sylvania, your drive won’t be. By signing up for the CSA program at West Chester Co-op, your local and sustainable food will be delivered to the borough every Tuesday at Holy Trinity Church, and is available for pickup from 3 to 7p.m. To make things even more convenient— and is there anything more convenient than having a packed-up grocery order that includes the best of the best from around the area?—there is no parking required. CSA members only need to pull into the church’s driveway off of West Union and the packaged food is just a few steps away. So how does it work? First, know that each vendor has its own buying program, which means you don’t have to be a member of the West Chester Co-op to purchase their products. However, becoming a member of the West Chester Cooperative has its own benefits, not least of all the discount provided to members through each vendor—2% at Crawford Organics and at Katt & Mathy Farms; 5% at Keiser’s Pheasantry and Bloomsberry Honey. In addition, the West Chester Co-op website acts as a hub for the four vendors that make up the CSA, providing onestop shopping as well as a one-stop pickup for members. By taking part in the CSA, members are helping to support local farms and growers. And the reward is an abundance of options for getting absurdly fresh food. For starters, members can choose to purchase from some, or all, of the vendors. From there, members can opt in to certain buying seasons. For Crawford Farms, which provides the produce for West Chester Co-op, there is an Early Start CSA that runs for four weeks in the month of April, followed by a Spring/ Summer CSA running from May through August, and more through the year. The Early Start is a great option for people just joining their first CSA, since it doesn’t include a lengthy period of time or an overwhelming amount of produce. The harvest expectations for the Early Start CSA include greens and herbs like spinach, arugula, cilantro, lettuce, and kale, as well as beets, bok choy, carrots, chard, popcorn, potatoes, radishes, spring onions, and sweet potatoes. Each standard box contains seven
or eight items, and mini boxes contain five or six items. For those craving summer—and the produce that comes with it—the 16-week Spring/Summer CSA program is fresh produce galore. Harvests include things like strawberries, broccoli, cabbage and scallions in addition to the aforementioned veggies in April and May; green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, corn and more in June and July; and peppers, pears, garlic, concord grapes, cherry tomatoes, watermelon and more in August. For the meat and poultry CSA options, items can be ordered individually, so members aren’t required to purchase a separate freezer to store everything. Need a chicken or meat for a Sunday night dinner? You can order a single hen or porterhouse steak. For those who participate, the benefits extend far past CSA membership, however. Becoming a member of the West Chester Co-op—a one time $400 fee paid at once or in $25 monthly installments—gives members ownership and a say in how the store is run,
Co-op CSA Joining the West Chester Co-op’s CSA doesn’t give you access to just one farm but a weekly pickup with a mixed bag of PA-based specialty farms and vendors. discounts, patronage dividends, and voting privileges once the store opens, a goal that Wren hopes will come to fruition within the next year. Wren sees the store as something that will fill a need, acting as a hub for the borough community as well as providing a walkable option for groceries. “The economic model of a food co-op is that the money stays in our community,” says Wren, of the $17 million that West Chester annually spends on groceries—usually at corporate stores like Giant and Shoprite.
HIGHLAND ORCHARDS Highland Orchards is the mac daddy of the local farm and CSA programs,
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