I'd eat more fresh vegetables from my local farmer if I knew how to cook them. I'm learning, but along with my culinary shortcomings, I struggle with arriving at the farmstand before it closes.One solution to my buying dilemma is to purchase a CSA, Community Supported Agriculture, share from Lucky Dog in Hamden. Holley Giles always gave me recipes ideas for vegetables off my radar and when all else fails "olive oil, salt and pepper" did the trick. I bought a CSA two years ago, and loved it. But with last year's economic crunch, I thought I'd save money by reducing the number of nonrecipe vegetables rotting away in my refrigerator's dark recesses. So, last year, no CSA...but the rotting continued.
I have an idea for Meredith: our community should buy local food in bulk this year through collaborative CSA shares. Until we have a farmer in Meredith who sells fresh, organic produce through a CSA, we can explore this option and have our CSA shares delivered to a central location in town and save us all the trip to Hamden each week. We'd reduce our carbon footprint, support a local farmer and nourish our bodies with good wholesome food. The location could be the East Meredith or Meridale fire hall, town hall, even the Meridale Store or Stone &Thistle's farm store.
The Lucky Dog CSA runs June through October (20-22 weeks at $485) which averages $24.25 a week for 7-10 organic vegetables. Lucky Dog also offers a flower CSA at $75 a share and an egg CSA for $100 (one dozen a week). You can take a look at Lucky Dog's 2009 CSA brochure here. We could even arrange a meat CSA through a Meredith beef/pork producer and enhance our local CSA project that covers all the major food groups.
Some people may balk at the upfront cost, but really, $475 is a bargain. You can always split the share (and the bounty) and be out of pocket a mere $12.12 a week...but you'll have saved on gas to Oneonta. If we had enough people express an interest, I'm sure we could figure out a way to arrange payment by food stamps and EBT (electronic bank transfer). If we really want to support our local farmer AND our local economy, we need to start making choices that reflect those values. A CSA is a good start.
Interested? I'm curious what your thoughts on a Meredith delivery of Lucky Dog CSA shares are..
Hello Tara,
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a small interest so far. A handful of us. However even if we're a small group which may not warrant a truck of some sort for drop off, perhaps we could take turns going each week to Lucky Dog to pick up for all. I'm still collecting numbers for who's interested of who I know. When I have my car tomorrow, I'll go post something about CSA forming in East Meredith post office.
Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower