I visited Greg and the team at Blackberry Meadows Farm this week. They run a 100ish member CSA about 20 miles from Pittsburgh. His farm is focusing heavily on the community aspect to differentiate the farm from other CSAs in the area. We were talking about how many CSAs are allowing box customization and other schemes: Greg emphatically said, ".. they are still going to get the turnips from us!". He aims to offer cooking class and build a community of committed customers.

Here is community on display:
Interns, volunteers, and work share members weed beans in 90F+ heat!

Every Tuesday is a community work day that is followed by community lunch. Even better, some days they fire up the brick oven to bake pizzas!

I think the key to think about here is that there are many ways to differentiate your CSA. Offering more choice may be one way, but Blackberry Meadows is sticking firm as Pittsburgh's "Most Community-Oriented CSA".