Think Spring

Philly’s top chefs and their seasonally inspired menus planted the seeds for the recent trend toward buying and eating local. New farmers’ markets are sprouting up all over, and grocery stores offer local produce. But serious locavores are signing up for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Here’s the dirt: For a fixed price, paid in advance, a local farmer gives you a share of whatever’s ripe each week of the growing season — seasonal fruits and veggies bred for taste, not shelf life, that you pick up at the farm or at sites throughout the region. What you give the farmer is the security of payment before the growing season begins. Here’s our list of the area’s leading CSAs. Sign up soon for those tomatoes in August; shares go fast.

Farm: Anchor Run Farm
Pick up at: At farm, 2578 Second Street Pike, Wrightstown
Sign up at: Anchorrunfarm.com
Share Length: 25 weeks
Cost: Wrightstown Twp. resident $755 ($30.20/week); non-resident $795 ($31.80/week)
Sample Peak-Season Share: 5 lbs. cucumbers, 1 lb. summer squash, 2 lbs. carrots, 2 celery stalks, 3 eggplants, 2 peppers, 1 head lettuce, 1 lb. onions, 2 lbs. potatoes, 1 bulb garlic, 2 lbs. tomatoes; choose 1 item from: okra, fennel, Swiss chard, beets. Pick your own: Flowers and herbs, 1 pt. cherry tomatoes, 3 qts. beans, 2 qts. soybeans, 1 pt. tomatillos, 5 hot peppers, ½ pt. blackberries

Farm: Glen Farm
Pickup: At farm, 98 Moyer Road, Perkasie
Sign up at: Bloomingglenfarm.com
Share Length: 24 weeks
Cost: Full share $780 ($32.50/week); split share $400 ($16.66/week)
Sample Peak-Season Share: Full share: 5 beets, 1 bunch carrots, 2 sweet onions, 2 Italian eggplants, 3½ lbs. red slicing tomatoes, 3½ lbs. heirloom tomatoes, 1 lb. sweet peppers, 10 ears sweet corn, 2 lbs. summer squash, 1 cantaloupe, 1 watermelon. Pick your own: Dill, cilantro, basil, flowers, 2 qts. string beans, 1 pt. strawberries, 1 qt. cherry tomatoes

Farm: Charlestown Cooperative Farm
Pickup: At farm, 2565 Charlestown Road, Phoenixville
Sign up at: Charlestownfarm.org
Share Length: 25 weeks
Cost: Full share $725 ($29/week); double share $1,300 ($52/week)
Sample Peak-Season Share: Full share: 1 head lettuce, 2½ lbs. zucchini, 1 squash, 4 lbs. cucumbers, 1 Asian cucumber, 1 European cucumber, 2 watermelons, 1 muskmelon, 1 lb. potatoes, 5 beets, 8-10 leaves chard, 1 bunch scallions, 18 ears corn, 1 pepper, 7 lbs. tomatoes. Pick your own: Beans, tomatillos, cherries, 1 qt. paste tomatoes, 1 pt. raspberries, flowers and herbs

Farm: Greensgrow Farms
Pickup: At farm, 2501 East Cumberland Street
Sign up at: Greensgrow.org
Share Length: 24-26 weeks
Cost: Full share $800/ 26 weeks ($30.77/week), $750/24 weeks ($31.25/week); biweekly $420/13 weeks ($16.15/week)
Sample Peak-Season Share: Full share: Nectarines, Brandywine tomatoes, colored peppers, cucumbers, dairy option (choice of: 1 dozen free-range eggs, 2 Pequea Valley yogurts, Amish-style butter, ½ gal. hormone-free milk), fresh ricotta from Mancuso’s Cheese Shop, hormone- and antibiotic-free ground beef (vegetarian option: watermelon and white potatoes)