A community-supported agriculture (CSA) box is a subscription service where you get a box of freshly harvested seasonal fruits and vegetables from a local farm that you can pick up at the farm or a local market or even have delivered to your home. In some CSA boxes, you can even get artisan goods and other farm-fresh foods, like eggs, meat, and milk in your box. And the price you pay, typically each month or upfront for a season, goes toward supporting the farm’s operations and ensuring they can keep growing every season.
This box is a great way to introduce your family to produce you may not otherwise find or buy at a grocery store, challenge yourself to try new recipes, and promote a healthy diet for your kids. You can also help the local economy and support local growers to keep on producing the amazing fruits, veggies, and other goods they provide. That’s why Crème de la Crème of Las Vegas on Farm Road created this list of five CSA boxes in the Las Vegas area that you can try.
Meadow Valley Farm
“June 25th CSA” licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Flickr by whitneyinchicago
Meadow Valley Farm is a 20-acre farm about 50 miles north of Las Vegas in the Moapa Valley. This farm boasts pomegranate bushes; fruit trees; a greenhouse full of fruits, veggies, and herbs; and two large hoop houses that grow seasonal veggies all year long. When you join the Meadow Valley Farm CSA, you get a random assortment of fresh produce that is all-natural and grown using compost, compost tea, crop rotation, and absolutely no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides.
In addition to delicious fresh veggies, fruits, and herbs, you can also buy eggs, chicken, pork, goat milk, goat cheese, and other animal products.
Quail Hollow Farm
Quail Hollow Farm is also located in the Moapa Valley in Overton, which is about 50 miles north of Las Vegas or just over an hour’s drive from the city.
Because the Moapa Valley is able to grow a variety of produce year-round, this farm is able to produce a high-quality CSA box complete with only the freshest fruits and vegetables as well as eggs, milk, cheese, raw honey, and meats like chicken, rabbit, beef, lamb, and pork. And this farm offers a few different boxes that get you a selection of just produce or a mixed collection of produce and animal products.
What’s more is that you can register in advance just for the seasons in which you want produce and animal products, that way they can make sure they have enough for you and everyone else who buys a share. If you want veggies like spring lettuce, asparagus, kohlrabi, and Swiss chard, then sign up for the spring CSA. If your family loves artichokes, basil, cucumbers, onions, grapes, and eggplant, then opt for the summer CSA. The fall CSA provides watermelons, green beans, pumpkins, corn, butternut squash, and pomegranates. And in the winter, you can get broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and dill.
Cluck It Farm
When you get a Cluck It Farm CSA, you get the option of picking it up yourself at the farm or having it delivered to your home. You also get to choose between the half option, which is a mixed selection of six vegetables, fruits, and microgreens, and the full produce option, which is a mixture of 10 veggies, fruits, and microgreens. And like other farms in the area that do CSA programs, Cluck It Farm doesn’t use any chemical pesticides or fertilizers, and they use natural tilling and fertilizing thanks to the goats and chickens on their farm.
Cluck It Farm is located right in Las Vegas, so picking up your CSA is just a short drive from home. The commitment for a season is between 12 and 25 weeks, and you’re charged every week just a few days before you pick up or have it delivered.
Intuitive Forager
In addition to their unique farmers markets held every Friday at Downtown Third from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Intuitive Forager also offers an “organic farm box program” that you can order online and have delivered to your door. This box is full of just-harvested organic produce from California and nearby growers and artisan goods from local Las Vegas producers.
This organization offers four sizes of the fruits and veggie farmbox full of mandarins, apples, pears, lemons, radishes, broccoli, kale, squash, and much more. They also have a salad box with all the fixins for multiple delicious salads and two types of rainbow mixes of fruits, veggies, and herbs like dill, beets, carrots, arugula, squash, cabbage, persimmons, avocado, and more. You can also order add-ons to your order each month, like berries, citrus, herbs, onions, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, freshly baked breads, cheese, and homemade sauces.
Vegas Food Co-op
Now if your family is looking for a box full of fresh meats, cheeses, and other farm-fresh products, then you should consider joining the Vegas Food Co-op. This organization collaborates with local ranches to sell their 100% grass-fed beef, lamb, pork, and other meats through them to customers like you. Join one of their CSA programs, which include 30 pounds of either beef cuts like steaks and ground, pork cuts like ham steaks and bacon, or a combination of beef and pork.
You can also just get fresh grass-fed meat at a reduced price with no membership fee, commitment, or minimum order amount. Order your favorite cuts of meat like ground bison, lamb, beef steaks, pork bacon, and much more. Put in a deposit for a family package of 165 to 215 pounds of fresh top sirloin, skirt steak, brisket, cube steaks, fillets, and more. Or, opt for premium steak packages, pounds of ground beef, or even flavored brats.So there you have it, a list of five CSA boxes in the Las Vegas area that can bring even more fresh produce and delicious food into your home. Did we miss one of your favorite CSA box programs in the Vegas area? Let us know, and we’ll be sure to add it to our list!