Karl’s Farm

This has been our first year getting a farm share, and it’s been great! My husband and I got a half share. We’ve been pleased with the quantity of vegetables we have received, despite this being an extra-​dry year. We haven’t really bought veggies from the grocery store all summer. We’ve tried some new veggies we’d never heard of before — mizuna, kohlrabi, and daikon radish, for starters. There are also plenty of staples, such as peppers (hot and sweet), potatoes, and cucumbers.
They have a Pintrest page with all different kinds of recipes, which has been useful when we get a veggie and have no idea what to do with it. There haven’t been that many herbs, but when there are, it’s enough to be useful. This is a great farm share if you’re adventurous with your veggies!
We also got a half-​share of eggs, which has been fun. The color of the yolks is so different than what we buy in the store! The eggs come in different sizes and colors (on a lucky day, we’ll get a blue egg!), and we’re happy that they’re coming from chickens that are treated well.
It is expensive? Yes. I think most farm shares probably are. But it’s all organic, and they deliver right to the front door. Meaning, if we go out of town for the weekend, we can have a neighbor bring it in instead of missing out on a share. We’re planning on keeping this farm share for many years to come!

This was my first experience with a farm share. Karl’s Farm is nice enough, but their shares are just not worth the money. A once-​weekly delivery of a full share is barely enough veggies to last more than a weekend. There is little variety (how many uses for radishes do you have?), we’ve found the greens often wilted, and included in the share every week is a small sprig of an herb (like one or two leaves of basil), which adds little to the delivery. A trip to any local farmer’s market, of which there are two on Capitol Hill you can walk to (Eastern Market and H Street), will get you a wide variety of both local and organic veggies for a lot less money and little inconvenience.