CSA

Have you checked out the website? You should find out most of the answers to your questions there.

I think that the cost has still yet to be determined for the upcoming season. Last year, there was a sliding scale based on income - I think that it's going to be flat this year.

***Full disclosure - I worked with the CSA planning committee for a short time last year, and my wife is working with them this year. That being said, there's nothing in it for us financially***

Well, I think that a big part of whether or not it's worth it is the veggies per $, which is still to be determined. Even then, someone else's pocketbook is not your pocketbook, so your sense of value may be different.

Last year, most paid more than what the flat rate would have been to help subsidize shares for those with lower income. Because of that, some didn't feel that it was the greatest value.

We (my wife and I) did all of the shares - veggies, fruit, eggs and flowers. We eat a lot of veggies (wife is a vegetarian and I... just eat a lot), and the share took care of 80%+ of out veggie intake for the week - sometimes the leafy greens ran out a couple days early. Also, you'll get some stuff that you may not know what to do with, so be prepared to look for recipes or cooking suggestions (a flier is handed out each week with some suggestion, but you can always find more online). Some people liked this aspect, some didn't.

We liked the fruit share a lot - it's a little light in the spring, but takes off in the summer and fall - lots of cherries, peaches, apples, plums, apricots. We made a few apple pies in the fall because we had more than we could eat otherwise.

The eggs were great - it was disappointing to go back to store-bought eggs when the season ended, but I'm a big breakfast person, YMMV.

Flowers. My wife loved 'em. A lot of people were disappointed that they didn't opt for the flower share when they saw the flowers being handed out each week.

For us, the most challenging aspect was simply the pick-up - we both had busy schedules and it was sometimes a chore to get down there before they packed up. We had to send friends a couple of times (we just gave them some of our share and they were happy with it).

If you're thinking about it from strictly a dollars and sense standpoint, hopefully the above will help you gauge a little. If you're at all in to the social aspects (community, supporting local farmers and sustainable farming methods), then I think that it's a no-brainer.

Yeah, we do go there once in a while, off-(CSA)season - they're quite good, but I always seem to show when they only have the tiny ones available. Guess I need to get up there earlier...

My woman and I did the share last year and will not be doing it again this year. As far as the financial aspect, that was really the last of our concerns. This is not to say that we dont have financial concerns, we very much do, but I think it could turn out to be more or less expensive depending on how you shop and how you eat.

Our attraction to the CSA was the idea of supporting the farm and enjoying a sense of community with our food source and our neighbors. We found that the CSA provided neither--we felt a much closer connection to those farmers at the Greenmarket at GAP whom we would see and chat with week after week. Farmer Ted we only saw glimpses of on a couple of occasions and never really interacted with. As for the neighbors, the CSA attracts a very limited group of people and they are all wonderful people but it does not attract the kind of diverse cross-sectino of the neighborhood that the Greenmarket does.

In terms of the food, it was all of impecable quality and freshness but nowhere near enough for us (two average-sized-eating vegetarians). We were entirely comfortable with getting unfamiliar food and living with the inconsistencies of real food growing but eventually the haul from the CSA felt more like quaint experimenting in food rather than having the necessities for feeding ourselves. Except when it came to apples...oh my! were there ever apples!!!

Ultimately, I would say that the CSA is great for people who do not have an amazing Greenmarket (with far more accomodating hours) available every week but, if you do have that, it is difficult to argue for committing to the CSA.

About the size of the share and therefore also the value of how much you get for your money, in fairness, remember all the news last year about flooding upstate? Apparently it was the worst for NY state farming in the past decade or so. Part of joining a CSA is that you share in both the bounty and the non-bounty so if you are looking at the amount that people received last year, that would likely be the minimum.
Also, I think prices are up on the website now.

i took photos of the first 9 weeks before i petered out. judge for yourself on what you think of the amt of food..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15806180@N00/sets/72157600785834662/

The need to commit to being somewhere once a week at the same time to to the pick up has always kept me from joining a CSA.

Not sure what can be done about that. It probably just means that CSAs are not for me--better stick with the Greenmarket. At least if I miss a week I'm not out the $$$.

"The need to commit to being somewhere once a week at the same time to to the pick up has always kept me from joining a CSA. "

this is a very good point. i basically had to reschedule my entire social schedule since pickups were on thurs between 4 and 7:30. and the closer to 7:30 you got, the less pickings/choice you had.

plus thurs are a great night to go out after work in the city, so that made it even worse.

the wife may have picked it up once...:(