Tag Archives: fruit

Time to get your CSA on!

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Having had a really fun time getting into a CSA “veggie box” program offered through work last year (and blogging about that for several months), I’m definitely looking forward to getting going with this year’s CSA options. Since the veggie box program at work won’t start for another several weeks, we’ll likely jump on the bandwagon with our local farmstand earlier. They offer a full season package or, for a couple of dollars more per box, you can pay by the week only for the weeks that you actually want to get a box. Going with the latter is a fantastic way to check out what the farm has to offer and see how they run their program.

For those of you who aren’t in a CSA and who would like to learn more, you can find your nearest CSAs through a fantastic search tool offered at the LocalHarvest web site.

Last year, I found that the veggie box program at work ($20/box) was a deal for the Fall boxes until we got to the late Fall ones, where the bulk of what was in them was apples, potatoes and onions. Those items, it seems, are pretty much priced fixed all year at low enough prices that it didn’t save us money to get the veggie box versus buying the same type of produce at the grocery store. I will note, though, that I was typically pricing the “regular” versions of the produce, not the “organic”, which often have higher prices attached.

Naturally, the price wasn’t the only consideration; I also wanted to branch out and try new fruits/vegetables, and I wanted to see if we were able to sustain using more fresh items in our weekly meal plan. All of our goals were definitely met the first time out, so now it’s a matter of keeping things going.

Once we get up and running with the next veggie box (wherever I get it), I’ll post about the value from what I got as well as, of course, any new recipes! In the meantime, feel free to revisit memory lane by looking through how last year’s Adventures in CSA went…and buckle up for 2012!

Adventures in CSA (winter week 1): value shift

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First off, I know this is a long-delayed post. Sorry. Between being distracted by all that was going on with Penn State (my alma mater) and work and the kids and…just about everything else…by the time I got time to myself, I had just enough energy to play Angry Birds, and writing was just not in the cards.

Second, here’s where things start to downshift some in terms of value, and I’m starting to see that. We’ve been thrown off some in the last few weeks thank to a blizzard prompting a clean-out of some portions of the fridge, appointments that have screwed up our dinner planning…all kinds of things. And this is the big issue that I have with the fresh ingredients that you get from a CSA: what are you supposed to do when you have diminishing time to prepare ingredients from scratch? So, our use of the CSA hasn’t been as high as it could’ve been lately. And this is where things get to be lower value for us, because we’re not getting the use of the items the way we should (our fault) and we’re not saving a ton of money due to the type of items that are included.

This hasn’t soured me on the idea of the CSA, but it does make me wonder whether I would go in on a winter share again.

Here’s the breakdown on the prices for week 1’s box:

Winter CSA Week 1
Weight
(lb)		 Grocery Store Unit Price
(per lb)		 Grocery Store Total Item Cost
Purple Kale* 0.85 $1.29 $1.10
Bok Choi 3.25 $1.29 $4.19
Comice Pears 0.87 $2.99 $2.59
Carrots 1.51 $0.99 $1.49
Red Potatoes 1.09 $1.49 $1.62
Parsnips 0.81 $2.49 $2.02
Butternut Squash 2.54 $0.79 $2.01
Yukon Gold Potatoes 0.96 $0.99 $0.95
Macintosh Apples 2.57 $1.19 $3.06
Yellow Onion 0.30 $1.49 $0.44
Grocery Store Total Cost $19.48
Winter CSA Week 1 Savings (Deficit) ($0.52)
Notes:
* Items were not available; closest equivalent was used.

Some of the lower financial value has to be in the items that are included; potatoes, apples, etc. tend to be less expensive items. Amusingly, carrots are the only item that I’ve been the price stay static at $0.99/lb throughout the entire run of the fall CSA and thus far through the winter CSA. Given how other things seems to shift, I wonder why it is that carrots remain virtually fixed in place, price-wise?

I’m wondering whether others find that their winter CSA programs are worth what they put into them, or if it’s just ours that seems to be of lower financial value. It may also be where we are – what you can get in a box in Southern New England during the late fall and early winter may just be stuff that’s less expensive than what you can get in the Southwest or Southeast?

Adventures in CSA (winter week 1): Baby it’s cold outside

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And so we begin again: a new cycle has started and now we’re in the Winter veggie box program. This one runs every other week, so these posts will be a little more spaced out. That’s okay – given the weather and all of the coordination/events around dd’s 5th birthday, I’m a little spaced out, too.

The fun of opening each box is in trying to figure out A) what’s in it and B) what you’re going to make with what’s in it. The difficulty of opening each box is much the same – a general exhale of “What on earth is THAT?!” and “Are those…{insert guessed fruit/veggie here}…?!” Between our cookbooks, the interwebs, and our grocery store, we typically can ID things before the week is out. Finding things to do with everything: now THAT’S a challenge. As it is, we currently have a glut of apples and winter squash in the fridge; this is mostly due to timing fiascos related to box arrival dates, apple picking, untimely nor’easters and other such shenanigans. At this point, I’m ready to start cutting things up and just throwing them into the crock pot wholesale, just to use up the boxes and see if any of the creations can work. I’m guessing they will, but I’d still like to be a tad bit more orderly about it if I can.

 

Winter CSA Week 1

Welcome to Winter...

 

So, here’s what came in this week’s veggie box, our first of the winter share:

  • Purple Kale
  • Carrots
  • Bok Choi
  • Comice Pears
  • Red Potatoes
  • Parsnips
  • Butternut Squash
  • Yukon Gold Potatoes
  • Macintosh Apples
  • Yellow Onion

 

The bok choi already got partially used in Bok-os, and the pears, apples, carrots, and some of the potatoes are crock pot-bound this week. Some of the other items may end up going into crock pots or other dishes as part of next weekend’s continued birthday festivities. It’s always so hard for me to think of squash as “party food”, but I’m sure I can rally if rallying is what’s required.

I will continue price-checking with this CSA, as with the Fall box program. The price is still the same – $20 per box. So, that’s my baseline. I ended up getting 1 box pretty much for free out of the Fall CSA, so I wonder if I can get about half a box for free out of this four-box program? Given the more pedestrian contents, I’m guessing that won’t be the case, but I’d like to try to be optimistic.