SpicesInc.com - Creative Delivery of Local Food (Farm to Table)

Creative Delivery of Local Food (Farm to Table)

Creative Delivery of Local Food (Farm to Table)

As energy costs have increased farm families and choosy consumers are becoming very creative in trying to cut costs and figure out how to get fresh local and organic products from the farm to the table. I always look forward to the opening of the farmer markets and stands in the summer, but it is not always possible to get to these venues regularly. And there have been a couple of summers that the local stand I frequented never opened!

By buying locally grown produce, we are choosing something that has spent less time travelling from the farm to our tables. Back in time when our great grandparents were farming, they sold what they grew to their neighbors or generously gave to their family members. But over the years we often settle for hard tomatoes and cellophaned lettuce forgetting how great these products are when we get them from a local grower.

One way to benefit fresh products from your local growers is to learn about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Over the last 20 years or so CSA’s have become one way for consumers to buy local seasonal food directly from a farmer. Local farmers band together in a service that provides weekly boxes of their produce to the community. Interested consumers enroll for a weekly or bi-weekly box, which either gets delivered to a central location, delivered to your door or picked up at the farm.

The content of your CSA box is based on seasonal produce, usually a mixture of fruit and vegetables and perhaps herbs. Some CSA’s also offer eggs, meat and even dairy and some will allow you to choose or omit what you want based on your likes.There are some variations to the above model that allows more mixing and matching. Here instead of the farmer loading a standard box of vegetables for each member every week, the members can load their own boxes allowing for more personal choices.

In Buying Clubs there is a designated host who meets the produce truck, on a designated day and time and divides the shares and hands them out at a house, church or other designated place. Members not only meet like-minded friends but enjoy fresh, flavorful produce at prices about 20 percent below the usual retail.

Members of these groups must take what they get because the product is, of course, seasonal. The cost of a local box varies from $29 to $45 and there is often is a refundable deposit for the box, but you get it back when you return the box. And some of these organizations supply grow charts so you will know what to expect at different times of the season. Some will also include recipes for certain items.

If you want to find out where there is a CSA near you go to the internet and visit Local Harvest