Bountiful Baskets! What a Deal!

I’m always hearing how expensive it is to buy local, farm fresh produce. Is that really true? Here’s “Part 2” of my fact finding mission!  (click here to read "Part 1")

Here’s what I did…

On September 10, 2013, I picked up my weekly delivery of local, farm fresh produce from Live Power Farm’s CSA and catalogued what was in my basket. The basket was overflowing this week with summertime treats!… There were Lambkin and Tasty Bite melons, 3 ears of corn, 2 cucumbers, 1.5# potatoes, 1 eggplant, 2 sweet peppers, 3 summer squash, 1 large head of lettuce, 6 stems of chard, 3 radishes, a small bunch of arugula, a small bunch of Asian greens (tatsoi), 2# of slicing tomatoes, 2 spicy peppers, 1 basket of cherry tomatoes, and a head of garlic. 

With this list in hand, I then headed out to our local grocery store, Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op. This store has beautiful, organic produce… though only some is LOCAL produce. Here are a few notes about my procedure: 1) I didn’t find exactly the same items at the Co-op as were in my CSA basket. For example, they did not have Lambkin or Tasty Bite melons, only Honeydew. 2) The Co-op did not have any corn on the cob or Asian greens, though they were in my Live Power CSA basket… I just estimated that 3 ears of corn would be about $1.00 on sale at a big grocery… I simply left out the Asian greens. And 3) I did my best to check for size and weight that matched up with what was in my CSA basket.

And now… check out the results of my point-in-time price comparison survey.

Fresh Produce	Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op
Lambkin melon	4.87
Tasty Bite melon	4.87
Corn	1.00*
Cucumbers	2.00
Potatoes	.65
Eggplant	2.30
Sweet peppers	1.40
Summer squash	2.00
Green Leaf lettuce	1.85
Chard	2.29
Radishes	.50
Arugula	.15
Tatsoi (Asian greens)	*
Tomatoes	8.38
Spicy peppers	.75
Cherry tomatoes	5.00
Garlic	.78
TOTAL for Live Power CSA  $22.66	TOTAL for Co-op  $38.79

I have to say that I am pleased to be eating local, farm fresh, AFFORDABLE produce from Live Power Farm’s CSA. I even saved $16.13 buying from a CSA! Plus, I enjoy knowing exactly where my food is coming from and to be in a relationship with local farmers.

Are you interested in joining a CSA? Check out the complete listing of Mendocino County CSA’s in the Local Food Guide.