Local Food Opportunities!
Interested in ways to reduce your food carbon footprint, support local farmers, eat healthy, organic and locally grown produce, spend less time at the grocery store, and potentially save money? Come check out these upcoming events on campus and consider purchasing a CSA share for this summer!
What is a CSA?
CSA stands for community supported agriculture. Buying a CSA share gets you access to a weekly supply of fresh locally grown produce delivered right to campus and your dollars help offset early season costs for Golden Garden Farms in Willow River, MN. You have the option to tailor your box of fruits and vegetables to your taste buds, meaning you do not receive produce that you don’t like and even receive extra of what you do like if more is available!
Additionally, Golden Gardens CSA makes trying a CSA easy. Like a traditional CSA you can sign up for the whole summer upfront or commit to just 2 weeks to start. After that you can go week to week and even skip weeks if you are out of town or don’t need any more fruits and vegetables. Shares are dropped off at UMD on Tuesdays throughout the growing season. The price of a full share is $25 per week and the price of a half-share is $13 a week, which if you share your CSA with a few roommates is actually very affordable!
Why do a CSA?
You might wonder what the benefit of a CSA is over buying fruits and vegetables at your local supermarket. There are so many! First of all, even if it is organic, most of the produce you buy at the supermarket is grown in California (or across the world), meaning it has to travel a long distance on a truck to get from producer to consumer - emitting a lot of greenhouse gases along the way. The carbon footprint of vegetables grown in Minnesota is much lower as it travels a much shorter distance from the farm to your table, so not only are you eating healthy for yourself, you are eating healthy for the planet.
Additionally, the produce you will receive has been picked closer to being ripe and will spend much less time in the refrigerator meaning you receive fresher and tastier produce than anything you could find at the supermarket. For people inclined to cooking or who are interested in expanding their repertoire of dishes to make, you will also receive a wide variety of produce and recipes to help you make something new and delicious out of them!
To purchase a CSA share you have a few options:
Meet the farmers in person! Roxy and Bruce will be at the Employee Health & Wellness Center (247 Kirby Plaza by the Food Court) for two "Meet the Farmers" events on campus: Tuesday, March 20th (11am - 1pm) and Thursday, March 29th (2-4pm). This in a great opportunity to learn more about what a CSA is from the farmers themselves and sign up if you have decided you want to buy a share. Payments must be cash or check.
Call, text, email, or Facebook message to let them know you are interested in shares. Include your name, phone number, email, and list any items that you do not want to receive. Pay when you come to pick up your first share with cash or check. Contact info is below:
Contact Information for Bruce & Roxy at Golden Gardens CSA:
By phone call/leave a message: 218-658-4860
By email: [email protected]
By Facebook: Send a message to Roxy Schmidt