Community Supported Agriculture – Vote with Your Dollars

I thought I would take a moment to share my first experience with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).  I am a serious foodie and I really enjoy working with high quality fresh produce.  After several frustrating experiences both at the meat counter and produce section of my local grocery store and reading about how farmers were not getting good prices for their product I started looking for a new source of food.  I wanted to get the best value for my dollar and at the same time reward someone for giving me a good product. 

I did some research and found the Whipple Tree CSA run by Stewart Fotheringham and Nicole Burkhard.  I paid in two installments of $230 before the season started and in return I got 18 weeks of amazing produce.  I tried things I had never had before, and also the product that was familiar was far and away the best I have had in years.  Steward and Nicole too the time to describe the product, helped with recipe ideas and gave us a nutritional breakdown of the food included each week.  I enjoyed the widest variety of vegetables I have ever had and as a result ate more veg than ever.  I found the product lasted longer, reducing waste and I looked forward to getting my next bag of goodies.

I am totally hooked.  By this time next year I will have a 52 week CSA share for fruit and vegetables.  If you are wondering about price it works out to around $40 a week for fruit and vegetables together including delivery.  You purchase the shares in advance and can do so in anywhere from 2 to 4 payments.  This puts cash in the hands of the farmer, high quality food on your table and from an environmental standpoint saves mile and miles of transportation impact.  It is an all around win-win situation. 

If you are in Nova Scotia I encourage you to look at the following links that are CSA’s that my friends and I have participated in:

Wipple Tree CSA: http://www.wtreecsa.blogspot.com/

Taproot Farms: http://www.taprootfarms.ca/

Noggins Farms: http://www.nogginsfarm.ca/

These are just a few examples, Google away, look for CSA’s in your area.  Talk to the farmers and find someone that is right for you and your family and then enjoy some amazing food.  I will be doing features on local suppliers in my area and the tools I have used to find them.  I would encourage you all to skip the middle man and find people who will put the best of their farm on your table.