Celia's Adventures
in research, zero waste living and discovering the world
Overview of my first year at Dublin CSA
Hey hey!
It was a year ago when I first heard about the Dublin CSA or CSA in general. That also means this is the time of the year when the Dublin CSA is looking for new members for the upcoming season. So I thought it is a good time to reflect and share with you what to expect from a CSA or the Dublin CSA.
But let’s start from the beginning…
What is a CSA?
Short explanation: CSA - Community Supported Agriculture is a socio-economic model, where the consumers have a closer or direct connection to the producer.
Long explanation: here
About the Dublin CSA
Basically, with the annual subscription you commit to a farmer, in our case Seamus, for a growing season from June until February. In exchange for your support, you will get locally grown, seasonal, organic and package free vegetables straight from the grower. Seamus is not organically certified, but who needs certificates when you can visit the farm and check yourself how he treats your food. The farm is located in Celbridge, a mere 50 min bus ride away from Dublin city center and less then 25 km from the pick-up point. Seamus harvests the veggies weekly and drops them off at Smithfield each Thursday between 6.30 - 7.00 pm. There are two types of subscription; half or full share. With a full share you will pick up your vegetables weekly with the half share every fortnight.
But this CSA is not only about the fresh produce. Seamus and the steering committee (volunteer members of the CSA) organise monthly farm days, where members and non-members are welcome to help out on the farm and learn some tricks from Seamus and snack on some seasonal and freshly picked goodies. There are also many other events organised by the CSA, for example a fermenting workshop, pot-lucks, general meetings to reflect or just a spontaneous and casual drink after pick-up.
My reason to join last year
This time last year, I was so fed up with all the plastic wrapped veggies and fruits in Dublin and my main and basically the only real reason was their promise of no involvement of single-use plastics. Side note, Seamus actually uses plastic boxes for tomatoes and strawberries, but I and every member can return them to him for reuse.
My reasons to never want to leave
It is not just about package free produce anymore for me. Now I have a much better understanding how important it is to try to eat as much locally grown and seasonal produce as you can. Seamus’s veggies helped me to shift even better to a plant-based diet, but I also have a safe place to buy eggs when I want since I have met those chicks(-:
The huge bonus for this season that there will be a trial period to combine the fresh produce with package free dried goods by providing the CSA pick-ups also for pick-ups from Bring Your Own. You can find in my previous post what you could purchase package free from BYO and see here below the harvest calendar of the Dublin CSA from last year.
Should I say more… ohh yeah… you can sign up here. Next season starts on the 7th of June. See you there!
