CSA Newsletter for May 13, 2014

Farm Update

Look at all these lovely little strawberry plants!
Pretty soon we'll be harvesting all sorts of yummy berries!

Hello everyone!  As the weather has warmed, the field work has become very busy and things are growing at an exceptional rate.  Most of the field is now planted and we were even able to sneak in an acre of cover crop early in the season as well.  So far we have been planting our cool weather crops such as kale, lettuce, carrots, and onions, and we also planted some basil, summer squash, and cucumbers in the coldframes last week. This week we will start putting tomatoes in the coldframes after we harvest the greens that are currently there.  These last few weeks have been great, as the warmer temperatures have spurred a lot of growth, but the weeds are coming fast and furious, so we are trying to stay ahead of them.  We are hoping that our new cultivator that is coming this week will help out a lot with the spring weeds. As for the chickens, they are now at our house and have quickly overtaken the yard.  We found the first few pullet eggs yesterday, so we expect to have a lot of eggs soon.  Our old dog Josie just moved back to the farm after staying inside with us for the winter.  She is happy to have the whole farm to explore again.  In the orchard, our fruit trees are going to bloom any time now, as will the blueberries.  We are really looking forward to another great season!

 The Many Benefits of CSA

If you’ve talked to me for even a few minutes, you’ve probably gathered that I am passionate about the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) concept.  I love CSAs because they benefit not only the farmer, but also the consumer, the environment, and the local community.

This garlic was planted last fall, and it will
                be the garlic you get in your share
                 this season.

In general, farming is a pretty uncertain, precarious business.  Traditional commodity farmers are subject to swings in the market which can make or break their seasons, and you pretty much need to have a lot of acreage if you are going to be able to produce enough crops to make a living wage.  Also, winter and early spring are when most farms incur a lot of their expenses, between repairing equipment, buying seed, etc.  So in the traditional farm model, where the farm does not actually have any income until the late summer when they harvest and sell their crops, most farms are operating in the red for most of the year.  And as anyone who has ever been in an uncertain income situation can attest, that is a pretty stressful way to live.  So one way CSA benefits the farmer is that the farm actually has income early in the year when they really need it.  Since members sign up and pay at least a portion of their membership early on, that really eases the cash flow issues that plague most farms.  Farmers also have a lot more control over their markets with the CSA model, and are not subject to the same price swings that commodity crop farmers often experience.  And growers who rely on farmers’ markets or auctions to sell their produce know that even if they have the loveliest veggies in the world, they are probably going to end up throwing most of it away if it rains on market day.  CSA also minimizes that risk, because when we harvest each morning for the drop-off, we already know where each tomato, cucumber, and bag of spinach is going.  The CSA concept really minimizes the everyday risk that is the reality for most farms.  It also allows us to be responsive to what the consumers want.  We’re experimenting with a few new fruits and veggies this year because people have asked us about them.  The fact that we get to talk to our CSA members at the drop-offs allows us to be more in tune with what people really want, which makes us better able to serve our customers.

Aside from benefitting the farmer, the CSA model also benefits the consumer.  For one thing, you can ask the farmer questions about exactly how something was grown, so you know exactly what you’re putting in your body.  Also, when CSA members pick up their veggies, their share has usually been harvested that very same morning.  Talk about fresh produce!  By contrast, when you buy veggies from the store, they have usually been harvested about a week earlier, which means that they won’t last as long in your fridge, and they’ve lost a little bit of flavor and nutritional quality during their cross-country journey.  It is also really easy to get stuck in a rut at the store, always throwing the same few items in your cart.  But with CSA, you get to learn about new fruits and veggies that maybe you’ve never used before.  When we first started doing the CSA, a lot of people would look at the kohlrabi and ask me, “What the heck are those?”  But since those first encounters, I have had several people come up and tell me that kohlrabi is now their favorite vegetable.  So you just never know when trying a new type of produce will make your life just a little bit better.

Little Jessamine playing with the produce stand at the Mt. Plesant Discovery Museum.
 She is already learning about how CSA helps connect the community!

There are also environmental benefits to the CSA model.  Most CSAs operate within their immediate geographical area, which eliminates the aforementioned cross-country trip that most produce takes to get to the store where it will be sold.  The average fruit or veggie travels 1200 to 1500 miles to the store, whereas our veggies travel an average of 28 miles to the various drop-offs.  That really helps reduce the fossil fuel emissions necessary to get each piece of produce from the farm to the consumer.  CSAs also tend to use more environmentally friendly farming techniques.  Even those farms that are not certified organic often still use organic practices, they just simply choose not to take on the expense and paperwork involved in being certified organic.  This greatly reduces the amount of chemicals that end up in the soil and water, improving the health of the local environment.  Small CSA farms are also much more likely to be doing things like rotating crops and including animals in their production systems, which reduces or even reverses the detrimental effects that conventional farming methods usually have on the soil.

One often overlooked benefit of CSA programs is the positive effect that they have on the local communities where they are present.  Often CSA drop-offs are somewhat of a community event.  If you show up to our Alma drop-off a few minutes before 5:00, you’ll see about 40 people waiting in line with their baskets for the drop-off to start, chatting with each other about recipes, articles they read recently, and a whole host of other things.  I love listening to the conversations people have while waiting for the drop-off to begin, and I’m glad that we can provide a place for that to exist.  Another benefit is that more money stays in the local economy.  When you buy your produce at a large chain store, the money you spend goes to some headquarters somewhere, and it has left the community.  But when you get your produce through a CSA or farmers’ market, the money stays in the community.  So if you’ve ever seen me at Stucchi’s having a sandwich with my girls, or getting coffee and granola at Green Tree, or picking up some bacon at LaLonde’s after we inevitably run out of our own, you can smile knowing that not only have you helped support our family, but also these other local businesses as well.

So for these reasons and many others, Community Supported Agriculture is a model that has benefits all around, for those who produce the food, those who consume it, the environment, and the community.  So thanks for being a part of it!