Spoiler: yes! Yes! YES! Longer Answer: Yes indeed.

I purchased a farm share in early May (and wrote about it on Wallet Blog on May 11th). My main motivation was twofold: helping local farmers while encouraging my family to eat better. For $15.38 a week, I would receive one small box of mostly local vegetables, which I’d pick up at the Tuesday afternoon farmers’ market in my city.

We’ve been getting our FarmShare boxes for nearly two months now and my family and I have no complaints. While not all of the produce has been local, most of it has been organic, and it has always compared to what I’d spend $25 on at Whole Foods.

In addition to the vegetables in the box, I get to choose two bunches of greens each week (either something from the lettuce family or from the “cooking green” family: kale, chard, etc). For the first month, we also got a watermelon every week, which was our pay-in-full incentive when we signed up.

The best thing about the farm share is it has exposed me to vegetables that I’d otherwise never buy. We came home with two bunches of chard this week. Chard! Which I sauteed in garlic and olive oil and was surprisingly tasty. We also get a pint of organic blueberries each week, so in conjunction with a $0.75 box of Jiffy pie-crust mix, I’m making about a pie a week. I also turned last month’s strawberries and rhubarb into two pies. Great, great pies.

So, we’re eating better, I constantly have fresh vegetables and fruits in my refrigerator, I’m becoming a more adventurous cook, and it’s costing me less than it would at the market (while ensuring that the money I do spend stays mostly local). Also, it allows me to serve two vegetables with every dinner, which has been a goal of mine for a while.

All in all, our FarmShare has been a wonderful investment. I’d recommend it highly to anyone who’s not afraid of a little cooking. Visit LocalHarvest to find FarmShare opportunities in your area.