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.
