Last week we attended the 3rd annual Farm Share Fair at the Cambridge College in Boston. The idea of the fair is to invite local farmers and producers to show off what their CSA share consists of. For those not familiar, a CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and the way it typically works is you purchase a share a the onset of the growing season and as vegetables come into season, the farmer puts together a melange of produce and you pick up your share weekly or biweekly at the farm.
There are so many different types of CSA's. Some shares are vegetables only, while others can be more of a meat, or grain based share. Some CSA's have add in's for staples like beans, breads, even lacto-fermented vegetables! While Hosta Hill doesn't have a CSA type share option (though we were asked and have had the idea!) our products we were welcomed among the farmers along with other producers like EH Chocolatier, Del Sur Natural Empenadas, Boston Organics, Mei Mei, and Solar City to name a few.
This is the season to sign up for a CSA if you want one! Do you get a CSA share or do you prefer to shop at the farmers market-or both? These days we have so many options for locally grown vegetables and other locally produced foods it amazes me.
Some local CSA's that might still be accepting members are Abode Farm (New Lebanon, NY) Red Fire Farm (Granby, MA) Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA (Amherst, MA) to name a few...