My hubby & I are considering signing up for a community supported agriculture program* next year. We are not vegetarians, but we eat a lot of veggies, and eat veg-meals about 3x a week.

Does anyone have any advice about these programs? Do you find it hard to use the veggies? Did you have to search out recipes? Do you get enough? too much? How did you choose your CSA? Help, please!

____________________________ *For those not "in the know", a CSA, is a system in which you pay a farmer a fee (usually $400-$500) at the beginning of the growing season, and then for 5-6 months you receive a share of the harvest every week. You get fresh, in-season, (usually) organic produce. Yum.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Answers

My husband and I are in our 3rd year of belonging to a CSA, and really can't imagine life without it. The only downside is that when the season ends all the produce in the grocery store looks so awful by comparison we can't stand to eat it! With ours, you get about two big grocery bags of seasonal produce a week, and at first eating that many vegetables and a salad every day does take some getting used to. Our CSA here in CT did provide us with a cookbook and a "cheat sheet" for what greens were what, which helped a great deal- some stuff we'd never seen before, much less cooked with. Like you, we're not completely vegetarian either, but find that in the summer we're less inclined to cook meat dishes anyway so eating lighter and more vegetable centered meals is fine. Your fee sounds a little high though, but it may depend on what you get and whether you need to contribute some work to the farm or not. Ours is generally $300-330 for the season plus 1 or 2 half days of work (which is part of what I love about it, since I currently am in an apartment with no garden- sob). I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot if you decide to do it, feel free to e-mail me if I can offer any more specific info.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001