海角大神

A community supported agriculture group is one in which members of a community can buy 鈥渟hares鈥� in a local farm. Those shares pay out in the form of a box of vegetables and, depending on the CSA, other items such as milk and eggs.

I鈥檒l give you an example of a CSA in our area so that it becomes more clear. At the start of it, you pay $300 to buy a 鈥渟hare.鈥� Then, for the next twenty weeks, you go to a pickup point on Tuesday afternoon and pick up your 鈥渄ividend,鈥� which is a box of vegetables.

The content of that box varies depending on what鈥檚 in season, but it usually has ten to twenty pounds of vegetables in it. (If you joined one of the 鈥渙ptions鈥� with the CSA, you might have eggs or milk or certain fruits in the box as well.)

So, over the course of twenty weeks, you end up with somewhere in the ballpark of 300 pounds of vegetables 鈥� in other words, about a dollar a pound. These are fresh vegetables, which means they鈥檙e going to usually be more flavorful than what you find in your local grocery store for a much higher price.

My experience with a CSA is that it can be a聽tremendous聽food bargain 鈥� with a few caveats.

First of all,聽you鈥檝e got to be able and willing to deal with a large input of vegetables each week.聽Many of your meals are going to need a heavy vegetable component for you to be able to get through the vegetables you鈥檙e going to get.

This means a lot of making meals from scratch at home. If you鈥檙e willing to do that, then a CSA will provide you with a wonderful bargain. If you mostly eat out or eat prepackaged meals, then you鈥檒l either have to change your habits or you鈥檒l find a lot of the CSA share going to waste.

厂别肠辞苍诲,听you鈥檙e going to have to be comfortable dealing with a variety of vegetables.聽You鈥檒l get different stuff every week, and you鈥檒l have to figure out how to use it and prepare it in something your family will enjoy.

If your family is full of adventurous eaters, this isn鈥檛 a problem. For the most part, our family is extremely adventurous with our meals. We have a four year old who likes quinoa, after all.

罢丑颈谤诲,听you鈥檙e going to have to adopt a routine of picking up the share.聽If you forget, then you lose money. If you can鈥檛 make it this week, then you lose money. Do that more than two or three times and the savings benefit of a CSA begins to disappear.

One tactic that helps with all of these issues is聽sharing a CSA with a friend or a neighbor.聽Split the cost of the CSA, then split the goods in an even fashion. You can either split up each week鈥檚 share or else alternate weeks.

If you鈥檇 like to find a CSA in your area, start at聽http://www.localharvest.org/csa/.

CSAs are a great way to get lots of fresh vegetables into your home at a very low cost. If you鈥檙e able to put up the initial investment and can handle the vegetables, it can be a real bargain.

This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available聽at Amazon聽and at bookstores everywhere