How can I afford a CSA share?
CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions) carry the misconception of being expensive because the entire season is paid upfront. However, with a little saving up, they don’t have to break the bank, and they often end up providing greater value over the season than the initial cost.
Let’s take a look at how a CSA box can fit in the budget.
A small CSA box (5-6 items every week) for the 2024 season (20 weeks: June through mid-October) is $450.
Start now and save up $16 a week in order to put down the $100 deposit by the end of the year. This reserves your spot in the CSA.
Then plan to set aside $27 a week in order to pay the remaining cost by April 1st. You’re all paid up!
Then what? Starting with strawberries in June, and running clear through sweet potatoes in October, you’ll get a box of the freshest produce every week for 20 weeks without paying any more money all season! In a good year, you’ll even end up with more produce than the box was valued at (last year, our CSA members received $125 MORE product throughout the season than they paid for)!
A little saving up in the beginning can result in a lot of saving in the end! Find out more about the CSA here.
This post was originally published in November 2021, and has been updated.
Sometimes everything goes wrong...
On Wednesday I saw this picture on Facebook and sent it to a fellow vegetable farmer who would understand the frantic pace of July on the farm—needing to dig the potatoes (except it just rained again), needing to plant the fall crops (but it’s a billion degrees and the transplants will fry), needing to get the weeds under control (because some of them are taller than me)…
Little did I know how accurately this picture would portray me less than 24 hours later.
Thursdays are Beatrice Farmers Market days, which means I generally spend the morning and early afternoon rushing around trying to get everything harvested, washed, and packed. I woke up Thursday morning ready to take on the day, only to discover that I had left the irrigation on in the high tunnel. Overnight. For FOURTEEN HOURS. And I was wearing a boot with a hole. I was afraid I would have to harvest with a canoe. Fortunately, drip irrigation is a method of water conservation, and the harvest was manageable with only a change of boots and not a watercraft.
Speaking of water, harvest was going well and it was nearing lunchtime. I was harvesting the salad turnips as it started to rain. That’s a good incentive to hurry up and finish up. I hauled the turnips up to the barn and got them washed and packed into a harvest tote. And…that’s the last I can recall about the turnips. When I came back out after lunch to start loading up for market, I could not find the tote of turnips. ANYWHERE. I looked in the barn. I looked around the barn. I looked in the walk-in cooler. I looked in every tote in the cooler. Somehow an entire tote of turnips had vaporized. The search made me late to leave for market.
Leaving late was not ideal as a sweet old lady had cajoled me into dropping off some rhubarb for her on the way to market. Except that I had never been to her house, and was now running late and searching for a mystery house. As I turned off the highway (which, thanks to just being resurfaced, was a HUGE drop off), my entire tray of nicely boxed slicing tomatoes bounced off the seat and spilled all over the passenger side area of the pickup.
Flustered about arriving late and having all of my neatly boxed tomatoes now unboxed all over the pickup, as soon as I got to the market, I shot out of my pickup to start setting up…and discovered that my keys were now locked in my truck. I have never done this before in my life, so of course the first time to experience this would be at T-20 minutes to market start, with all the tomatoes, honey, granola, CSA eggs, and my money box locked IN the cab of my pickup.
Market manager Michael flew into solution mode, giving me a number to call to find someone to unlock the pickup, while he dialed another business. No answer at the business I called, so I frantically called my neighbor and gave instructions of how to get in the house and where to find my spare key. As my neighbor was en route to my house, Michael managed to reach another local company who could be there in a few minutes to unlock the truck. I called my neighbor back to cancel the rescue mission, and then dealt with the embarrassment of explaining to my very patient CSA members and other customers that their eggs and tomatoes were currently locked in my pickup.
To top it off, that day a film crew was at the market. I didn’t even ask what they were filming for, because I don’t want to know where my complete chaos of a market day has been recorded for posterity. Suffice it to say, if you see a clip of a very sweaty and flustered woman gesticulating wildly until a tow truck in full regalia arrives, that’s me, setting up VERY late for the Beatrice Farmers Market.
I owe a huge thank you to:
Michael, our market manager, who saved the day by getting someone out to unlock my pickup
Riley, my neighboring market vendor, who helped set up the other items at my market stall and offered me some change in case I couldn’t access my money box before market started
John, my neighbor, who was willing to put his plans on hold to go find my spare key and bring it all the way to town for me
Huls, who saved the day by unlocking the truck in no time flat
My CSA members and customers, who patiently waited for the items in the pickup cab
Two CSA members who shared their own hilarious stories of locking their keys in their vehicles (one at Christmas time, and one while it was running!)
Two customers who shared their own amusing stories of mishaps that very day (one of discovering toothpaste all down her fancy clothes just before a big event, and the other of a 12-person waiting line in her business known for speed)
A few days removed from all the excitement, I can look back and remember to laugh at myself. Farming is crazy, especially during the busy season of midsummer. Sometimes there’s absolutely nothing to be done but laugh at yourself. And be grateful for all the wonderful, helpful people in your life.
I can’t eat that many veggies!
With CSA season right around the corner, I want to address one of the common concerns I hear about the CSA: “There are 5-6 items in a small box?! How am I supposed to eat THAT many vegetables in a week?!”
If you’ve been in school in the past 3 decades, or have paid attention to nutrition advice from the USDA during that time, you probably remember the old food pyramid. This is what recommended 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruit per day.
All images from wikipedia
Then the food pyramid was replaced with MyPyramid, which recommended 2 1/2 cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit per day.
And now, the current USDA graphic is MyPlate, which recommends that 40% of your daily plate is vegetables and 10% is fruits.
And, the popular phrase “Five a day” is an interpretation of WHO recommendations that helps us remember to consume 5 portions of fruit and veggies per day.
So why does all this matter?
Many people are concerned that they won’t be able to eat everything in their CSA box each week. But remember "5 A Day"? How you're supposed to eat 5 servings of fruits and veggies per day? (Yeah, I don't always manage that either.)
This means if we're actually trying to follow that advice and eat healthy, one person needs 35 servings of fruits and veggies every week.
The amount of produce in the weekly CSA boxes varies seasonally, but on average, there are about 20 servings per small box. So if there are two people in your household, a small box should definitely be manageable. (And don’t forget to pick up some extra veggies and fruits to get all your servings!)
If it still seems like too much, or if you'll be traveling a lot this summer, consider splitting your box with a neighbor or friend. There are several CSA members who do this and it’s a win-win: you automatically have someone to pick up the box for you if you’re on vacation, AND that person can pass the tomatoes back to you if they don’t like them!
Now, I recognize that KNOWING how many servings we’re supposed to be eating is different than actually EATING that many servings. Stay tuned for some upcoming blog posts with ideas for how to actually incorporate more vegetables into your meals.
And, if you think this is the year you should finally get serious about eating your vegetables, check out our CSA page for more details.
National Ag Day 2020
Happy National Ag Day!
The world, the news, and most of our lives have been wildly different in recent weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The important thing to know, though, is that it takes far more than a global pandemic to disrupt the farms that grow your food.
Farms all across the country, and especially locally, are busy right now starting seeds, prepping plots, and taking CSA signups to ensure that you have plenty of access to local food. At West End Farm, we currently have exactly 1,002 transplants growing under grow lights, with another 175 seeds due to be started in the next couple of days.
Ag Day is a great day to celebrate the farmers (and others in the ag industry) in your community. This year, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's especially important to support local farms. When you buy local food, you directly support a farmer in your community, and you know exactly where you food comes from--it's food that has not been touched by many, many different hands in many places before it got to you.
To get local, healthy food, visit our online farm store or sign up for a CSA share. To find other Nebraska farms, check out the Buy Fresh Buy Local guide or the Nebraska Dept. of Ag. vendor search.
