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Austin 360
Community-supported agriculture programs, or CSAs, have been around for more than 30 years, but when the COVID-19 pandemic started, Central Texas farmers found themselves with CSA waiting lists for the first time.
A year later, the February freeze and snow wiped out many farmers winter crops, and they have been scrambling to get the spring season started with less income from farmers markets and wholesale accounts.
Many farmers are selling their future crops in the form of a CSA program.
Now is the time to sign up for a spring or summer CSA, even if you might not get vegetables for a few more weeks. Many farmers offer newsletters, so you can find out when each season opens and what is going on in their fields.
“Rich, winter vegetables that would have now been in season, they’re all gone, and we won’t see them again until next year,” Chovanec said. “We re telling people to continue coming to our markets but not to expect too much produce for the next six to eight weeks because plants will need time to grow.”
Impacts and losses
The winter storm hit farmers after many had already adjusted practices due to the ongoing pandemic.
Co-owner Finegan Ferreboeuf said Steelbow Farm which has a staff of six on a five-acre property near Manor was established to provide specialty crops and vegetables to local restaurants. When orders slowed during the pandemic, she said the farm pivoted to providing restaurant-quality vegetables to home cooks and built a new following of about 100 household deliveries each week.