Reviews for: Fair Shares CCSA (Combined CSA)

We have been Fair Shares members for about two years, and it has improved our quality of life so much. Almost every meal we cook now is made with mostly local ingredients. It has taught me to eat what's in season, which keeps my body and spirit in balance. It has taught me to make a meal from what we have on hand, which has made me a badass cook. For my physical health, I love that I am eating vegetables, eggs, meats and bread produced in a healthy way for the planet. I feel healthier than I have in my life. For my energetic health, it gives me self-confidence and clarity to know that I am living my values by choosing to eat local, ethical food. When we sit down at the table to enjoy our food, it feels special, healthy, and blessed. Fair Shares has helped me enjoy the simple pleasures of life - cooking, eating, sharing food with family and friends. I have found great satisfaction, comfort, and pleasure and Fair Shares member.

We joined FS in 2008 when it first began, and we love it. Every week we get wonderful produce, dairy, meat, artisan breads, condiments, chocolate, and all kinds of other lovely things. And we can swap for things that work better for us in a given week, and Sarah, Lindy, Jaime and the rest of the crew are awesome people, which is one of the reasons we look forward to picking up our shares every week. The quality is top-notch, and we love eating seasonally and learning new recipes. We love being in a CSA but our favorite part is being part of a community that is dedicated to sustainable, just, and of course delicious local food.

I joined Fair Shares eight years ago. When I joined, I was interested in eating better and cleaner. Little did I know how much I would learn about my food. Fair Shares has taught me the beauty of eating seasonally, how unbelievable fresh, in-season food tastes, how much better free-range eggs from happy chickens taste (omg, I am grossed out by grocery store eggs now. It is a problem when I visit family!), and how much better happy meat tastes. I have tried new foods, and tried new ways of cooking familiar foods. And that is just the food. I have also cultivated relationships and friendships with the fabulous people whose labor of love birthed this fantastic place. I am so grateful to have Fair Shares here in St. Louis. You will not regret giving it a try!

I love the portion sizes of the vegetables straight from the Farm which I get from Fairshares. Bags of lettuce and cabbages larger than my head, bunches of large beets or turnips which would easily cost much more at WF, Red Russian kale which lasts for days... They also have introduced me to many new items (exciting for the gourmet!!) such as watermelon radishes, ground cherries, and bamboo! I always am excited to see what they have in their shop.

I have been a member of Fair Shares for over 2 seasons now and I have never been disappointed in my Share of the crop, meat, cheese, and other fun local food that they provide. The care that they take in establishing relationships with local famers and food artisans is a wonderful example of how to create a holistic food cycle in our community. My favorite aspect of my Share is that I can trade the non-bulk-vegetable items in my Share and use that credit to purchase more veggies or fun other things like locally made jams, cheeses, or meats. They have Kakao chocolate on-hand to round out the random change left each day. There is nothing like going home with bags of fresh produce and a dark chocolate lollipop to make my week better. Thanks Fair Shares!!!!

Our family has been a member of Fair Shares for 9 years. We love Fair Shares! A couple of our favorite things - of course the local St. Louis food, the quality and variety of the produce and other items, the ability to trade the non-produce items in the share, and the ease of coordinating the pick ups in many areas around St. Louis. Highly recommend!

I have been a member of Fair Shares for eight years and highly recommend joining. I like the convenience of one stop "shopping. " Each week we get a variety of foods beyond the locally grown veggies and fruits, including meats, cheeses, eggs, canned/jarred tomatoes and jams, rice, bread, etc. The Fair Shares staff do a great job of sourcing local products and doing the due diligence to ensure the producers are following sustainable practices -- something I don't have the time or know how to do.

We started as every week full share members, but as the kids are growing and heading off to college have cut down to the mini, which is perfect for 2-3 people. Of course we always buy extras, too. I find I buy the bulk of my food at my weekly visit just needing to supplement with a few spices, non-local fruits like lemons, etc at the grocery story.

I joined Fair Shares on the recommendation of a friend and could not be more pleased! I have gotten great quality produce, eggs, and meat and the staff and volunteers could not be more friendly and helpful. Looking forward to great things to come!

I have been a Fair Shares CCSA member for 5 seasons now and I think it is the best decision I've made about my grocery shopping. Sarah, Jamie, Kevin, Ariane and all the other staff are great. The produce and all the other food is the best in MO. I love it when I go out to eat and I see that the restaurants are using the same food I get each week in my share. I have used both the half and the mini share and recommend both. I think both are appropriate for a small family or a couple. This season we are switching back to the half share as we are spending less time at home and I don't want to waste food - but I think the mini share is great for those who love produce each week and can cook at home almost every night - or who work from home. I highly recommend Fair Shares!

My husband and I find that the weekly mini from Fair Shares is just the right size. The Fair Shares team works tirelessly to provide a rotating variety of delicious produce, protein & dairy items as well as tasty jams, pickles, pasta, nuts & chocolates. Thank you Fair Shares for bringing the farmers to us!

There are two food related things that I do not like to do: plan menus and grocery shop. I begin to look at our food needs for the week when I see what is in our order for the week. I love the frequent surprises and delights. I sometimes make trades but I prefer to take what's offered. I especially like receiving an item that I would probably not consider buying in the grocery store. With my FS items, I find that I am much more adventuresome in my cooking and eating. For example, Date Lady Date Syrup! I had never heard of it and, consequently, would have never purchased it in the grocery. After acquiring the first jar from FS, I find I cannot live without it! The same with miso, what do you do with that? Why add it to a ramen noodle/vegetable concoction, of course! Delicious! What brings me back to FS each year? Why, IT'S the eating adventure it affords. Oh, and I like the people too!

I cannot say it louder how much I love Fair Shares. The shares are plentiful. I participate in the mini share and I find it to be the perfect supplement for my family of three. The ladies that run Fair Shares are kind and knowledgeable.

Fair Shares has changed the way we eat...and the way we cook! I am not a good cook, and have never loved cooking, but having all of these 'new' veggies and various foods , and all the ideas that the FS people and the other memebers have on the FaceBook page- has been inspiring! We have tried so many new recipes and also have changed our minds about foods that we used to think we didn't like. An example is the watermellon radishes....I didn't think I liked radishes, but the gorgeous look of the watermellon radishes is what made me fist try them, and then when we tasted the mild, fresh deliciosness of them- we were hooked!! We add them to our salads and slice them for dipping and LOVE them!! That is one example of our great learning experience! We eat bison all the time now, something we used to save for restaurants. That alone has improved the health of our eating- we use it for burgers, and chili and everything now! (we still have beef too- just not near as often!) Try it!!

Fair Shares CCSA is just that--it is fair! It is a fair price for a fair share of wonderful local produce and locally processed foods like canned fruits and veggies, salsa, etc. Meat and eggs are included in the shares as well. We have been members since they opened several years ago and the weekly share supplements our own garden and our supermarket purchases for our family of 5+. It is family-run and the owners take interest in their members. They are flexible and each week there are several items on the menu that are tradable for other things you'd rather try--for instance, we rarely take the locally roasted coffee, but can use that trade-in to buy more bacon! Fair Shares is the second CSA I have belonged to--the first was only one farm, and therefore when it was beet season, it was all beets, all the time. Fair Shares is a combined CSA so it pulls from dozens of farms and local producers, and therefore there is great variety in produce, meat, bread, canned goods, etc. I love them!

I have been a member for four seasons now and can't say enough good things about Fair Shares. I don't know where else in St. Louis I could find all of these high quality foods offered from the local farms and businesses together in one place. My family uses Fair Shares as our grocery store. Not only do we use the food in the weekly shares but are also shopping for everything else we need for the week at the same time. It saves me time with not having to grocery shop nearly as much and I know it saves me money because I'm buying REAL food that I'm proud to serve my family every day and that tastes so delicious. Seriously, the quality of food is on another level to anything you could find at a grocery store. In fact, I even find that when I eat out at restaurants the quality of food isn't as good! It has completely changed my palette to crave honest, real and nourishing foods and I'm so thankful to Sara and Jamie and everyone for giving me that opportunity.

Only been a member since fall of 2014, but have loved the local produce and meats and other products... lovely flavor, diversity, quality! So glad to be supporting local folks who are working so hard to bring this quality to St. Louis. Thank you all!!

We love Fair Shares CCSA for so many reasons. Not only do we get to support local farmers and other local food-makers, but we get to eat seasonably, with great variety. We appreciate the rhythm of the year, and love that we get so much more than produce- meat, baked goods, condiments, grains, cheese, you name it. Our diet has such a broader range of foods since we started using a CSA, and we are all healthier for it. It's also super convenient. As a family on a budget, we can still meal plan since we get the heads up on our share the night before. We can make trades and order extra to suit our needs. My trips to conventional grocery stores are now super limited and fast, and when it's CSA pickup time, we can walk in and walk out. Huge time saver. The staff is friendly and helpful and know us by name. The length of the season is big benefit, too. It's nice to get local food for so many weeks of the year.

We have been members of Fair Shares CCSA since its inception, and have just signed up for Season 8. It has really changed how our family eats. Each week for 48 weeks a year, we receive two generous tote bags chock full of nutritious, delicious, locally produced meat, cheese, eggs, produce, and other goodies such as bread, pasta, honey, jam, yogurt, pickles, etc. We love eating seasonally and supporting so many local farmers. Fair Shares CCSA brings the farmers market to you-- it's like giving a friend some money and asking them to pick the best of what looks good this week at the farmers market. There are many different subscriber plans (weekly shares, biweekly shares, mini shares, etc.). If eating healthier is a goal for you this year, give Fair Shares a try!

I have lived in this area for 12 years, I have tried several different CSAs: Biver Farms, Yellow Wood Farms, and Winslow's Home. They were good CSAs but we changed for different reasons. Then we found Fair Shares and we were home. As farm kids from Nebraska who lived on the west and east coast before settling in the midwest again, we know the farmers' toil to grow good crops and we know the foodie scene personally. Connecting us with the local farmers, offering recipes along with the produce and most importantly, allowing us to trade out things we don't care for make Fair Shares THE CSA of the area. The other huge benefit is ordering off a list to get grass fed beef, farm fresh eggs, local honey and butters, the list goes on and on. Please contact me personally if you have questions...Fair Shares is the only way to go!

I've belonged to CSAs in California, Colorado and now St Louis. Even in St Louis, I've tried three other CSAs before hitching my wagon to the Fair Shares family.

They believe in farmers receiving a fair price for their fabulous food that is sustainable grown and delivered to us delighted recipients.

Not only is the food great...but the variety of what I can get from Fair Shares puts it in a category I've never experienced before. I can get grass fed chicken, wild-caught salmon, grass fed beef in whatever quantity I need.

Plus, Sara and Jaime and their team, are fun, nice and considerate. I cannot believe their winning CSA is still fairly unknown.

After belonging to another farm share in the St. Louis, MO area for two years, which I loved - and which later stopped offering a CSA, I didn't realize how much variety I was missing. Fair Shares has filled that gap, every week I get meat, plenty of vegetables, fruit often, and some sort of grain - getting to try food from local artisans is fun and makes me feel like part of the local food community. Our family does the full share which is a weekly pick up and it's the perfect amount (2 adults, 3 young kids) - I do freeze the occasional abundance of tomatoes but we go through the rest of the food. I can also buy additional items at my weekly pick up and order milk from a local dairy farm. Overall I really enjoy the CSA, my only negative comment is that the pick up time at the Kirkwood remote site is rather limited, from 4:15-6pm, and sometimes that's hard to make for a working mom but I do appreciate that they have a remote site close to home.

Every person I've ever met who has been a member of a CSA has said the same thing - "I love being a part of a CSA, but one can only eat so much >!" With Fair Shares CSA, we've never had that problem. The variety of food we get - unique and fun veggies, sweet and ripe fruit, a great selection of meat, cheeses and dairy and even dried, canned and local frozen foods (pizza! cookie dough! soups!)- leads our family to eat healthier. Other benefits of Fair Shares (as compared to other CSAs I've been a member of) - much longer season and a great "store" where we can pick up other items or trade.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the very helpful staff. They are great in providing suggestions for how to use the items in your share.

This is our second year of membership and we couldn't be happier. I would recommend to anyone.

We have been members of Fair Shares for several years and always look forward to seeing what we get each week. The high quality of produce and meat products are what keep us coming back every season. The variety allows us to try new things that we would never think to pick up at the grocery store and if it is something (other than produce) that we know we don't care for we can always trade it for something else. They are helpful when it comes to figuring out how to prepare some of the odd/unknown items and very responsive if we ever have an issue (which is rare!).

We have been members of Fair Shares for 6 years. Fair Shares is very well organized and offers high quality, local food from farmers near St. Louis. The produce is awesome, but we also love all of the additional options available with meat, bread, eggs, yogurt, etc. Fair Shares has something for everyone with full shares, half shares, mini shares, and good policies for non-produce trades.

We recently moved from Florida to St Louis and discovered Fair Shares online before we arrived. We'd never belonged to a CSA before, and were eager to try it out as a way to immerse ourselves locally. As it turns out, belonging to Fair Shares is my favorite part of living in my new city! We have the weekly membership, and I am loving the fantastic food that we get in our share. I've had the most delicious blackberries I've ever eaten, the coolest heirloom tomatoes, and crispy local potato chips. Sara and Jamie have been very helpful getting us set up, and each time we pick up we get to chat about interesting new recipes to try. I love learning about foods I probably wouldn't buy, like figs (gobbled them down right from the box) and delicata squash (roast, unpeeled and sliced into bite size pieces - amazing!). I love visiting the local farmer's market, but don't buy anything except a coffee because we get everything already from Fair Shares: meats, cheeses, eggs, bread, veggies, fruit, herbs...and we add chips and chocolate. You can't go wrong - I recommend the full share highly!

This is my second year with Fair Shares and I highly recommend getting the full-share over the 1/2. Every week I am pleased with the selections. It gets me to try new foods that I would have passed up at farmers markets and expand my culinary skills. It is very easy to trade on things I can't use.

We have been Fair Shares members since they began (five years now). We love what Jamie and Sara are doing to support local farmers and suppliers. We have learned about so many great products (coffee, honey, tortillas, chocolate, salsa, specialty products, meats, cheeses, the list goes on and on) in addition to the wonderful produce we receive.

Fair Shares does a fantastic job of communication via weekly newsletters packed with recipes and suggestions for how to use the food we pick up each week. The CSA is easy to work with and flexible. When we have concerns or suggestions, we always receive a quick response and they try to accommodate our wishes (as much as reasonably possible!)

I grew up on a farm in northeast Kansas. I knew early on I was not cut out to be a farmer myself, so I am happy that I can help support local family farms and producers. My family gets the benefit of great food year-round. Win-win!

We joined Fair Shares this summer & look forward to getting our share each week! Produce is fresh & great tasting! Fair Shares is an experience in seasonal eating! In our grocery stores we have so many items available year round, such as strawberries, apples, & asparagus. I am very excited to see what is available with each coming season! I check the newsletter emailed each week to see what is coming & menu plan from there! I love searching the internet for new recipes ideas for the produce I have not typically eaten. It has definitely expanded our tastes in food as well moved us toward healthier eating! Our family loves being able to support our local farmers & producers! I would highly recommend Fair Shares to anyone who wants an adventure in healthy & seasonal eating!

We have been members of Fair Shares for a full year now &, like Deb, we LOVE it. The people are awesome & I look forward to checking my email each Wednesday morning to see what we are getting that day. We get things in our weekly share that we would never purchase when shopping @ our local farmer's market, things that were previously unfamiliar to us. Our membership has really widened our culinary tastes & improved our cooking skills as we find ourselves looking up @ least one new recipe each week. My husband & I are cooking together much more than we used to... back in the days when cooking was uninteresting & meals were ordinary. I would highly recommend membership in this CSA to anybody who aspires to eat more locally grown food and/or enjoys experiementing with new foods.

This is our 2nd year of membership in Fair Shares and we LOVE it! We are getting used to trying new things and look forward (every week) to getting our bags of food. I am just reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and am committed to trying to feed my family more locally grown foods. Jamie and Sara have done a wonderful job of coordinating the Members and the Producers and I don't know how they do it, since this was a brand new venture for them a year ago. I have always wanted to join a CSA and "got in on the ground floor" as soon as I heard about Fair Shares and hope never to have to give it up. I honestly LOVE the variety and my boyfriend is happy getting trout every few weeks and greens (which I never prepared for him before Fair Shares). I'm also really loving getting to truly know what is available each season and eating locally as well as seasonally. We have also been truly surprised by the variety of products farmed or produced in Missouri and Illinois. It has been an enlightening experience, in more ways than one.