Hello Heels! If you buy groceries, I highly recommend looking into Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). A CSA is an agreement with a local family farm in which customers buy a membership (sometimes called “shares” or a “subscription”) and receive a box of seasonal produce each week, or possibly every other week, throughout the farming season. Boxes can be made up of fruits, vegetables, meat products, baked goods, you name it. CSA memberships come in many different varieties: some are seasonal, others are year-round. Some have set boxes, others let you mix and match within certain limits. All of them are awesome. Below are my (slightly silly) top ten reasons to join a CSA:
- Getting super fresh, usually organic food. Or as your grandparents called it, food.
- Buying food selected for ripeness and flavor instead of shelf-life
- Being exposed to vegetables you’ve probably never heard of
- Exploring ways to cook these previously unknown vegetables
- Supporting the local economy!
- Getting to meet the people who grow your food. I hear they’re really down to earth. (Hehe!)
- Cutting the middleman out of the transaction often gets you high quality food at below market prices. At the very least, you know where your food is coming from.
- Freeing small farmers from the tyranny of large, profit-driven corporations
- Learning the secret art of finding the good one out of the giant pile
- Forming a community with the people in your CSA. Many potlucks are sure to follow!
I’m sure by now you’re chomping at the bit to join the nearest CSA. A good place to start looking is LocalHarvest.org. There you will find a giant, searchable directory of CSAs, as well as farmer’s markets, co-ops, and more (if you’re into that kind of thing). My personal favorite CSA is Carolina Grown, a weekly CSA that delivers a wide variety of fresh foods from all over North Carolina to my door step. Check them out!
UNC Healthy Heels 
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