There's never been a better time to sign up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription. With fresh, locally produced fruits and veggies (not to mention cheeses, seafood, and meats) delivered directly to your door, you'll not only avoid the long lines and chaos of the grocery store, but support small farms and ranches suffering under coronavirus restrictions.
Sign up for a weekly or biweekly box, or dip your toe into the world of community supported agriculture with a single sample box. They're the best way to get spring's bounty in your belly, no masks or social distancing required.
Greenhearts Family Farm
Greenhearts delivers fruits and veggies harvested from their family farms in Half Moon Bay and a handful of other local producers, including Heirloom Organic Gardens and Pasture Chick Ranch in Hollister. Each $40 box contains a glut of seasonal bounty and subscribers from San Francisco to the Silicon Valley can have their produce delivered weekly or every other week. If you're not ready to commit to a regular schedule, Greenhearts will also deliver fruit and veggie boxes on demand as often as you'd like. // greenheartsfamilyfarm.com
F.E.E.D. Sonoma
California's first farmer/employee-owned produce cooperative, F.E.E.D. (Farmers Exchange of Earthly Delights) Sonoma is a hub for more than 80 farms to sell their produce direct to Bay Area consumers. Weekly or bi-weekly F.E.E.D. bins cost $35 and include the best of their partners' seasonal fruits and veggies (which, in a recent week, included Valencia oranges, red ace beets, savoy spinach, and little gem lettuce). Pick up your bin from one of F.E.E.D.'S many Bay Area hubs or have it delivered to your door. // feedsonoma.com
Sea Forager
Sea Forager's CSF boxes (Community Supported Fisheries) are a lesson in seasonal, sustainable West Coast seafood. Weekly packages include line caught or sustainably harvested fresh seafood along with recipes for tasty home cooking. Sea Forager offers home delivery in San Francisco or pick-up from locations around the Bay Area for their "Dinner for 2" ($26) and "Dinner for 4" ($51) boxes, each of which includes daily catch like California spot prawns, yellowtail, oysters, and Dungeness crab. // seaforager.com
Stepladder Ranch & Creamery
This Central Coast dairy makes small batch cheeses and butters from their herd of La Mancha goats and locally sourced cow's milk. While they're not a CSA in the traditional sense of the word, Stepladder's monthly delivery subscriptions will keep you up to your eyeballs in triple creams, bandage-wrapped cheddars, and cultured butters. Order subscription "cheese plates" in three month bundles, small for $140 (six cheeses) and large for $200 (seven cheeses). Their "cheese club" gets you four quarterly deliveries of three to four cheeses for $250. Cheeses and butters can also be ordered individually. // stepladdercreamery.com
Eatwell Farm
Eatwell has been feeding Bay Area residents from their organic Dixon farm for over 25 years. Their gorgeous seasonal produce boxes come in two sizes—10-12 items for $31 a week or seven to eight items for $24 a week—and can be picked up from drop sites in SF, Marin, and the East Bay or delivered directly to your door. Get in on the best of this spring's bounty which recently included radishes, strawberries, kale, fennel, and green garlic. // eatwell.com
Frog Hollow Farm
Brentwood's Frog Hollow Farm is renowned for its legendary fruit orchards where they grow everything from spring cherries to summer stone fruits, autumn apples and winter citrus. Choose from three CSA fruit share options—mini, single-size, and double-size—then add on a huge variety of goodies from Frog Hollow's partner producers including olive oil, pasture raised meats, and baked goods. The standard single-share box contains about seven pounds of fruit delivered to your door for just under $30 a pop. //froghollowcsa.com
Green Thumb Organics Farm
Second generation farmer Rudy Jimenez's Green Thumb Organics Farm, a regular at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, delivers his produce straight to consumers through their CSA. Seasonal organic vegetables harvested fresh each morning fill three box sizes: Small (which contains 12 veggies and costs $35), medium (16 fruits and veggies for $45) and large (22 fruits and veggies for $60). Home deliveries are open to most Bay Area residents or pick up a pre-prepared box at the SF Ferry Building and Heart of the City farmers markets or the North Berkeley All Organic Farmers Market, all of which are expected to reopen the week of May 4th. // greenthumborganicsfarms.com
Stemple Creek Ranch
This fourth generation Marin County ranch runs their cows and sheep free-range on open pasture and humanely raises their pigs in large outdoor pens with plenty of room to romp. Produced without hormones or antibiotics and grass fed and finished, Stemple's beef, lamb, and pork comes directly from the farm—their animals are never forced to enter a feed lot. Get a monthly delivery subscription to some of their best cuts, including the lamb starter pack for two ($209) and the beef welcome box for two ($195), join a family beef share (50 pounds of steaks, roasts, and ground beef for $645), or build your own box out of options like beef shank, beef bacon burger patties, and ground pork. // stemplecreek.com
Kendall-Jackson Wine Estate and Gardens
Kendall-Jackson may be best known for its wine, but they also have a high-end culinary garden on the estate grounds. The four-acre garden is cultivated and cared for by Tucker Taylor, aka Farmer T., and the rare and often hard to find produce grown there is coveted by Bay Area Michelin-starred restaurants.
For the first time, the harvest is now available for the public with the Kendall-Jackson Country Farm Boxes. A $35 per box subscription will get you a weekly delivery of fresh microgreens and vegetables, all organic and sustainably grown. Boxes are available for pick up on Thursdays or for delivery in Napa and Sonoma counties. // kj.com
