I’ve been a huge fan of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs for quite some time now. I’ve belonged to two farms locally, and been pretty pleased with the quality and quantity of locally grown, organic vegetables members could get. That is, until this past year.

This year my CSA farm got new farmers. They seem like perfect pleasant people–I got to chat with them one day while weeding the carrot fields. (Members have to donate a required number of hours to manual labor on the farm as part of their membership.) But I really wasn’t that happy with their farming.

For starters the farm itself, from the cleanliness of the barn (I know that sounds oxymoronic but you really can have a clean enough barn) to the neatness of the fields, was in the worse shape I’d ever seen it. Then there was the stuff they were growing. The quantity was way down from past year, and most weeks I would take what was offered but it would usually end up in the compost. I mean, how many stalks of scallions or root balls of celeriac can one family need? A half dozen over a week or two, fine. But week after week after week? Not so great. Where’s my lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes and other “regular” stuff I can feed my family?

And then there was the cost. My friend Michele and I split our full share. We paid $800, plus the eight hours we had to work on the farm, and you know what? We’re not sure the money and time is worth it anymore. We have mutual friends Kim and DeeDee who are also members of this farm–and share a full share as well–and like us, they’re not too happy with the state of farm affairs. So, together we’re thinking of doing something radical: starting our own DIY CSA.

Having DeeDee on board will be excellent, because she’s the author of a book on vegetable gardening. So we have an expert in our midst.

Michele told me we’re having our first meeting next week to figure out how we can handle our become accidental farmers–or given this blog’s name, Suddenly Farmers. I’ll keep you posted on what we figure out. Bottom line: we’d like to save money and grow the kinds of fruits and vegetables we want to eat, not freaky stuff that we have to page through cooking magazines to figure out what to do with.

Have you ever started your own farm like this? Any advice to share?