Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares are a way for farmers like us to offer meat at a more affordable price. Most start with a downpayment, so that we may begin the season with "seed money" to cover our processing fees, or in the case of this year, to help us cope with a much larger tax bill than we anticipated.
Unlike veggies shares, which are doled-out weekly, most meat shares come as a one-time delivery in sizes that will fit in the top of a standard refrigerator/freezer (10 lbs. to 30 lbs.), giving them wide appeal. Very few of our customers have storage for whole, halves, or quarters of large mammals.
Vegetable farmers are now bringing in first harvests, so there may still be a chance to purchase shares - check your local farmer's market. We didn't buy one, since we eat three or four days a week at the local diner (My-T-Fine, Swanton) and wouldn't use all the veggies or have the time to process them and put them aside. I hate being wasteful and besides, if someone doesn't cook for us this time of year, we don't get to eat.
My husband Dan and I barter or buy what we need at farmer's market. This week we got mesclun, garlic scapes, mini onions with tails, baby carrots, strawberries, and sheep's milk yogurt. Yogurt makes a quick and wholesome breakfast whizzed with fresh fruit to make smoothies; I can hardly wait for blueberries to come around. I also bought a lamb share from Willow Hill Farm (Milton); lamb is one of the few types of meat that we don't raise ourselves, and after a winter of eating beef shanks, top round, and country-style pork ribs (whatever didn't sell last year), it is an exciting change. Our meat shares are assortments or samplers of all the cuts that come from an animal. I think that's important to offer, since non-farmers tend to forget (or never realize) that pork is much more than bacon and chops, that you can get skirt, flank, and sirloin from a veal, and that beef ribs are every bit as toothsome as pork ribs. Imparting recipes for lesser-known cuts are an integral part of selling meat this way. For example, twenty years ago I had no idea how to cook lamb shoulder steaks, but I bought them because they came with a recipe. I've been hooked on the more economical parts of all beasties, and on local lamb ever since.
CSA shares aren't just for green groceries, and if there were no other benefits - like freshness, great flavor, supporting local agriculture, keeping Vermont in small farms - the price you pay up front locks in the cost of your food bill for the coming months. Where's the downside of that?
