The Environmental Glory of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
If you’re looking for a way to lower your carbon footprint, support local businesses, and better your life, a CSA is a great way to start.
CSA is short for Community Supported Agriculture. There are varying add-ons and perks per farm, but the basic gist is: a local farmer offers "shares" to the public. You pay at the beginning of the season (or throughout via installments) to help them pay for the harvest, and you then go at scheduled intervals (week, every-other, monthly, etc) and collect a ton of produce. (Some even deliver.)
How does this lower your Carbon Footprint? First: consuming more plants and less animal products is the biggest way (aside from voting!) to fight climate change. Second: there is a lot of gas associated with all the various items coming from all over the world to your grocery store, but your farmer is growing it right there in your county. Third: it comes without packaging and if you haul it home in reusable bags, you can feast through the week without creating any waste!
Live outside of Onondaga County? You can search for a CSA here. It may not be too late, as many offer winter shares.
If you are local to the the hills of Onondaga, Stone’s Throw Farm is a precious jewel and you will never regret joining them. They have a Winter Share that starts soon!
Stone’s Throw Farm’s organic share equals out to $36.66 a week and runs from June through February. We are a family of three vegetarians (ie we eat heaps of vegetables) and each week we always had plenty for us, enough for me to have folks over for dinner, and still send them home with food.
We first joined Stone’s Throw in June and this was our first haul. I’d slowly get better at documenting them, but the color transformation through the season was stirring.
You want as much color as possible in your food because their vibrancy is created by flavonoids and flavonoids are powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits.
Boy Howdy will a CSA help out with that.
July
Late July
August
Late August
September (looks sparse because we chose fewer items knowing we were traveling most weekends in Sept)
Late September (looks sparse because we chose fewer items knowing we were traveling most weekends in Sept)
The end of September and early October will brings a feast of peppers and we ate these raw, roasted, or preserved via hot sauce.
October
Late October
November
The first unexpected benefit from joining Stone’s Throw was the view of South Onondaga Valley from their parking area. This is not their farm, but a neighboring field. My son and I would park across the street in their auxiliary lot, so that we could soak up the view and stretch out our morning. This became a fun series to gather through the year, and I look forward to taking a snowy one soon.
June
August
September
October
February: last day of the Winter CSA pick up.
Good gravy do I love the passing of the seasons!
Rolling right back into Spring and Summer: Stone’s Throw has the added perk of a pick-your-own-flower and herb patch. Q would gather bouquets to give as gifts and I’d gather bushels of basil for pesto.
Another perk: if you’re still eating animal products and are looking for happy, healthy (fed all the delicious organic veggies from the farm) egg-laying chickens, Stone’s Throw has you covered.
If you’re plant-based, you can have fun chasing them around the yard or holding them. :-)
Lastly, Stone’s Throw even has a pick-your-own berries and tomatoes patch. I sorely under utilized this section due to a particularly frantic June-Sept: I had the busiest/most-stressful job of my life (which I quit in September, shifting to working my heart’s delight at Carol Watson Greenhouse 💚), family health calamities, and house maintenance/painting taking up all the moments outside of family and the first two. :-)
Lucky for us, we can start the whole process over again next year, and use this amazing farm to its full advantage.
Our first foray to the patch was in September with Q’s grandmother. It was super late for a hearty harvest, but we plucked a handful of berries between the three of us, and the memory of splashing in puddles and laughing with generations of family was worth more than any weekly share.
