Celebrating CSA Week: February 19-25, 2024

Contributors: Maddie Chera, Ph.D. and Kelly Morton; Images provided by Marykate Glenn of Mustard Seed Farm

Happy National CSA Week! CSA Week is an opportunity to celebrate and learn about Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs all across the country—and, of course, sign up for a CSA membership this year! If you’re a farmer looking for resources to support your CSA, check out the CSA Innovation Network for online discussion groups, webinars, resources, and more.

What is a CSA?

CSA stands for “Community-Supported Agriculture.” When you sign up for a farm’s CSA, you purchase a membership, or “share.” Each week of the harvest season, you’ll get a box of freshly picked fruits and vegetables directly from the farm—meaning you’ll get the freshest, most nutritious food you can find, all while supporting a local producer!

“Buy a share = get veggies every week” is pretty typical, but most farms’ CSA programs have more options. For example, you can choose larger or smaller share sizes to accommodate your household; you can supplement your veggie box with additional farm products like eggs or cheese; or you can adjust your pick-up from weekly to bi-weekly or monthly. 

CSAs are an excellent way to support your favorite local farm. Purchasing a CSA share provides the farmer with much-needed funds at the beginning of the harvest season; it relieves the burden of having to sell their entire harvest right after it’s picked; and it creates a reliable community around the farm. 

CSAs aren’t just helpful for farms—they’re great for the consumer, too! In addition to getting the best fresh products, you’ll likely discover new produce and new ways of eating it. (Garlic scapes? Purple carrots?? Kohlrabi??? Get ready!) And often you get to meet other food-lovers in your local community, including the farmer themself, which strengthens the food system and your experience through relationships and direct knowledge of where your food comes from.

Picking the right CSA for you

It’s important to take the time to figure out the best CSA for your lifestyle. Before you select your CSA share, ask yourself the following questions:

How much food will my household eat? 

Which pick-up option is right for me?

Choose a CSA with a pick-up option that is relatively accessible to make it easy for you to grab your veggies every week. Most farms won’t have the capacity to give you your money back if you miss a pick-up (though they might be able to give you a double share next time or donate your share to a local food access point like a neighborhood pantry or fridge). If regular pick-ups aren’t going to be feasible for your schedule, choose a more infrequent share or find a CSA that offers delivery (usually for an extra fee). Luckily, many CSAs have multiple pick-up sites in area communities, often co-located with other locally owned businesses like breweries or community hubs. Some employers in our region even offer workplace pick-ups designed to be extra convenient for employees and a boost to worker wellness!

How adventurous am I with trying new foods?

Your share is going to be made up of whatever produce is in season, so chances are once in a while you’ll get something you’ve never tasted or don’t like (this writer will not abide eggplant!). Most farms can’t offer a lot of customization in their boxes and won’t be able to accommodate requests like “I don’t want any kale, replace all my kale with strawberries.” Some CSAs offer more variety than others, but all CSAs are great for experimenting with unfamiliar foods and trying new preparations of produce you are familiar with. Though you might not have liked a particular veggie in the past, an heirloom variety or the freshly picked version you get in your CSA just might change your mind. Most CSAs offer recipes and preparation suggestions, and swapping ideas with the farmer and fellow CSA members is a major perk of having a share! If all you want from your farm is blueberries and tomatoes with no surprises, a CSA share might not be for you this year.

What items do I want from my CSA?

While most CSAs focus on fresh fruits and vegetables, there are some specialty farms that offer flower shares, egg and dairy shares, or even meat shares. These vary a lot in size, price, and frequency, so make sure you have a clear understanding of what you need (and what you’ll eat!) before you sign up. For example, some farms offer a herd share. When the herd is processed, members get a sizable amount of fresh meat—and not everyone has space in their freezer for half a cow! Most farms offer optional add-ons to their weekly shares, and that’s a great, easy way to get more from your CSA without signing up for a full extra share.

Once you answer these questions, you’ll be in the right position to select your CSA. 

Find your CSA

We’re lucky to be in a FANTASTIC region for local farms! Whatever your neighborhood, CSA needs, and price range, you’ll be able to find the right CSA for you and your family. 

To find your CSA, check out Edible Ohio Valley, a fantastic quarterly magazine that is all about our region’s great food and producers, and the CORV Guide, Central Ohio River Valley’s source for eating local. 

Here at Green Umbrella, we’ve partnered with Mustard Seed Farm in Cincinnati to make our offices, UC’s Digital Futures Building, a CSA share pick-up location for Avondale. They also offer pick-up in Norwood, a home-delivery option, and sliding-scale pricing to help make fresh food accessible for all. Learn more about Mustard Seed Farm’s CSA here.

We’re also collaborating with other local partners like Our Harvest and KY Farm Share Coalition (KYFSC) to support regional expansion of a model that’s had great success in Kentucky: worker wellness CSAs subsidized by employers. You can learn more about this model at KYFSC’s website. If you want to explore how your workplace might adopt such a program, stay tuned for additional resources, training, and consulting by our Food Policy Council, as a Green Umbrella member benefit, or reach out to Food Policy Council Director Maddie Chera directly.

Happy eating!