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Joining a Community Supported Agriculture program is a great way to cut out the middleman and get just a little bit closer to your food supply.
CSA’s are gaining in popularity, as word of the localvore and slow food movements spread. The basic idea is you sign up for shares at the beginning of the growing season and pay an upfront fee. This fee goes to the actual farmers to cover the operating costs of their farm for the season. In return you receive a weekly (in some cases monthly) share of whatever is produced on the farm. In most cases this is fruits and veggies, but there are some CSAs that offer egg, cheese and meat shares too.
Here are a couple places offering Fall/Winter CSA programs:
- Home Grown Wisconsin still have a few spots open for the Fall/Winter season. They have pick-up sites in different neighborhoods around the city. Check out their website for more details.
- Genesis Growers is a sustainable farm located in North Central Illinois that offers eggs and poultry as well as fresh produce through its CSA program.
If you don’t want to make a commitment for a whole season but still want to support local agriculture here are some other options.
- Growing Home is one of the more unique farms in the area. They have a more traditional farm located in far suburban Marseilles, but also operate two urban farms in Englewood, including the city's first year-round urban farm at 5814 S. Wood. These farms offer job training for homeless and previously-incarcerated individuals looking to re-enter the workforce. You can buy their produce at the Green City's Winter Market.
- We've profiled Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks before on Chicagoist. For the busy locavore, if you just can’t make it out into the blustery cold to pick up your produce share, have it delivered.
Gracias y besos, Jasmine.
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I was really disappointed with Irv &Shelly's Fresh Picks.
Their delivery system is not convenient at all, but the worst is the way the food arrives.
It's like they just toss everything into a big plastic bag, so I get this huge bag filled with old, wrinkled potatoes, peppers, apples and whatnot just floating around with cottage cheese where the carton had cracked open and was oozing out onto everything.
A loaf of banana bread had the hard plastic packaging cracked open as well.
The blueberries were soft, wrinkly and moldy. The whole thing was just a mess. If it were just one little thing, I would give them another chance, but when I complained, it didn't seem like they were interested in changing the way they do things.
This is really no way to promote or do business. They also don't give all ingredients on the site for things like baked goods either, as one of the breads I ordered had a major ingredient that I'm allergic to.
Seriously...my delivery looked like it was meant for the compost heap. You don't have to gift wrap it, but at least make some effort towards presentation and also check the food for freshness. I'm picky about that, as I'm sure the majority of people are who take the time and expense to shop at places like this.
Good Lord, Ingrid!
Thanks for the info. I think I'll give them a pass and check out the Green City Winter Market.
Big thumbs up to Growing Home. We've had their CSA share since spring, and the boxes are huge and the produce always looks like it was picked the same day. They also have quite a few pick-up sites around the city for the summer season.