One of the gifts that I’m giving myself this holiday season is the gift of a CSA membership in 2009. Sure, I was a CSA member in 2008 but, that almost didn’t happen because I waited too long to sign up for one.
It turns out that CSA (or community supported agriculture) farm memberships often sell out at least six months before the first crop gets harvested. The CSA I used to belong to in New Jersey would sell out the October before the next year’s season began–and right after the current year’s season had ended. My new CSA in Pennsylvania happened to have an opening last spring when I finally signed up, and I got the last full share that was available. This year they were giving current members all of December to sign up for 2009 before they opened up membership to the general public.
If you’d like to read more about CSA memberships–and why they might make sense for your green-and-frugal lifestyle–here’s a link to a past post giving you the 411 on CSAs.
In the meantime I’m giving CSA Memberships this week’s Suddenly Frugal Seal of Approval not only because they deserve it but also to remind readers that if you haven’t already signed up for the 2009 season, you might want to take care of that now. And if you’ve never signed up for a CSA before but would like to, I would recommend checking out the Local Harvest website, which offers a searchable database of CSAs based on geography.
Oh and Merry Christmas!
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I’m working on convincing my husband of the value of a CSA membership. We’re expanding the garden, too. Part frugal, part green, it feels good. Have a Merry Christmas!