Hi, Jennifer.
I have been a member of one of the first and largest CSA's in the US, The Root Connection, in Woodinville, WA. Their website is www.rootllc.com. The story behind how they got started is that Claire Thomas bought some property that was endangered farmland in the fertile Woodinville valley. She loved gardening and started growing her own vegetables organically. She began selling produce to stores in the area but she found there was a lot of waste because people only wanted gourmet items. She decided to start up a co-op instead where the members would help share the cost and the risk of the harvest. I believe there are now over 600 members to the root connection and she is selling shares in it to an LLC form of business and training the leaders of that LLC how to run the farm so that it will go on when she no longer wants the work of running it.
I have very much enjoyed being a member. Last year I was a member and I rented a garden plot in addition at a nearby farm and grew our own vegetables. I am renting the garden again this year because I love to garden, but I don't think I can handle both the garden and the CSA because together they provide so many vegetables that I don't know what to do with them all.
But being a member of a CSA is fun. You pick up large bags of vegetables every week and have all kinds of fresh vegetables at a much lower price than buying them in the health food grocery store. You also meet a lot of other people. They have u-pick flowers and greens and herbs. Walking out in the farm fields is very renewing to the spirit. It is messier having fresh picked vegetables than buying them at the store. You get whole carrots with tops on them, kohlrabi with all its attached stems, and large fennel. But you get a lot of food and you get it according to when it is harvested. Examples of harvest weeks are:
1 week in June: 2 heads of lettuce, 1 bunch salad turnips, 1 lettuce cabbage, 2 bunches radishes, 1 1/2 lbs. bok choy
1 week in July: 1 head of lettuce, 1 lb. green beans, 1 bunch carrots, 2 cucumbers, 1 lb. kohlrabi, 1 lb. summer squash
1 week in August: 2 heads of lettuce, 1 bunch beets, 1 1/2 lbs. green beans, 1 bunch carrots, 2 cucumbers, 1 1/2 lbs. summer squash, 1 1/2 lbs. tomatoes, 5 ears corn
1 week in September: 2 heads of lettuce, 1 lettuce cabbage, 1 bunch carrots, 1 bunch gold beets, 1 fennel, 2 cucumbers, 2 zucchini, 2 crookneck squash, 1 walla walla onion, 1 bunch kohnlrabi
1 week in October: 2 heads of lettuce, 1 bunch salad turnips, 1 bunch kale, 2 bunches carrots, 1 lb. broccoli, 1 head bok choy, 5 lbs. potatoes, 3 lbs. winter squash, 4 ears of corn, and sometime during October you get to pick 2-3 pumpkins.
They have members sign a form to either prepay the full harvest or make payments at a slightly higher cost. It comes out to about $25.57 a week and this is intended to feed 1-4 people their vegetables. They choose their pick up day as either Wed/Thursday or Friday/Saturday. There are some other areas that have drop off places once or twice a week. The vegetables are picked the day before or day of pick up day. They have a weekly newsletter, occasional cooking classes, and recipes. Someone man's the farm store during the growing season to handle the money. They also are a place to buy organic fruit from other parts of the state and raw honey from a local vender. They now also have winter shares, but these come from other farms and the cost is a little higher than the June thru October shares, but you can sign up for as many or as few weeks as you want for them.
I don't know how she got started as a co-op exactly, but she can be reached at 425-881-1006.
--Virginia |