Terra Firma Farms CSA Organic Box Or How To Make You All Jealous

You should very seriously all look into getting a CSA Organic Box delivered – not the commercial ‘The Box’ type of delivery but one from a local farm or small group of farms that gives you produce that matches the seasons where you live. We get ours from Terra Firma Farms and have done for ten years. We get the large box – $116 per month. This week our box included:

8 ears of sweet white corn, more than a pound of blue lake green beans, three pounds of delicious small peaches, over a pint of unbelievably good strawberries, four pounds of yellow zucchini, three pounds of baby new potatoes, three pounds of apricots, four plums, a pound of roasted pistachios, a pound of valencia oranges, two to three pounds of onions, five bulbs of garlic, two pounds of cucumbers, about half a pound of mixed salad greens, a big bunch of stunning fresh basil. All that for $29.

Let’s look at Safeway online. Strawberries – $1, Apricots – $4, Plums – $1.25, Peaches – $6, Orange(s) – not available but we’ll say $1. Corn – $2.50, beans – $1, Yellow zucchini – not available – substitute green – $2, onions – $4, garlic – $2, cucumber – $4, lettuce – $3, basil – $2, pistachios – $5

Total for non-organic, less good food at Safeway: $37.75 compared to fresh, local, farm-picked, organic from Terra Firma for $29! And that is WITHOUT tax.

Now I happily concede that that is more than normal, and better than normal. But I still can’t helping thinking, ‘why wouldn’t you do this?’ I’d say that normally Safeway non-organic will be a few dollars cheaper than the farm-delivered box. But I can also completely honestly say that I have never ever bought strawberries, oranges, tomatoes, corn, beans, etc. as good from a store. That’s any store, ever.

Terra Firma has three box sizes. Small is good for one to two people but doesn’t have as much variety. Medium is good for two to four people if their needs are modest. Large gets you a greater share of fruit and is spot on for a family of four that does most of its cooking itself.