What is a “CSA? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is a way for the food-buying public to enter into a relationship with a farm and to receive a share of the harvest. By making a financial commitment to a farm , people become “shareholders,” of the CSA. This effort represents a formal mechanism for more affordably supplying meats that are raised locally, sustainably and humanely.
So how is this different from my vegetable CSA? Similar concept, but it is quite different. Dealing with meat is much more challenging.
The reason it is difficult is because we are breaking down whole animals and attempting to divide them up randomly but fairly. Your vegetable farmer can give everyone five zucchini; we cannot give everyone two pork chops —there aren’t enough to go around. (There is only 15-20 pounds of bacon in a pig and 40-50 pounds of steak in a cow.) So we have to make decisions on the fly about who gets what. (You know how in your veggie box sometimes you get too much kale? Well sometimes you get too much roast). We also can’t just leave the boxes on someone’s porch; the meat has to be frozen, for food-safety reasons, and someone needs to be available for pickup. Unlike a vegetable CSA there is no waste. The meat can go directly from our freezer to yours and it will keep up to 12 months frozen in its vacuum sealed bag. There is no washing, processing or canning involved What is in a share?
We will try to make sure that each share has a mix of beef and pork in addition to the chicken while available. But dividing up whole animals among many members is not simple. The main reason that some cuts are expensive at the supermarket is because they come from a small portion of the animal, meaning there are less of them to go around.
So how is this different from my vegetable CSA?