Picking The Right CSA

Reader Contribution by Shawn Hosford
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In anticipation of the upcoming CSA season, I thought I would tackle a question that my lovely sister-in-law Wendy asked me some time ago: “How do you pick a good CSA?” That’s a bit hard for me to answer, because we’ve been members of our CSA for the past 20-plus years; I’m out of picking practice. If memory serves me correctly, I narrowed down my choices from two to one by talking directly with the farmers. I like interacting with people I support, so before doing business with someone, my normal route is to figure out if we’re a good human-to-human match. I even do this when choosing most doctors. In talking with both women from different CSAs, I connected more quickly with one than the other. It helped that she and her business partner had graduated from my alma mater, and her reasons for starting the farm also resonated with me. They seemed like the kind of gals I wanted to partner with. The fit between them, their food, their farm, and our family felt right.

Over the past 20-plus years, we’ve gotten to know Annie and Susan through the food they and their crew grows, their Helsing Junction Farm events, their newsletters, and the recipes that come with our produce every week. I feel fed by our CSA community, beyond just the incredibly flavorful food. Every week, from summer through fall, I look forward to eating and sharing all their goodies, even the unexpected and unusual variety of crops that I may have never cooked with before. When I have recommended CSA’s to friends and family in the past, they’ve sometimes noted the diversity as difficult for meal planning. I get that, but as a woman with the TV show Chopped as one of guilty pleasures, my box invigorates me to think and cook creatively.

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