The fate of the Wallingford Farmers Market remains in doubt. Whole Foods (aka “Whole Paycheck”) recently capitulated to Monsanto’s drive to genetically engineer pesticides into our food supply. What’s a lefty, organic-food-lovin’ locavore to do?
Go CSA, of course! CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) are farms or groups that will deliver (mostly) locally grown produce to you on a regular basis based on what’s in season. You’re not going to get strawberries in December, but that’s just as well: eating local doesn’t just mean the food is fresher, it means a smaller carbon footprint to deliver the food to your table. It also provides a business model that can be life-saving to small-scale, family-owned farms.
So the only question is “which one should I choose?” We’ve put together this handy table to help you out.
| Name | Pricing | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source of produce | ||||
| Wallingford Pick-up site | Frequency | Year-round | Custom | Hold |
| Full Circle | Standard Size: home delivery $37, pick-up site $34
Family Size: home delivery $46, pick-up site $43 |
|||
| In summer, spring, fall most from FCF’s own 400 acres. Rest from organic farms mostly from Pacific Northwest but some things from worldwide. | ||||
| Community pick-up site
or your home |
weekly or biweekly | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tiny’s Organic | Multiple plans, see pricing guide | |||
| Tiny’s Organic Farm, WA. Tiny’s is within 100 miles of Seattle & is family-owned. | ||||
| Seeking Wallingford pick-up site. Contact them! | weekly | June 11 – Nov 16 | No | No |
| New Root’s Organic | Personal Fruit, Veggie or Mix $29.50,
Standard Fruit, Veggie or Mix $39.50 |
|||
| WA, OR, CA, mix of direct from grower & wholesalers | ||||
| Home delivery | weekly | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Local Choice | Multiple plans, see pricing guide | |||
| Washington farms | ||||
| Community pick-up site, home or office | weekly | June 13 – Oct 16 | Yes | Yes |
| Boistfort Valley Farm | Family Share $585, Small Share $470,
3 year membership: Family Share $1725, Small Share $1400 |
|||
| Mostly from their farm, but winter shares are supplemented by other local/regional organic farms | ||||
| Pick-up from neighboring ‘hoods (no Wallingford) | Winter: monthly Summer/Fall: weekly |
Winter (Nov – May)
Summer/Fall (mid June – Oct) |
No | Yes |
| Helsing Junction Farm | $20 – $37 / week | |||
| Their 50-acre farm in Rochester, WA. | ||||
| 62nd and Corliss | Weekly | Mid-June to mid-October | No | Yes |
| The Root Connection | $31.66 / week | |||
| On the Root Connection farm in Woodinville | ||||
| N 55th and 1st NE | Weekly | June to mid-October | No | ? |
| Oxbow Farms | $600 for large family share (a bounty for 4 people); $400 for small share (plenty for 1-2 people) | |||
| Everything in the box grown at Oxbow (though they may start partnering with Okanogan orchards for an optional ‘Fruit CSA’). Outrageously-fun harvest party for subscribers. | ||||
| Lower Wallingford | Weekly | June to mid-October | No | No |
We know our readers have tried some of these, so we’d love to hear what you think. How’s the quality and the quantity? Is it a good mix of yummies, or do you end up with a giant box of rutabagas one week and nothing but parsnips the next? Please leave your reviews for your neighbors in the comments below!
(Big thanks to Mrs. Wallyhood for researching the above!)
I just started getting Full Circle and, so far, love the service. However, the Standard home delivery was $35, and they just raised the price by $2, so it’s now $37 — not $32 as stated above. The pick-up was $32; I’m guessing it’s now $34.
“What’s a lefty, organic-food-lovin’ locavore to do?”
What about PCC?
We’re longtime fans of Oxbow Farm’s CSA program. 20 weeks (May-Oct) of a large box (more than enough for our veggie-loving family of 4) for $600, and this season, they’re offering a smaller box for $400. EVERYTHING is grown on Farmer Luke & Sarah’s farm near Carnation; they’re adding a fruit CSA option this year as well. Several pickup options nearby, including the Ballard Farmers Market, and if enough Wallingfordian’s sign up, our front porch (lower Wallingford, near Gasworks) will become a new pickup spot. Check em out, and tell them ‘Meg’ sent you!
Megan Boyce-Jacobs, CSA coordinator
Oxbow Center & Organic Farm
10819 Carnation-Duvall Rd NE
Carnation, WA 98014
425-788-1134
http://www.oxbow.org
Thanks to a recommendation from a friend, we’ve been getting just about all our produce from New Roots since last summer and I can give them a big thumbs up! The quality & variety of their organic and mostly local produce is about the best I’ve found in the city. I have to say opening that box every week is a joy.
I’m not at all a farmer’s market fan, aside from quick runs to the Q for perishables, a trip to Central Market every few weeks is about as much as I care to commit to food procurement and New Roots meets my definition of low-barrier. We get an e-mail every Friday announcing the contents of next Tuesday’s delivery and I have until 7AM Monday to make changes or additions. Choices to skip a week or cancel the service are clearly marked on their website and entirely non-judgemental. Some things we like to eat regularly aren’t offered every week, like mushrooms, so I have to pick them up at the Q, but for the most part, I can plan our meals for the whole week using the e-mailed list.
We used full circle for a very long time. We just recently cancelled because of a long drawn out saga on our end not theirs. The best part for us…the website. You can modify the basket if you get the timing right. You can cancel baskets, etc. We never found that level of flexibility with the other CSAs. They may have added it since but I can’t speak to that. We picked our box up here in Wallingford (I’m not going to say where just in case). They were available on the porch being guarded by the cutest Besinji (from inside of course).
BTW, the format of this table doesn’t work in the mobile format. Whether in landscape or profile. At least not on the iPhone.
@Aleta, fixed, thanks!
@Herman Maybe it should have been “lefty, organic-food-lovin’ locavore who is too lazy to pick items from a shelf” 🙂
@Meg Please let us know if Oxbow expands to Wallingford, we’ll update this list
We tried and liked Full Circle Farms, but I canceled it because it came in a cardboard box that they couldn’t reuse. I didn’t want to deal with the waste/recycling every week. I don’t know if they still use this system or were able to find an alternative. Does anyone know? And, how are the other CSAs packaging their produce?
At the extremely high risk of being unpopular, that article you link to is pretty damned biased, don’t you think? Linking to that from your own pro-organic article is sort of like Fox News linking to Ann Coulter for confirmation…
Can you also substantiate the lower carbon footprint statement? I’m curious to see stats on that. A truck driving around the neighborhood at 20mph all day making frequent stops leaving the engine idling vs a diesel semi carrying 6x the produce making one or two stops of highway driving from origin to wholesaler, to the grocer seems like a close race to me if not the semi being the winner.
@Chris, remember, it’s a semi coming from Mexico or a cargo ship coming from Honduras or Chile, transferring to a train, transferring to a semi. Then wholesaler still has to get the produce to our local community (PCC, Whole Foods, QFC, etc.) and then people often drive to these local stores and drive home. I’d say that last piece cancels out the truck driving around the neighborhood, give or take, and hauling the food from the Southern hemisphere or Mexico is a big deal, carbon-wise.
Yeah, that article is biased in its language and its interpretation. I don’t think the facts are in dispute, though. And, sadly, the story seems to have been skipped by the mainstream press in general, so it doesn’t leave me with much to link to to provide background.
Yeah, but how often is the truck from the Southern Hemisphere actually carrying food to us that is presently in-season in Washington state, or the whole of the US for that matter? It seems like the local food would win out price-wise in that event, whether from a GMO farmer, or a local organic alternative. So what about the apples to apples case? (pun definitely intended).
As for the truck vs drive to grocer, I drive to the store to buy, say 10 to 30 items or more, cancelling out several truck rolls to my house so I’m guessing that wins. I guess Amazon Fresh organics would probably be the best of both worlds here. 🙂
Oh and just as an aside, I think we’d all have to choose between diarrhea or scurvy in Seattle if we confined our 5 a day to WA grown food. 🙂
But it’s not the case that if I can’t get strawberries in-season in Washington, I MUST get them from somewhere else. I can (and I would argue should) adjust my diet to favor foods that are grown locally in-season. The more locally produced food I eat, the less out-of-season food I ship in from elsewhere.
So apples to apples is not as germaine as apples to bananas. The bannas are cheap because they’re grown and picked with 3rd world labor, but the long-term cost to the environment isn’t included in the price tag. We leave that bill with our children.
How far we can push the “local” dial without getting scurvy (or terminal boredom), I don’t know, but I’d warrant that members of the Snoqualmie, Snohomish, and Hoh tribes would say it’s pretty far.
We’ve had good luck with Terra Organics: http://terra-organics.com. They offer a lot of flexibility and good quality produce at a reasonable price.
We’ve used Full Circle for a few years and are overall very happy with them. Reasonable price, great website and customer service. Yes, they still use a cardboard box every week, but you can leave it at the pickup site and BYOBag and then they can reuse it. I haven’t tried any of the others, though. I’d be curious to see if people think they’re better.
You missed The Root Connection, which delivers to Wallingford from June to October: http://www.rootllc.com/
I do believe this is one of the least expensive CSAs, and this farm is alos one of the oldest CSAs around. I have belonged for 10 years now.
Thanks, Nancy, I’ve added them to the list!
In our experience, Full Circle actually wants the boxes back. They are a heavy duty waxed produce box that really should be returned to them each week.
Karla,
That’s weird. We had the box delivered to our door and there was a notice that specifically said they could not reuse them. Maybe it’s changed since I tried it. I’ll have to check into that and maybe try them again. Thanks!
I a pick-up a box of Full Circle Farm goodies every week. As I am coming home from work, I get off the bus, pick up the box, and walk home. What I love about using a CSA, is that I don’t spend all this time thinking, “What should I make?” Now I look at what veggies I got from my box and plan a meal. Saves time, and I think it’s healthier.
Full Circle USED to have a wax coated box that you returned for re-use. A few months ago, they switched to a plain cardboard box that you are supposed to recycle.
I think we should leave Indian tribes out of the argument of what a local diet is. The Northwest Coastal Indians (such as the Hoh) basically fished, hunted a bit of deer, and collected clams and berries. The plateau Indians of eastern Washington dug for roots that most of us have never had before, hunted, and fished along rivers.
Taking from a sample box at Helsing, I see carrots, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, and squash. All items that did not exist in this area before modern trade.
These “local” foods were brought to this area because of the wonders of the modern food distribution system. Just a little trip down the soap box to say that romanticizing the local Indians as some sort of inspiration for your return to mother earth is delusional.
That said – I’m a member of Helsing and have enjoyed their food and recipes.
Thanks for that link, Jordan. The article is very interesting. The big bad guy in this story seems to be the USDA, more so than Whole Foods. Kucinich in 2012?
We’ve used Local Choice for a couple of seasons. You get to choose your entire list of what you want in your box each week, not just substitute a few items. They have a huge growing list, so there is a lot of choice there, and it changes seasonally. I actually preferred their produce to Full Circle’s.
Carolyn Boyle runs an incredible operation at New Roots Organics, look for their 3-D beet logo on the east side of Leary at the bend between Fremont and Ballard. I believe they define local as west coast of this continent, though much of what she offers is local local. The customer service is fabulous as is the produce. This kind of delivery allows me to keep my No Driving pledge; I ride with someone else or take the bus to a grocery store less often as a result.
Today is Tuesday, can’t wait for the Personal Bin to arrive (the Standard Bin goes for $39.50 so says the NRO web site, a correction to the info above). A bin makes a great baby, wedding or housewarming gift. Our household has landed with them, happily, after experiencing and moving on from CSAs Helsing Junction and Full Circle, for various reasons.
Thanks for noting Whole Foods’ buy-in of the Monsanto Kool-Aid Jordan. Always found WF a little too slick for organic comfort. PCC walks the talk.
This note is in support of personal and community food resilience.
CSAs are great (we pick up a Helsing Junction box at 40th and Eastern from June-October). And we grow, shop, and support the farmers.
Take a class from Seattle Tilth and learn to grow and can your own. Plant fruit and nut trees and learn pruning from City Fruit. Join Community Kitchens and learn to cook in community.
We love farmer’s markets – U-District and Ballard are an easy walk/bike commute in the winter and the Wallingford Farmer’s Market will rise again!
Med Spa and Moon Temple don’t seem to want the Farmer’s Market in Tully lot. 🙁 Something to do with porta potties? It would be the best place for the FM! It’s not to late…..maybe they will change their mind. Stop in and let them know how important it is to save the FM!
Has anyone actually tried a meal @ Moon Temple? I vote for razing the place & putting the FM in it’s place. (Please, no whining from the bar flies.)
I love Helsing Junction farm. A true CSA and they only put produce from their own farm in the weekly box. I prefer Helsing Junction over some others I have tried because it is like getting a box of food from a neighbor’s yard rather than being more like an organic grocery store (i.e. distributing organic produce from farms all over the West Coast/US.) I think it is the closest thing to growing my own food!
New Roots Organics
First – LOVE them. The produce is always good, love that they have a “substitution” feature on their website that lets you easily customize your bin each week, and the customer service is amazing. The owner recently called me because she noticed that I was adding a lot of veggies to my “fruit bin” and that I would probably enjoy getting a mixed bin instead, and just add extra fruit whenever I really wanted more of it.
Second – The personal and standard bins don’t both cost $29.50. 🙂
Oops, thanks, Inna. Fixed!
We’ve been with Full Circle for over a year now and are loving it. We’d tried Tiny’s a couple of summers in a row – and found the quality to be great, but we didn’t have the choice to switch out items, etc. With Full Circle, we are able to sub out or permanently exclude items, and customize orders every week. We definitely do less driving…and accept for walks to the closest Farmers Market or co-op, we love the convenience of having groceries delivered….that includes my favorite non-NW fruit – bananas. 🙂
Full Circle did switch to a clean one-use box made of sustainably managed board material. We don’t mind the recycling and composting on own end at all. I recently saw someone using flattened ones to prep their garden…great idea!
We’re hoping the Wallingford Farmers Market survives and thrives… any news on that end?