A friend and I decided to join a CSA last Spring, and spent some time researching the different…read morefarms in the Austin area. We selected Green Gate because of the location (its one of the few farms actually IN Austin city limits), the variety of produce they offered, and the overall value. Every Saturday morning, we would take the short drive to the farm to get our fresh veggies. Some other CSA's have your veggies all bagged up for you ready to go. Green Gate does it a little differently, and we like their way much better. For CSA members, there is a chalkboard listing what is in the weekly share (i.e. 2 heads of broccoli, a bag of green beans, 1 head of each variety of lettuce, etc...) and then like at the farmer's market, you get to select your own.
They also have a farm stand for non-CSA members or in case you need an extra squash (but trust me, you will never need an extra squash!), some eggs, fresh meat, flowers, or a tomato plant, you can pick that up there and skip the grocery store altogether. We really enjoyed our bounty and discovered some new veggies (hooray for kohlrabi!). We are eagerly awaiting the first Fall harvest.
But be forewarned-you get a LOT of veggies and things could get ugly. Between my friend and me, we were feeding 2 two-member households. The veggies had no shame, and why should they? They were fresh, young, delectable. They took over my refrigerator and ganged up to intimidate my other food. Tortillas were hiding in the back, trying to go unnoticed. Yogurt was cowering behind Salsa, while Salsa was just trying to blend in. I found non organic store-bought Carrots withered and dead in the deli drawer. It appears to have been a suicide, but that was the last straw for the older inhabitants of my fridge. I could tell they were planning something big. After the Carrots incident I had to start giving away my excess veggies before there was a Mutiny on the Bounty.