I'm guessing you've heard of Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). Well, there's a new acronym on the block - CSK, for Community Supported Kitchen. CSK's use a similar community-support model to deliver prepared meals using CSA products. Sweet Deliverance, the community enterprise featured in the video, is one of a handful of CSKs that have cropped up recently.
The Farm-to-Table Chef for Busy New Yorkers: Sweet Deliverance from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.
It appears that a whole different food value chain is evolving that's community focused. And while there are thousands of CSAs these days, there are only a small number of CSKs. This is an opportunity for enterprising, community-oriented cooks to fill in the gap.
You can find a list of CSK's below courtesy of Tasting Table. And if you're interested in starting a CSK, a searchable database of CSAs to explore partnering with is here.
- Sweet Deliverance In her wind-powered Brooklyn kitchen, Blue Hill at Stone Barns alum Kelly Geary (featured in the video) turns CSA shares into upscale comfort food--a sample menu might include sweet-potato bread pudding, spicy beef empanadas and creamy beet soup--then delivers the dishes to her NYC clientele.
- Local Sprouts Cooperative On Wednesdays, subscribers visit this Portland, Maine, co-op kitchen to pick up dishes like lamb shepherd's pie, homemade yogurt and apple-tomato chutney. Coming soon: a community-supported café.
- Salt, Fire & Time Tressa Yellig heads this new CSK in Portland, Oregon, where she turns local, sustainably grown foods into nutrient-dense dishes like cream of garlic soup, pork rillettes andhouse-made kombucha.
- Three Stone Hearth This well-known worker-owned CSK in Berkeley sells hundreds of healthful prepared dishes each week. Don't miss its Mexican chicken soup, coconut rice or crunchy granola.
Thumbnail image courtesy of neighborhood notes pdx on Flickr.
Comments
Neal Gorenflo wrote on 11.12.09, 7:38pm:
The point of the post was to suggest a potential opportunity - the fact that over 3000 CSAs exist and a much smaller number of CSKs exist. If more CSKs emerged to complement the CSAs, that could mean some new jobs. I had in mind all the people out of work. And young folk who are forging careers in a tough economy.
Seems to me that this runs the risk of further reinforcing the notion that CSAs are an elitist foodie affectation. And I say that as someone who has subscribed to CSAs consistently for more than 10 years.