A CSA meat package from Marin Sun Farms

​Many people tend to think of CSAs only for fruits and vegetables, but in the Bay Area we're also blessed with a variety of meatier options. We've done the work of finding the farmers; now all you have to do is place your order and start up the grill.

In all cases but Mr. Moo, the name in this post is a link to the website.

The Comprehensive Guide to CSAs for fruits and vegetables is here.

MEAT, EGG AND SEAFOOD CSAs:

Brandon Natural Beef
Grass-fed beef from the company's ranch in Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Colorado is distributed monthly to the Bay Area. It's $50 for 10 pounds of ground beef or $90 for 9-10 lbs of steaks, ground beef, and short ribs.

Marin Sun Farms
Marin Sun Farms offers 10 monthly subscription options, from $40 (sausage only) to $240 (15 lb steak package). Combinations include 7 types of meat: beef, pork, goat, lamb, chicken, turkey and duck. Everything is 100 percent grass-fed and pasture-raised. There are 6 and 12 month subscriptions and delivery to 20 pick-up locations in the Bay Area.

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Contents of a weekly share from Shooting Star CSA

​The number of CSAs -- Community Supported Agriculture groups -- available to San Francisco residents has really grown in the last few years. From farm-fresh produce to grass-fed beef and sustainably caught seafood, there are just so many choices.

Sifting through all the information can be overwhelming. Luckily for SFoodie readers, we've done all the research and put together this comprehensive guide to San Francisco CSAs. The name in this post is a link to the website.

TRADITIONAL CSAs:

Blue House Farm
This Pescadero-based farm offers CSA boxes at Mission Pie on Thursdays. A box typically contains 8-12 different items, estimated to be enough for 2-4 people. Boxes are $24.50 a week, with a 26-week commitment required (May 19-November 11). Pastured eggs from Pie ranch are also available for $7.50 per dozen.

Eatwell Farm
Eatwell delivers year-round to drop-off points in SF, East Bay and Marin County. A four-box basic trial subscription is $108, or $140 with a dozen eggs per box. A 13-box membership is $324 or $428 with a dozen eggs. Weekly or bi-weekly subscriptions are available. Each box contains 10-13 items and most pick-up sites have trade boxes available for items that you don't like and want to trade.

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Photos by Jesse Hirsch

Mussels before bearding, storage, and cooking

​When it comes to innovation, sometimes it's better to let the kinks get worked out before hopping on board. Let someone else test the food for poison, right? But when we heard about Siren SeaSA, the new fish-share concept modeled after now-ubiquitous produce CSAs, we were willing to be early adopters.

For its beta run, Siren SeaSA rolled out a six-week test program. For your buy-in, you get 3-4 pounds of seafood each week, presumably enough for a family of four. The tentative lineup includes Mediterranean mussels, wild king salmon fillet, whole squid, wild caught Pacific sardines, miyagi oysters, and hook-and-line caught black cod.

Everything is sourced locally, natch, and if unforeseen circumstances (weather, overfishing, etc.) arise on a given week, you either receive a substitute sea product or your money back.

We find this last part especially appealing, as farm CSAs can be a gamble at times, with a poor harvest being a viable risk. For the fiscally conservative, Siren SeaSA's safety net is a major plus.

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4505 Meats

​On The Office this week, resident lump Kevin shared his New Year's resolution to eat more vegetables ― an easy task, since his veggie intake last year was exactly zero. We're thinking Kevin is probably not from San Francisco. In an area where produce is abundant, fresh, and downright irresistible, the Bay Area carnivore is more likely to adopt a nuanced resolution involving the sourcing or treatment of their meat. If that sounds like you, then 4505 Meats has your number with two CSA pastured pork pickups, this Friday and Saturday, Jan. 28 and 29.

As you probably know, pastured pork sits on the top shelf of humane treatment. Meat labeled organic or free range often comes up short in the ethical department, as the "outdoors" the animals are exposed to can be a concrete slab and their exercise time may be minimal. But 4505's CSA is packed with porcine products from Riverdog Farm, where the pigs spend all their time outdoors on an open pasture. They eat grass, bask in the sunshine, and breathe fresh air.

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4505 Meats

​Ryan Farr, the evil genius behind the 4505 Meats Chicken Yum Yum sandwich and supplier of such meaty treats as the artisan turducken, is turning his talents to the holidays for this month's 4505 CSA, $75.

Think party in a box: a crowd-size bag of Farr's famous crispy chicharrones ― the pork equivalent of cotton candy ― three types of sausage, a terrine, cookies, and eggnog. You get over a pound of each sausage (black trumpet mushroom cotecchino; duck and nutmeg; and boudin noir, a traditional Christmas treat), but we're most excited about the pork terrine en crôute, a loaf of spiced ground pork baked in the warm, buttery embrace of brioche. A dozen rosemary lard cookies round things out, along with a 32-ounce jug of a special family-recipe eggnog ― meat free, but add your own booze to make it extra special.

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SusieFoodie/Flickr

Blue Chair's jam CSA offers San Franciscans access to seasonal flavors. These are from 2008.

​Who needs a jam CSA anyway? Cat ladies living off English muffins and pots of Constant Comment, with jar-a-week habits? Hoarders stuffing their larders? The answer, for lovers of Blue Chair jam who happen to live in San Francisco, is anyone who wants to avoid bridge fare.

Blue Chair - Rachel Saunders' premium, high-end preserves made with organic, small-producer fruit ― shows up at two Oakland farmers' markets, Temescal and Grand Lake. Which means that if you're stuck in S.F., you're limited to buying retail.

Last night Blue Chair's Rachel Saunders announced the launch of a jam CSA ― er, CSJ. How it works: You sign up for three months, and each month you order three jars from a menu. The jars ship to Omnivore Books, where you have to shlep for the pickup. The cost: $96. Steep for jam, unless you're that cat lady or hoarder we mentioned. Of course, you could always just go to Bi-Rite, where a 6-ounce jar costs $10.99 (essentially the same price). But being a CSJ member, you get first crack at seasonal flavors ― something you can flaunt when you host your weekly knitting circle, and just casually drop a dish of new-release Black Mission Fig with your craggy, homemade scones. In. Your. Face.

The first CSJ pick-up is in November. Sign up at Blue Chair's website.

4505 Meats/Facebook

The 4505 Meats World Series cooler is available for Wednesday pickup at Local Mission Eatery.

​Those lame wagers mayors make with each other before events like the Super Bowl and World Series? Where the mayor of Dallas, say, pledges half a dozen rib racks to the mayor of New Orleans if the Cowboys lose? Well, we have a suggestion for Mayor Newsom for his World Series wager with the mayor of Arlington, Tex.: Avoid the usual Dungeness-and-sourdough offer, and instead pledge a 4505 Meats World Series cooler.

Part of 4505's CSA pickup offering, the cooler contains a beer- and jalapeno-braised brisket, spicy peanut cracker jacks, chicharron bean dip, 4505-made Fritos, "big-ass bag o' chicharrones," and pork "butter" rillette, all for $55. And since 4505 is adding a new Wednesday CSA pickup location at Local Mission Eatery, this week's World Series cooler contains sweets from LME's Knead Patisserie. For an extra $25, you can kick up to a 4505 Delux World Series cooler, all of the above plus half a dozen beer brats (buns and 4505-made condiments included), and as many Gigante Dogs (100 percent beef links with cheddar and jalapenos).

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In this week's box:

• strawberries (2 baskets), 1 lb. 12 oz.
• fennel, 15 oz.
• asparagus, 11 oz.
• baby artichokes, 12 oz.
• sugar snap peas, 12 oz.
• kale, 11 oz.
• lettuce (2 heads), 12 oz.

Full Belly's strawberry season got off to a bang with this double portion. I just washed these and served them plain as dessert.

Normally I cut the stem out of kale, but this was so young I just made a chiffonade and threw it into a pot of soup that had otherwise finished cooking. Prepared that way, the kale took only a few minutes simmering to cook through.

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In this week's box:

• asparagus, 11 oz.
  
• salad mix, 9 oz.
• green garlic, 8 oz.
• tokyo turnips (first of the season), 15 oz.
• chard, 10 oz.
• spinach, 8 oz.
• sugar snap peas, 8 oz.
• radishes, 12 oz.

The huge radishes we just washed and ate with salt as an hors d'oeuvre. For variety, I also put out some smoked salt, which was pretty good.

I chopped the white parts of the green garlic, sauteed them in olive oil with chile flakes, toasted and ground fennel seed, and salt, added some tomato sauce, and simmered it for a while. Then I stirred in some shredded leftover halibut and simmered just long enough to heat the fish. Oddly, given the ingredients, the flavor was reminiscent of Thai catfish salad.

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In this week's box:

• fresh onion, 6 oz.
  
• asparagus, 11 oz.
• fennel, 11 oz.
• lemons, 12 oz.
• red chard, 10 oz.
  
• spinach, 8 oz.
• salad mix, 8 oz.
• mibuna, 12 oz.
• sugar snap peas, 7 oz.

I used the fennel leaves to make baked halibut using the recipe I posted last week (above, before baking; below, after), and served the baby fennel bulbs with salt as an appetizer, along with some chorizo, Marcona almonds, and anchovy-stuffed olives.

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