Support your local CSA

It's spring, early spring here in Colorado, with the buds swelling on the trees. My apricot trees, which bloomed on March 15 last year (and promptly froze), haven't quite popped yet. Every day I tell them: "Wait...Wait...".

But it IS time to pop for your CSA share. CSAs are really the most convenient way to assure yourself of a bounty of fresh local vegetables all season. You may not need one if you keep a large garden with a wide selection of veggies. Or you can choose to grow those vegetables you Really love and which produce the best for you, and let the CSA provide the rest of them.

For readers in the Fort Collins/Loveland area, Happy Heart and Monroe (Greeley) have already sold out. Cresset Farm still has shares, though they're moving quickly. I've been volunteering with Cresset for years now, and enjoying their wonderful biodynamically grown vegetables.

Other nearby CSAs I know of that still have shares are Abbondanza (near Longmont) and Grants Farm (near Wellington).

For everyone: you can find a CSA near you by searching in Local Harvest. Local Harvest is a wonderful resource for finding all kinds of local foods, no matter where in the U.S. you live.

Warning: getting a CSA membership may cause you to improve the quality of your diet. You may find yourself eating more vegetables, more salads, and more soups. You may need to go to your cookbooks to find recipes for that bounty of cucumbers, or green beans, or kohlrabi (what?).

There's something marvelous about paying once at the beginning of the season, and getting "free" vegetables each week. The check has cleared, and it feels kinda like those boxes or bags each week are a gift, which of course they are: a gift for you from the bounteous Earth.

It's a different experience than going to the Farmer's Market and paying for every pound or item that you buy. You can say, oh well I really don't need that head of lettuce; maybe I won't use it. When it's in your CSA bag, you'll use it, or lose it. Or give it away, or feed it to your chickens. And that'll be good for you, or your friend, or your chickens. It's a little extra push to eat those health-giving fresh vegetables.

For small families or single people, you can get a half-share from some CSAs (though it may still be big), or you can split the share with a friend, neighbor, or relative. That has the additional benefit of providing someone else to pick up your share if you're out of town.

Many CSAs offer barter shares, where you work in exchange for your vegetable shares. Cresset Farm offers barter shares at the equivalent rate of 4 hours work per weekly pickup, and many others do something similar. People who do barter shares generally enjoy the experience, working with other like-minded people, harvesting or weeding, or a variety of other jobs, some of them desk jobs like mine (I do the bookkeeping for the veggie shares for Cresset.)
If you have a skill that the farmers would benefit from, you can offer it. Artist, carpenter, massage therapist, baker, landscaper, small engine repair, bookkeeper, etc. etc.

Anyway, it's time to get that CSA share booked. Over the last few years, CSAs are selling out earlier each year, due to the overwhelming interest in local, fresh, organic food. So don't be one of those people I have to tell sadly, "we're sold out this year".