Every year, I buy a farm share. My farmer gets his money for the year up front; he doesn’t have to borrow from the bank and he doesn’t have to worry about losing the farm if it’s a bad harvest. He gets to focus on growing stuff.
In exchange, every week during the growing season, I get 3/4’s of a bushel of just-picked vegetables. Some are rare heirloom varieties you generally don’t see; some are items you don’t see much of at all; and everything is fresh and lasts much longer than store-bought would’ve.
It’s generally called Community Supported Agriculture [CSA]; you should be able to Google “CSA near me” for results. You can also check localharvest.org , but sometimes their info is out of date or takes searching through. Like, a number of CSAs have drop-off points outside the farm that may be closer to you than the farm itself, or they may be willing to bring shares to a local farmers market that they’re selling at, etc, and Local Harvest tells you where their main farm is :(
Each CSA makes their own rules. Some places will give you a pre-filled box; others will let you pack your own box and choose between options (“Take any combination of 2: eggplant, zucchini, squash”). Some offer different size shares, others offer shares for half-seasons, or for 10-12 weeks and you choose the weeks. Some offer work-shares: you volunteer at the farm for a few hours each week, and you get a box of vegetables in return.
Many will also let you do some pick-your-own each week: often these are either excess vegetables (extra PYO tomatoes and peppers are common); are more labor intensive (blackberries); are things that not everyone wants (okra); are specialty items grown in smaller quantities (ground cherries); or are items where personal choice really matters (flowers); etc.
Most farms include some fruits with their vegetables; I’ve had three local CSAs (one couple retired, another was a bad fit for me) and I’ve gotten raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, pumpkins, watermelon, apples, figs, pawpaw, and Asian pears.
They may also partner with other local farms to offer other local goods: locally grown grains, honey, eggs, meats, mushrooms, etc. They may have an end-of-season gleaning. Many will have some kind of (paid) community meal during the season, and many also provide produce to local [food banks / shelters / community kitchens / etc].
I will say that it’s a commitment, especially if you get the full season and full box share. The first month can be hard, as it’s a lot of leafy green vegetables, and eating half a bushel of green leaves every week for a month is a challenge. Over time, I’ve developed a set of recipes that let me cook whatever’s in season and preserve a bunch of stuff for the winter; and methods to deal with stuff that I get too much of too quickly.
So in June I make lettuce soup; it’s decent enough (not great), but it’s a fantastic way to use up lots of leafy green stuff when I get tired of salads and stir fries and frittatas, and I can freeze it. Bunches of onions here made into French onion soup and frozen; excess hot pepper gets made into pepper flakes or my own hot sauce; tomatoes become marinara or tomato paste and frozen, or salsa and canned.
I usually sit in front of the tv watching stuff for an hour or two while I slice and dice and chop; and then I spend a couple hours cooking. Half of whatever’s cooked goes into the fridge for the week, the other half gets frozen for winter meals. Anything not used in a dish either gets put into a salad for the week, bagged up for snacks, or frozen to be used as ingredients for later meals.
My freezer currently contains: French onion soup; eggplant Parmesan; pizza; seven-layer casserole; vegetable pot pies; lasagna; stuffed tomatoes and stuffed peppers; zucchini boats; pumpkin pie filling and sweet potato pie filling (just the filling, the pies are too bulky); zucchini bread; butternut squash bread; butternut squash soup; marinara; pesto; garlic confit; blueberry pancakes; strawberry muffins; raspberry jam; quiche; burritos; etc. My goal during the season is to do something with all the food that comes in (my starving Irish ancestors would never forgive me for wasting food!), and my goal during the winter and spring is to eat through my freezer so that it’s empty when the next season starts.