It’s almost time to sign up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share. The Washington Post Food section will have a list of CSAs in the DC area on February 6th.

So what’s a CSA? Local Harvest has an extensive section explaining CSAs, but I’ve pulled out a couple paragraphs that sum things up:

Community members sign up and purchase their shares, either in one lump sum before the seeds are sown in early spring, or in several installments through-out the growing season. Production expenses are thereby guaranteed and the farmer or grower starts receiving income as soon as work begins.

In return for their investment, CSA members receive a bag of fresh, locally-grown, typically organic produce once a week from late spring through early fall, and occasionally throughout the winter in northern climates and year-round in milder zones. Members prefer a wide variety of vegetables and herbs, which encourages integrated cropping and companion planting. These practices help reduce risk factors and give multiple benefits to the soil. Crops are planted in succession in order to provide a continuous weekly supply of mixed vegetables. As crops rotate throughout the season, weekly shares vary by size and types of produce, reflecting local growing seasons and conditions.

You should go read the entire page, it’s very thorough.

Local Harvest is a website that enables you to to find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.” You can get a head-start on your CSA research there, which is important because many CSAs sell out the day that they open registration, or very soon after. You’ll have to decide whether to make the commitment ahead of time or you run the risk of missing out altogether - kinda like we did this past year because we forgot what day registration opened. Fortunately, we have a great selection of farmer’s markets in our area so it wasn’t a great tragedy.

When you’re choosing a CSA, you don’t have to just pick one out of a hat and hope they’re a good fit for you or your family. Individual farms should supply you with detailed information about what they grow, what their policies are, how you pick up your produce, what their prices are, and any other relevant information. If a farm doesn’t have a drop-off spot or day that works with your schedule, for instance, you really shouldn’t chose it. I particularly like Potomac Vegetable Farms because they don’t grow strawberries (allergies!), and also offer egg and fresh flower shares. Also, they have a drop off location that’s incredibly convenient. Now, we just have to remember to sign up this year…

I was just perusing the website of EcoFriendly Foods, an esteemed local, humane, organic, drug and hormone-free family farm in Virginia that supplies meat to many of DC’s fussier restaurants. Meatblogger Eric recently bought a chicken from them at the Arlington Farmer’s Market. Verdict? Tasty. And tasted just like chicken, which is more than you can say for a lot of chicken these days.
I’d advise not checking out their flickr group unless you enjoy imagery of meat in very fresh form. This is a meatblog, so I guess if you didn’t like those things you wouldn’t be here….