to acquire), however, I really find value in knowing exactly what is going into our food. In growing our own produce, I know exactly what is going into every bit of spinach, tomato and butternut squash.
~ We are waiting on 1/4 of a cow to be delivered to us any day now. With that much beef coming in the door, we won’t be needing a pound of ground beef each week. At least not for a very long time.
Now, do I still support CSAs? Absolutely! I think they are super important, can be a great resource for a lot of people and support local farmers in invaluable ways. Local Harvest is a wonderful resource if you are looking at joining one in your area.
Do I have a little guilt by pulling out of our CSA? Yep. We’re actually a little sad about it and battled the feeling of letting the CSA down. But, in the end it was time to find the balance between what is best for our family vs. how to contribute to something a little bigger than ourselves.
So, what happens if/when we can’t grow all of the produce we need to feed ourselves? We have decided to make a weekly (or bi-weekly) trip to the Farmer’s Market with a set budget, in cash. This way we won’t spend too much, we can contribute to our local (really local) farmers and we can ask direct questions about the food we’re looking at consuming.
that sounds like a sensible decision for you guys, don’t feel guilty! xx
Liz – Thanks for sharing your experience! I love the idea of a CSA, just not in this incarnation 😉
Astra – Thanks for your perspective!
Hope you two are having a happy weekend!!!
Its interesting – when I lived in the UK we had a weekly organic box delivered which actually worked out really well for us. It meant that I actually tried cooking some different things as well as giving us local (although they did source some from Italy which aint that local to London) organic produce. One great feature though was that you could see what you were getting each week on the internet and then opt out of any products you didn’t want and they would send a subsitute you did need. Very useful to avoid zuccchini gluts etc. Here in Oz I don’t use one as the system is more like your CSA system and like you I grow too much to make it worthwhile, so I definitely understand your decision. I think its always difficult trying to balance a political decision against a rational one against an economic one and so on.
Kelly – Hiya Friend! I’m glad to hear that you’ve made a similar decision. We really debated on it, but I really think it’s best 🙂
Jenni – Thank you for your perspective and words of encouragement! I appreciate hearing your thoughts 🙂
From what you’ve described, you have spent a lot of time and thought into this decision and from the looks of you side bar w/home grown produce totals..I think you’ve made the right choice. I can’t imagine a better goal than to continue to put your efforts and cash into your own garden. Plus, that way you also grow what you and your family will eat 🙂
I cancelled my CSA too, and have similar feelings. Granted, I don’t grow my own veggies, but I found it more economical to shop at the local farmer’s market for the things I actually needed and knew I’d eat rather than having to go buy things to supplement the CSA randomness.