You know, I keep hearing about how healthy food is SOOOO expensive, yet $4 bags of potato chips with zero nutritional value is cheap? $5 frozen pasta dinners? Prepared foods are FAR more expensive than good quality produce.

For those who are genuinely interested in both supporting local farming efforts and eating healthy, there is such a thing as CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture. Details vary by farm, but basically, you subscribe to a farm. Your money provides steady operating capital for the farm. In return, each week you get a box of whatever they have ripe that week, and often farms trade with other CSA farms to add more variety to their boxes. Depending on the farm, you either have a local pick-up location, you pick up at the farm, or the farm delivers. Most of these farms are organic or at least responsible, sustainable agriculture. Some farms run all year and some close down for a couple of months in the winter. Some also have eggs, dairy and cheese available, and even chickens and fish and rabbits and other traditional farm creatures.   Many of thse farms also sell at farmers markets, so if you have a favorite stand at the farmer's market, you may be able to go direct.

I used to pay $13/week for a box of produce that could feed 4 people in No Cal. It was a LOT of veggies and fruit, all of which were picked that morning or the previous day. In the winter we had a lot of turnips, potatoes, nuts, squash, broccoli, kale and mandarin oranges. In the summer we had great heirloom tomatoes and the rest of the great bounty of summer.

Most of the rest of the country is more expensive, but I found a CSA farm in rural Alabama for my Mom that charges $1050/year, or about $20/week for produce service. That's cheap compared to what most families spend at the grocery store each week, and they also offer meat and dairy products for additional costs.

It's good for the farmers, good for the environment because they use sustainable practices and you aren't buying produce that's been shipped 1300 miles to your grocery store, and good for you and your family because the fresher the produce, the more vitamins and nutrients and taste it has.

If you are going to freak out because there is still some dirt (and other schmutz) clinging to your zucchini or the tomato is an odd shape and has splits in the skin, then CSA is not for you. That may sound silly, but some people really do have a hard time with that sort of thing. I'm the opposite to that. We grew our own food when I was a kid, so I'm always suspicious when the produce is too clean and pretty :)

What is CSA?
USDA Database of CSA farms