Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Living local > Eating sustainably > Locally grown food > Community-Supported Agriculture

Commit to a season of fresh, local produce.

Find yourself struggling to maintain a garden or make it to a local farmer’s market? CSAs are a great way to purchase locally and foster a community that cares about the story of its food.

Benefits

Passive

Once you sign up for a CSA in the spring, all you have to do is wait for the boxes to arrive.

Healthy

Not only does purchasing a CSA tie you to eating whole foods in the fall, you can also opt for farms that don’t use herbicides or pesticides.

Community

When purchasing a CSA, you connect directly with a local family farmer – and oftentimes, they offer farm tours to see where your food is coming from.

More information

What is a CSA?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. CSA’s are a method of shared risk, direct-to-consumer sales for local farmers to sell to nearby community members.

Each spring, participating farms post CSA applications on their website. Consumers then sign up for the CSAs, and pay the full cost up front – helping provide the farmer with necessary money for planting and other growing season needs, before the busyness begins. Throughout the fall, farmers then deliver (or offer pickup locations) for weekly boxes of fresh-harvested produce.

CSA’s are a shared-risk program because of the up-front payment; if a year’s crop gets destroyed or otherwise damaged, then the amount of produce in a consumer’s weekly share will be reduced. Additionally, CSA shareholders need to be ready to cook with whatever in-season produce is in a week’s box; this doesn’t work for all individuals and families, though many enjoy the spontaneity and reason to try new recipes.

Some farms host farm tours or offer volunteer opportunities for CSA shareholders; this is a great way for you or your family to learn exactly where your food is coming from, and to support a local farm.

Local CSA’s

Buy Fresh Buy Local Nebraska (linked below) maintains a yearly list of Nebraska CSAs. Every farm is unique; a map of local farms with CSA programs can be found at the website linked below. Visit each farm’s website to learn about the primary crops they offer, and to learn more and enroll in their particular CSA program.