Join a CSA!

If you’re the kind of person who reads this blog regularly, you’re probably the kind of person who should join a CSA.

A CSA (stands for “community-supported agriculture”) is a program in which you pay a flat fee in exchange for a portion of whatever a farm is growing. It’s the best way to make yourself eat better, both in terms of taste and health.

Now’s a great time to sign up for a CSA for 2011; most programs are winding down for the year, and they tend to fill up real fast when spring comes along. Many farms offer options—different delivery schedules, summer- or spring-only CSAs, etc. The best place to find a local CSA in your area is to search LocalHarvest.

For about $15 a week, my CSA (from Snow’s Bend Farm) delivers a huge bag of produce every Thursday from March through December. Not only do I not have to go to the grocery store very often, there’s also always something new to try. This year, I was introduced to kohlrabi and Chinese long beans (didn’t really like the former, loved the latter), got overwhelmed by tomatoes and okra, and continued to love my greens of all kinds.

But the best reason to join a CSA is the community. Every year, Snow’s Bend throws a harvest party for big customers—who happen to be some of the best chefs in town—and its CSA subscribers. I look forward to this thing all year.

Snow’s Bend Farm is in Coker, Ala., tucked into a bend (get it?) in the Black Warrior River just across from Tuscaloosa. It’s a beautiful location, and they always plan the party for a day when the weather is perfect. To get there, you have to rattle along a dirt road that’s not exactly on any maps for about 30 minutes, but it’s worth it when you get to this:

My favorite part of the harvest party is the oysters. Every year, the crew from Highlands Bar & Grill (yes, I cook with the same produce as a James Beard Award winner—this is the allure of the CSA) brings a couple boxes of Appalachicolas and smokes them over an open flame.

It’s not a cooking method I’ve seen anywhere else, but it’s good: Build a fire, then suspend a square steel plate on cinderblocks over it. Dump the oysters onto the plate, cover them wet burlap sacks, and cook for about 10 minutes. They come out hot and a little bit smoky, but not really cooked, so they maintain that raw-oyster texture and sweetness. With a squeeze of lemon and a shake of hot sauce, they’re perfect.

There’s music, too, courtesy of a west Alabama bluegrass band whose name I can’t remember. You might better know the lady singing as Continental Bakery owner Carole Griffin. See what I mean about the Birmingham food celebrities?

The party’s a potluck, which means a long table covered with delicious, locally grown food. This year featured venison chili, several pumpkin pies, some awesome slow-roasted pork shoulder with apricot sauce, and a keg of Good People beer.

I also got my first taste of what I suspect was bootleg wine. This bottle was on the table, with a plain label that said “Country Wine,” with “Blackberry wine, July 2010” handwritten below it. Suspicious, but pretty tasty. There was also another bottle of “Country Wine” that I think was made from grapes. It was awful.

Even if you’re not up to the challenge of joining a CSA, you should go visit a farm that grows produce you eat if you can. You’d be amazed at how much just seeing where your food comes from changes how you feel about it and deepens your appreciation for how it was grown.

If you’ve read books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma (aff. link), you know how big a difference there is between a small organic farm like Snow’s Bend and the giant agribusiness megafarms that produce most of America’s food. No, CSA’s aren’t going to solve the world food crisis, but they can make a little difference for your community and a lot of difference for yourself.

Remember the kale salad I posted about on Sunday? Here’s where it was grown.

And that’s why you should join a CSA.