Sweet Deliverance And Local Sprouts Coop And Salt, Fire & Time And Three Stone Hearth Are CSKs

CSKs take farm-fresh delivery to the next level

Now that we've mastered the ABCs of the CSA, get ready to embrace a new acronym in the local food movement: CSK, or Community Supported Kitchen.

Like CSAs, CSKs support local farmers and offer communities easy access to fresh, local food. But for those who don't have the wherewithal to tackle a weekly delivery of raw ingredients, these kitchens take the process one step further by turning farm-fresh produce and meat into ready-to-eat (or heat) dishes for its members.

Here are four CSKs that make eating locally more convenient than a trip to the convenience store:

Sweet Deliverance In her wind-powered Brooklyn kitchen, Blue Hill at Stone Barns alum Kelly Geary (pictured) 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 and house-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.