My very first “real” article for this blog was how to save money on produce. The article dealt heavily with the wonders of organic produce and CSAs (community supported agriculture). We signed up again this year, and, true to the nature of a CSA – you get what they grow – we haven’t received anything yet. Our weather has been cooler than normal and so the growing season has been delayed. The upside is we will be getting produce past Thanksgiving this year. Apparently farmers can tell? They are guaranteeing us at least 22 weeks (last year we received 25 or 26 week, my memory is spotty) and we paid $290 this year so a little over $13 a week for organic produce.
Not bad.
Another development is that the overall membership has exploded, our location in particular has too many members. Our drop-off point is a local health food store. I can honestly say we take over their cooler every Saturday. With the addition of a number of families to our drop off point they’ve had to form other branches and requested people move if they can. So far twenty families volunteered for other locations. I just looked at the website and our drop off point now says **AT CAPACITY. NOT ACCEPTING NEW MEMBERS AT THIS TIME so I guess the word has spread! Last year we picked up for 60 families at the start of the season, and at the end of the season we were up over 80. I’m guessing our location must have been close to 100 and that was why they were looking for other sites. Since they have 28 drop offs locations plus farm pick-up, and room for 600 families, it looks like our location must be the largest drop-off.
I time my pick-ups with good coupon weeks so I can buy Albany papers (faaaaar better inserts than we get) and cheap early-bird papers. The early bird papers do not have as many coupons as we receive, but at $1 per paper it is a good value.
Do any of you belong to a CSA? Do you feel it is worthwhile? I know our CSA is downright cheap compared to others I have seen. If you do belong, I hope you enjoy the produce as much as we do? If you do not belong, look into it. I still feel it is a great way to save money. We haven’t eaten all the vegetables we froze last year. I think we better get to that!
