CSA's

[Summerloco]

Bonjour everyone,

If you belong to a CSA, could you tell me what you do not like about it and what you would like to see different?

[juliebove]

I like that I have the option of getting a box of produce each week and I can pick it up at my nearby health food store. I like that I was able to make exceptions for three items I would never like to see in the box. I like that I get an e-mail in advance telling me what will be in the box and allowing me to make three additional changes. I like that I can add items.

I dislike the fact that some items are not available each week. There are some things like Romaine lettuce, celery and tomatoes that I want each week and they aren't always available. I sometimes want something for a recipe like sweet onions and I can't get them through the CSA. So I seem to have to go to the store each week to supplement the box.

I dislike that I can not get an all vegetable box. It is possible some weeks to eliminate all the fruit by substituting other items, but there are only a few things to choose from to substitute and I don't always like them. I am getting no box this week because there was just too much in it that we wouldn't eat. Most weeks I throw fruit out because nobody will eat it. Seems for weeks now we've had peaches, plums, nectarines and black grapes. Nobody here will eat those things. I feel like I should just take them out and put them straight in the trash.

Sometimes the produce isn't in very good shape. I can overlook one bad piece of fruit or a squashed tomato. I realize that putting everything loose in the box like that can spell disaster. They have taken to using a paper bag for some of the more fragile things. But when all of the apples are rotten or all of the oranges are mushy, the person packing that box had to have known! Mostly the stuff is good. But one week I kept looking for a bug in the box because somethign had munched holes in all of the radish tops and all of the greens. It was so bad, I didn't want to eat them.

[codajess]

Bummer, Julie :(