How to Know if CSA is Right For You

1. You cook at home more often than not (or you’re trying to cook more).

It’s important to be honest with yourself about whether you like to cook, have the time to cook, or whether your household is placing orders from restaurants most days of the week. Taking home a basket of fresh vegetables might feel like striking gold to someone who cooks often, or daunting for someone who only cooks on occasion.

• If you already cook most of your meals at home, you’ve got a great routine established that will help facilitate your CSA journey. CSA is an excellent fit for you.
• If you cook some, but not all, of your meals at home, CSA may still be a good fit for you! Consider incorporating your entire share into a big meal prep session you and your family perform once a week. To make short work of it, get your whole household in on the process.

2. You like trying new recipes and new foods.

If you’ve never had a garden, or didn’t grow up on a farm, eating seasonally might be new to you. It might look like this: You’re logging on to customize your CSA and see a few fruits or vegetables that you don’t recognize. Or you do recognize them, but have never prepared those plants yourself before.

• If you like trying new things in the kitchen, you’ll likely see this as an opportunity to discover flavors and techniques you’ll end up loving that you may have never tried otherwise. CSA would be a great fit for you. We make sure to send you recipes in each share that use in-season ingredients.
• If you like the idea of eating seasonally, but you’re a part of a household that doesn’t feel the need to eat outside of its established favorites, you can still enjoy CSA. Like most farms, we grow the old standbys: Potatoes, garlic, herbs, and carrots are here for most of the year. Leafy greens are grown year-round. Berries and asparagus are exciting in the spring. Tomatoes, green beans, peppers, and onions are bountiful in the summer.

3. You’re in town for most of the season.

This is purely a logistics matter: If you’re out of town for weeks or months on end, accessing your share every week becomes difficult, if not impossible.

• If you’re home for the majority of the season, you’re well suited for a CSA. You’ll be present to pick up and make good use of your share.
• This doesn’t mean you can’t travel! You have the option to put your share on hold if you’re going on a vacation or work trip, and then you can apply the credit to other things later in the season so you don’t lose out. You’ll automatically resume your weekly shares when you get back!

4. You eat healthy, wholesome food (or want to eat more of it).

CSA is an excellent motivator for eating more fruits and vegetables. Filling your fridge and pantry with them will put healthy options front and center when looking through your kitchen for something to eat.

• If you already eat a lot of whole foods, CSA is a great way to maintain that diet. You’re a great fit.
• If you don’t eat a ton of whole foods, but are looking for ways to incorporate more of them into your diet, a CSA is a wonderful, interactive way to accomplish that. A week’s worth of produce automatically sent your way will keep whole foods top of mind and maybe even get you excited to create the next meal.

5. You value quality, freshness, and flavor.

The time between harvest to mealtime is what dictates how nutritious and flavorful a fruit or vegetable is. The average produce item in the US travels 1,500 miles before it arrives in a grocery store. For comparison, the Elmwood CSA area puts our farthest delivery at about 70 miles, with most being way much closer. We set a harvest up for distribution as soon as it comes in from the field.

Our CSA foodies often remark to us that the flavor is so much better than what they can find at the grocery.

• If flavor and/or nutrition is highly important to you, it’s harder to get fresher food, short of growing it yourself, than through a CSA subscription. If this sounds like you, you’re a great fit.

6. You want to support small farms.

Buying from any small business is a great way to support that business. But small direct-to-consumer farms like Elmwood find their best support through CSA subscribers who commit well before the season even starts – before we’ve truly ramped up preparations for that season’s production. Investing in us, the farmers, is investing in and strengthening the growing season.

• If you have a mind to buy local, support your regional economy, and strengthen the food system of your community, then a CSA subscription is an excellent way for you to act on those values.
• You may also be seeking a connection to the people who grow your food. Elmwood offers lots of opportunities for you to meet the farmers, either by stopping by for a tour, meeting us at farmer’s market to pick up your share, or corresponding with us over email. We really value the chance to speak to you about your experience and hear directly what matters to you. If this sounds like you, we might be a match.