How to Eat Fresher, Healthier, and Cheaper

August 08, 2012

It’s common knowledge how good fresh farm produce is compared to what you get in the grocery store, but growing up in New York City, I apparently never had learned it.  For years, I used to pass by a crowded local farmers’ market, usually wondering why people would stop there to buy produce when the grocery store carried more variety and offered one-stop shopping, sometimes at cheaper prices. 

But a few months ago, I opted to see what all the fuss was about and cautiously poked my head around all the hustle and bustle.  I found a vendor selling tomatoes and promptly purchased a pound of them.  As soon as I picked them up, I was amazed to discover something I never experienced before.  As opposed to the odorless tomatoes I was accustomed to buying, these tomatoes actually had a tomato smell!  When I brought them home and put them into a salad, they were probably the best tomatoes I had ever eaten.   In the months since, I’ve switched to eating almost entirely farm fresh produce, and I continue to marvel at how much better it tastes compared with what I used to buy in the supermarket.

I set about doing some research and discovered that supermarket produce is often picked well before it’s ripe when it’s too firm to eat, so it’s easier to ship to a store without bruising it.  Then once it’s picked, it can take days for produce to travel from the farm where it was grown to your nearby grocery, where it can sit on the shelf for several more days and then sit inside your refrigerator for up to a week.  No wonder that farmers’ market produce, often picked at the peak of ripeness the day before it’s sold, tastes so much better.  In addition, I learned that produce tends to lose its nutritional value the more days that pass between the time it’s picked and the time you eat it.  So what you’d buy at the farmers’ market isn’t just tastier, it’s healthier too.

The problem I’ve discovered with farmers’ markets, however, is that although many items are cheaper, some items can be more expensive, depending on what you’re buying and whether you’re choosing produce that’s organic or pesticide-free.  Enter a solution I recently discovered that offers the best of both worlds – top quality organic produce you’d find at a farmers’ market together with cheaper prices than either a farmers’ market or a supermarket.  It’s called a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

A CSA is a partnership between a farmer and members of a nearby community.  The community participants pay an up-front fee to buy a “share” of the CSA in early spring.  This payment goes to the farmer and in return, every week during the growing season (from June through November in most parts of the country), the farmer delivers fresh produce from his farm to a central location from where the community participants pick it up.  The key advantage for you is that because you’re buying into the CSA with others as part of a larger group, you’re able to get farm fresh produce at a discounted price.

There are several CSAs in New York City and I decided to join one whose pickup location is a ten minute walk from my home.  Once a week on Saturday mornings, I walk over there and fill several bags with 6-8 different kinds of vegetables, all of them delicious, that are enough to last my wife and I for the entire week plus leftovers.  Last week, I received tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, green beans, kale, lettuce, cabbage, and eggplant.

The cost is the best part.  For a weekly vegetable share for 1-2 people, the CSAs in my area cost only between $10-$13 per week; for 2-3 people the cost is only $20-$25 per week (and you might even be able to make that stretch to four people if you’re not a vegetarian like I am).  Usually a CSA will also offer optional shares for farm fresh meat, dairy, eggs, fruit, and baked goods, also at prices cheaper than what you’d find at the market.

I’ve also found that an added benefit of the CSA is that they’re a great way to meet and connect with people in your community.  Every week, I’m able to talk with my neighbors and other participants in the CSA when we come to pick up our weekly share of produce.  It’s a fun social experience and great atmosphere that definitely beats listening to elevator music by yourself in the grocery store.

I do want you to be careful, however, about some potential pitfalls.  For one thing, although you do get a lot of food, you need to make sure to eat what you get during the week or else preserve it to avoid having the produce go bad.  Also, remember you don’t get to choose what you get since you’ll be given whatever the farmer is harvesting that week on his farm, so you might find yourself with way more cucumbers or eggplant (for example) than you prefer.  But other members are usually willing to swap their produce with you, and if I do want something else in addition to what I receive, I’m able to buy it at the farmers’ market.  Finally, many CSAs require you to volunteer for 2-3 hours one day during the season to help out with the distribution of produce.

The best way to get started is to do a Google search for CSAs and the town/city you live in to find one near you.  And if there isn’t one located near you and you’re feeling adventurous, you could always start one!  Keep in mind that the farmers who participate in CSAs only set aside a limited amount of growing space for the community participants, so to participate you need to buy one of the “shares” of the CSA sold at the start of the growing season (usually between February and April), because by the middle of the season they’re usually all sold out.  I’ve really enjoyed my experience with my CSA, and I hope I’ve encouraged you to consider a CSA as a fresher, healthier, and cheaper way of eating.