Wait, What's a CSA? (Awesome Fresh Food!) And Do I Need One? (Um, yes)

Growing up, my family ALWAYS had a garden full of veggies - beans, corn, lettuce, onions, potatoes, and random seeds they let Little Amanda choose. We ate fresh all summer and were busy canning, too. As I've gotten older, those gardens have become too cumbersome or we just haven't made time; and our canning is more infrequent. But we still love our fresh veggies. 

In the warmer months, the Hubs, the Baby and I head to our area Farmer's Market which takes over a downtown parking lot on Saturday mornings (and now Wednesday evenings, too!). Usually we wander around, linger at a couple of booths but only buy a few things; and generally only in peak produce time. Not out of lack of interest or particularly unreasonable prices, but we just can't decide. 

So this year, we're trying something new: a CSA. 

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, which is one of the tastiest and economical win-win situations you can find! With a CSA you're buying "stock" in a farm. Your purchase gets you regular packages throughout the growing season and provides the farmer security that product will be sold. There are a variety of types of CSAs, most frequently of the fruit and veggie variety; but some include meats; and I've been particularly interested in a local grower's flower program. 

Let's talk about the finer points of why a CSA might be great for you and your family. 

1. Fresh, locally sourced items.

^^ Anxiety-free lettuce!
Courtesy of Deal Farms

Obviously, this is a win. Recently, the news has been awash with stories of food production workers who didn't wash and have spread infectious food-borne illnesses across the country. There was whatever the heck happened with Chipotle, a scary egg recall, and most recently an E. coli epidemic related to romaine lettuce. During LettuceGate, CDC officials recommended that people avoid commercial romaine, at restaurants and purchased in stores, and only consume lettuce when you knew EXACTLY where it was grown and who harvested/packaged it. I haven't worried about lettuce, because once a week, I drive down to the next town over and pick up a box containing veggies still covered in dirt and fuzz from the frost blankets. Oftentimes, the actual employee who picked it is there while I collect my goodies. 


2. Value - Price, Time and Experience 

I would say that you can't put a price on freshness and flavor. But...you totally can. And sometimes convenience and low-low cost means sacrificing quality. However, with a CSA the prices are generally lower than you'd find at their farm stand or at the market but with great quality. I recently saw a CSA offering Farmer's Market credit instead of pre-packaged weekly boxes and for a $300 season enrollment, you received over $350 in credit; so you're certainly saving. 

I mentioned before how I aimlessly wander through the Farmer's Market. I stop and stare at the pretty carrots that still have their tops, the vibrant radishes or the bushels of peaches (actually, no, I can't pass up peaches); yet I can rarely decide what I want. Many CSAs do the work for you; they're the original subscription box. Most groups offer you a limited variety of items from which you can pick (up to a weekly cost limit, or have it deducted from your total estimated value) but it's really Mother Nature's roulette - you're going to get what's in season and ready to pick. This saves me so much time and effort instead of pacing the market on Saturday mornings (but we still go to the farmer's market because...peaches and fresh bread and homemade soap). 

And like a new Blue Apron box, it's exciting. We're already getting items that I'm not sure what to do with, so we have to research, explore and try new things. This week, we got the biggest (but most beautiful) green onions and some Swiss chard (along with lettuce and strawberries). Both of which required some googling to find appropriate recipes (I think we're going to try a Swiss chard and green apple fritatta and some cheesy green onion breads) and we're excited to try new vegetables! 



3. Meaningful support of area agriculture 

Farming is hard and it's risky. And if you want proof of that, look only at the landscape of American farms - small, family farms are struggling to be as productive as commercial agriculture. 

My Papaw was a cabbage and cattle farmer and I loved being in the cabbage patch with our family setting the little plants and watching them turn in to heavy, leafy masses. But as beautiful as that was, I know my grandparents were nervous wrecks every year. You spend so much money up front for a product that may or may not turn out, and sometimes through no fault of your own. Too much or too little rain, sun, heat, wind etc. etc. can ruin a crop. And one bad year can set you back so much you can't buy the supplies the following year to literally dig out of debt. 

Hands down the best, juiciest berries I've had in ages.
#NoFilterNeeded

A CSA subscription lightens that farmer's load a little; it provides a pinch of security they wouldn't normally get. By purchasing a share you are guaranteeing that farm a sale. They don't have to open a stand or weather the market to sell their product; they know x amount will be moving. And the money can be an investment in making the best crops they can, which in turn, encourages you and others to buy additional items or be loyal subscribers. 

For example, we've had wild weather this year in our area and it stayed cold later than normal, so some planting was staggered. This meant that the only thing available in early- to mid-May was strawberries. Fortunately, we are a berry-loving household to begin with, and we were excited to try making freezer jam and Surry County sonker. Imagine if you were trying to sustain your farm on strawberries alone. It'd be terrifying. But having a known quantity of support (and people to take strawberries off your hands before they go to waste) could be crucial. 

Here's my shameless (unpaid, unsolicited) plug for our CSA provider: Deal Farms.  Millennial that I am, I learned about their CSA program via Facebook, but had purchased canning tomatoes (at a steal) from them last year. We opted to get a quarter share, which is supposed to be an allotment for a family of two every week for around five months. So far, it's been a fair amount of food, but we are still buying other produce. Now this may change as we get into peak harvest time but if we stay at this quantity the whole season we'll probably opt for a half-share next year. We have had three helpings of strawberries (at least two gallons worth!) plus the goodies pictured above, and everything has been DELICIOUS. Those strawberries are the best berries I've had in ages. Seriously, y'all, it's amazing the difference in flavor you have from berries that were picked early and shipped for hours or hundreds of miles (btw strawberries don't continue to ripen after picking). I can't do their fruit enough justice! If you're ever in Macon County, take a minute to pop by their stand! 

We're only a couple weeks into this adventure but we're already feeling like this was a good investment for our family. I encourage you to consider this as an option for yours. Visit your local farmer's market or seek out an area agricultural group; in WNC, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) keeps lists of area CSAs and can refer you. 

A couple critical questions to ask when talking to providers: 

1. What is your estimated season?
2. How much food should we expect per box? 
3. What foods could we anticipate? 
4. Are the boxes standard or do we get to choose/"shop"? 
5. Is all payment required up front? 
6. How does pickup day work? Hours? Deliveries? 

Review: Blue Apron Meal Subscription Service

A friend gifted us a free one-week subscription to the do-it-yourself meal service,  Blue Apron. Blue Apron delivers all the ingredients and recipes for delicious, relatively easy and quick (allegedly under 35 minutes) meals to your door.

Our delivery arrived on Friday and we were able to enjoy our meals together this week - savoring the last of my maternity leave. I will be reviewing this service in the following categories on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being excellent and 1 being awful:

1. Plan options - Does it suit my family?
2. Pricing - Can we afford it? 
3. Cooking - Is it unique without being cumbersome?
4. Eating - Are the meals delicious?
5. Overall enjoyment

PLAN OPTIONS - Rating: 4

First, we chose a plan. Options included three meals for two people or two meals for four people (two additional meals from leftovers!). We could also use some "credit" from the free offer and use a higher-priced plan for four meals for four people (which would make eight meals for us but would require some payment instead of being fully free). I appreciated being able to choose the amount of meals I could get, especially when one option would provide leftovers. Despite the math yielding us more food with a two-for-four, we opted to receive the three meals for two plan. 

You are able to choose a diet/preferences - they have meals for pescetarians, vegetarians, non-red meat eaters etc. Because all items are packaged at the same facility, they do not recommend using this service if you have severe allergies. We aren't food sensitive and are trying to be more adventurous (read: eat more fish), so we didn't indicate any preferences. 

Then the fun part - which proved to be incredibly tedious for me - choosing our menus. You're able to view a calendar listing all the meals of each particular week. The three meal plan has six+ options, while the two meal option has four. Because I'm incredibly indecisive, we perused all available menus (there are usually four weeks' available at a time) and options for each plan. Many of the entrees are featured on all of the plans (at different times) with different sides; but there are several meals that are unique to a particular subscription. There are a wide variety of options from somewhat familiar creations to things I would consider exotic or unusual for our kitchen. This breadth of recipes is a great plus for Blue Apron; but I will warn you, it makes deciding difficult! 

However, the shortcoming is that you can't always select individual recipes that you like; many are bundled. For example, if you select that you want Roasted Pork Steam Buns, it may select your other two meals instead of letting you choose each one. I assume this has something to do with the packaging process. This worked to our benefit because we chose a "safe" recipe that was bundled with one new, but not unheard of dish, and one "bizarre" meal which I might not have chosen on my own. Since I couldn't pick every meal we got, I really had to play around with the calendar to make sure the meal plan we'd selected plus the delivery week worked well with the pre-arranged bundles. Seriously, I put at least an hour into this. #IHaveNoLife


PRICING - Rating: 3

Our subscription was free. YAY! And honestly, that's probably the only way we'd have ever tried this. We've done monthly subscription boxes before (now defunct Goodies, and Skoshbox), but they were in the $7-15 range and I wasn't upset if a box was lame. However, at these price points I'd be hesitant to blindly try it out. The plans are priced as follows:

The Blue Apron four-for-four plan is $8.74/serving ($139.84/week).

Blue Apron falls right in the middle of the price points for two other comparable plans, Hello Fresh and Plated. Hello Fresh allows you to get more meals per week, which lowers the per serving price, but with a similar three-for-two plan you'd be shelling out $11.50 per meal or $69 per week. Plated has both smaller and larger plans (two and four meals per week). Their three-for-two plan is slightly cheaper at $48 per week (apparently marked down from $72). 

Obviously, this may not be the thing for you if you have a larger family and you intend to feed them all. It could still be a fun date night option for you and your partner or good "bonding with the teenager."  And despite my annoyance at picky eaters paired with my determination for our baby to have a sophisticated palate, I don't think many kids would go for these things anyway. What kiddo is pumped for cod and radishes? 

Overall, $9.99/serving isn't necessarily outrageous considering what we might spend if we went out to eat, and I'd argue that it is of $9.99/plate restaurant quality; but it is considerably higher than what we budget per homemade meal. It's certainly do-able here and there as a fun activity (with food!) but we could never do it every single week. It would certainly have to be put into our budget and we'd have to give up something else. 

Or we could steal the recipes and make them at home with things we already have on hand or can buy for cheap...


COOKING - Rating: 4.5

The heavy box arrives with almost everything - save olive oil, S&P, and water - you need for all three recipes, including spices and items like vinegar or sesame oil.

Three meals-worth of ingredients, delivered straight to my door.

It's a ton of stuff in adorable, but absurd packaging (see: below). I'm a sucker for all things dainty (you should see the tiny champagne vinegar bottle!), but this does feel a little wasteful.

Thankfully all packaging materials are allegedly recyclable.

You have exactly what you need, it's all fresh and good quality, but you do have to prep some things. For example, we received a single carrot that needed to be shredded for slaw and a block of cheddar instead of a baggie of grated cheese. And that is why this cooking subscription can appeal to all levels of chefs - YOU have to do the work. You're responsible for your own mis en place and preparing everything, but nothing is difficult and their instructions are very clear. They even offer tutorials online to help you with things like knife cuts and prep demos. It would be a great learning experience for a new (or young!) chef, but interesting enough that pros would enjoy it.

Even the worst cooks can make these recipes!

The techniques are relatively simple and quick. Plus, the recipes don't require fancy equipment or lots of dish washing.

And just like the commercial, the cooking experience provided by Blue Apron is a lot of fun for families. We were able to make our first meal while Baby napped, and we got in some quality Mama & Daddy time helping each other cook. We fell in love cooking for each other, so finding a product which delivers that experience straight to our home is a blessing. But you could totally cook these on your own without being overwhelmed - unless you're on your own and have a screaming baby flailing in their jungle swing, or ahem I assume it would be difficult and you might just burn some breadcrumbs while leaving the middle of the chicken almost under-done...ahem. 


EATING - Rating: 4.5

Our menu included Fresh Pimento Cheeseburgers with Collard Green and Carrot Slaw, Chicken Milenaise with Warm Potato and Brussel Spout Salad, and Cod with Udon Noodles. The pictures on the recipe cards are deceiving - the food looks good, but with TINY portions - and they all sounded just a little out there. But whoa. They all tasted great. 

The pimento cheeseburger was made from high-quality beef and served on delicious buns covered in more sesame seeds than I've ever seen! I will say the pimento cheese stuck out to this Southern girl as a version designed by a non-Southerner. There was little mayo, and it sure as hell wasn't Duke's (the King of all Mayos), so the texture wasn't what you'd like on crackers or finger sandwiches, but it was melty and so flavorful. The recipe included a great tip, too: put the pimento cheese on the bottom toasted bun AND on top of the hot burger, double the gooeyness!

We were both AMAZED by the cod dish; we totally expected this to be unique, but not something we'd order or even try to make again. But whoa! It was flavorful, full of unique textures and well-balanced. So, be sure to try something a little out-of-the-box in your delivery box! 

And of course, you can't go wrong with breaded chicken cutlets (unless you have that hypothetical baby meltdown experience). Plus, the quirky side dish of warm potato and brussel sprout salad with mustard vinagarette was great, too! 

OVERALL- Rating: 4

Despite my inability to choose what I wanted to order, the service itself is incredibly easy to use. I was able to easily navigate their website and explore all available options. I also appreciate how easy it is to change your mind (see:inability to make decisions). You can view your scheduled deliveries and skip, change the delivery date or choose different menus at the click of a button. As a mom whose calendar is quickly filling up, I can't emphasize enough how important that sort of flexibility can be. 

But we have canceled our membership since our trial ended. They will, of course, automatically charge your card for the next delivery and we will have to plan better if we're going to put forth this expense. It's completely do-able once a month, but I'd die if my card was charged $60 more than once per pay period.

I highly recommend pressuring your friends who have free passes to share them with you, and even if you didn't have a freebie, consider giving this a go once. It's a great activity to do as a family and a fun way to try new recipes without having to buy the obscure ingredients (togarashi spice blend, anyone?). 


STAY TUNED... we're planning to try another subscription box soon!