If you buy produce from your local grocery store, you may not be aware of an alternative for fresh, locally grown produce in your area. CSAs are popping up everywhere across the nation as a great way to connect farmers and consumers directly, providing both with an amazing experience. So, how do you go about finding a CSA box in the Norcross, Georgia, area? The team at Creme de la Creme is here to help.

What Is CSA?

CSA stands for community-supported agriculture. It’s a system of crop-sharing that connects local farmers with local consumers, who will subscribe to the harvest of a specific farm or group of farms. The advantage of CSA is two-fold: it helps local farmers and the local economy, and the consumer gets fresh produce and sometimes other fresh farm foods, such as fruits, herbs, cut flowers, meats, eggs, and dairy included in CSA subscriptions. It’s a considerable time saving, not having to shop for many of your weekly staples. It’s also better for your health to eat locally grown food that’s often organic.

Consumers become CSA members by paying a certain amount to join at the beginning of the growing season, either in one lump sum or in installments. The benefit to the consumer is they’re guaranteed weekly fresh produce, which is largely organic. The advantage to the farmer is this gives them upfront income to begin the growing season. CSA memberships also relieve them of the time and money they’d spend marketing their products. Instead, they concentrate on growing the best possible produce for local consumers like you, who are already invested. 

Roswell Farmers Market

Roswell Farmers Market and Seeds of Wellness have a year-round CSA. They offer organic/bio-dynamic, local produce, fruit, dairy, meat, and fish preservative, steroid-free, GMO-free, antibiotic-free, and hormone-free. Their livestock is raised on open untreated pastures, grass-fed and -finished. Their hogs are forested. Unlike some other CSAs, although they do have a yearly subscription option, at Roswell Farmers Market, you can also buy from them without an annual commitment. You can get on a list and receive a menu of available items weekly, with ordering instructions.

Moore Farms

Moore Farms in Atlanta offers produce, grass-fed beef, pork, lamb, cheeses, soaps, baked goods, and other useful, fresh products. Rather than providing a yearly CSA, they have an annual $36 membership fee and then weekly notices of what’s available, and you can choose to buy a box or skip a week. That’s convenient if you happen to be going away for a week or don’t like what’s offered in a particular week’s harvest.

They also offer tiered Farmer Pick boxes for $20, $30, or $40. Members say that even the $20 box is packed so that the upper tiers may be best suited for a large family. You have a choice of the farmer’s pick, where the farm selects the items, or for $4 more, you can customize your box out of the weekly offerings. They have multiple convenient pickup locations around the metro Atlanta region.

Fresh Harvest

Fresh Harvest offers a direct partnership with multiple local farms and producers. This innovative Atlanta online farmers market delivers to your doorstep. You get to choose a produce basket each week, select the contents, and choose from an array of baked goods, milk, ready-to-eat meals, vegetarian proteins, meat, and eggs. Their local food system reduces food and packaging waste and supports organic farms. They are located at 735 Park N. Boulevard, Suite 116 in Clarkston and the online market is always open.

Whippoorwill Hollow Organic Farm

Another option for organically grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs is Whippoorwill Hollow Organic Farm, available at the farm and the Monroe, Georgia, farmers market on Saturdays. They offer CSA on Tuesdays at the farm, where you get to go directly to the farm, see what’s in season, meet the farmers, and get a sense of where your food comes from for a direct connection to the local agriculture. Whippoorwill Hollow Organic Farm is open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 3905 Highway138 in Covington.

Truly Living Well

At Truly Living Well center for urban agriculture, their slogan is, “We grow food. We grow people. We grow community.” This organization has a lot more than CSA, but their CSA offering is particularly impressive. Their growing methods are all-natural, and your produce will be organic. Everything comes directly from the farm, except when they provide an occasional supplement to your box from their network of local farmers so that you can have more diversity in the offerings.
All year-round, you’ll have a cooking green, salad green, allium (onion, garlic, etc.), and herbs in each box. You’ll also receive seasonal items, for example, zucchinis, cucumbers, peppers, or eggplant in the summer; beets, turnips, root vegetables, and sweet potatoes in the fall. Each week they select what goes in the box based on what looks the best in the field, what they have in abundance, and what they think you’ll be excited to find. You can visit them in person at 324 Lawton St. in Atlanta from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, closing at 2 p.m. on Friday.

Moss Hill Farm

This unique farm has a freshness plan, where Moss Hill Farm harvests most of the vegetables in your CSA box on the day of pick up. Since all of their sales are for their CSA shareholders, they know what, and when to harvest for truly just-picked freshness. Its mission is to provide the most healthy organic, naturally grown, biodynamic vegetables possible for the local community.
One of the most fantastic things about Moss Hill Farm is that they don’t sell at farmer’s markets, restaurants, to individuals, or co-ops. Instead, they only sell to their CSA members, and that focus allows them to concentrate on growing their very best produce for you. The farm is hopping year-round, producing herbs, vegetables, and cover crops growing exclusively for their CSA members. 

The Norcross area in Georgia is fortunate to have such a wide selection of CSA box options, and we hope that this compilation helps you get started. You and your family can enjoy the farm-to-table experience through CSA boxes while supporting a local farm or farmer. If you have additional CSA options, please contact the team at Creme de la Creme so we can keep our families informed.