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?
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
If you haven’t already done so, read “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. It’s a chronicle of her family’s first year or so growing their own produce. A beautiful — and practical — book by a wonderful writer. Enjoy!
I’ll have to go get that out of the library. Or put in a request for it on Bookmooch.com or Paperbackswap.com. Thanks!
any chance the quality was affected by the wet weather? and the stuff you were given was what survived it?
Yes, that is entirely possible. I know that my mother’s own garden suffered. But the rest of the farm was in such terrible shape that it was almost embarrassing to go there every week. I’m excited about our new venture!
Those are some expensive scallions!!!!!
Hi Leah, now I’ll get to follow you for a whole new reason – we’re about to move to the East Coast and become backyard farmers ourselves. We’re already gardeners – tomatoes, green beans, onions, lettuce, blackberries, peppers – but we’re moving to a very large lot and hope to really ramp up the production. So your families and my family are both joining the “Urban Farm” movement [even if we aren't in the center of the city, we're not on 400 acres in Kansas either...] Your group undoubtedly has come across all the materials on the Web for Urban Farmers. Are you to the point yet of deciding whether to keep a few chickens? Chickens, but not roosters, are legal in most cities, and there’s no faster way to turn kitchen scraps into farm fertilizer.
Good luck to all of us!
Actually, the person who’s home where we’re going to plant the farm does have chickens! I’ll have to mention this to her.
Leah
My BIL did this for a while on some extra land at my MIL’s house. His little biz even delivered the veggies to people (at work or at home). It lasted a few years, and I’m not exactly sure why they gave it up. I suspect it was just too much work since they did not require people to help out. The irrigation issues were no picnic either.
Cool idea, though. Suddenly Farmers … made me laugh.
Starting a garden from scratch is going to be a lot of work, but I think we can handle it…deciding what to grow will be one of the hardest tasks. I can almost guarantee that we won’t plant okra, edamame or brusselles sprouts (Kim hates them). But I’m pushing for arugula, lots of lettuces, squashes and tomatoes. the rest is up for grabs. And Michele’s chickens will have a field day with our leftovers and trimmings!
I seem to recognize Anchor Run Farm in this exchange. They have just gone thru a tremendous set of bad circumstances! I work at a nearby farm market that has been a family outlet for generations! This year – strawberries rained out, early plants demolished by a May 17 freeze, tomatoes (really a TROPical fruit!) treated to less sunshine than I have seen in thirty years on the east coast, EVERYthing late, and already hit by a weeks-early frost! Meanwhile our Anchor Run farmers were in their first real year, had tons of mud to work in, week after week, worked their hearts out in the worst farming season I can remember. Cut them some slack! CSA’s are a gamble. This year we didn’t break even. For farming, its always next year! Be fair, folks. You would-be farmers are just talking – not walking the walk!
Fair enough, Jim. It was a rough year. I’ll give you that. But in the meantime we are going to start our own farm/garden on a small scale for the next growing season and save ourselves some money in the process. Maybe I’ll be crying “mea culpa” this time next year but we are going to try to walk the walk and see what happens.
Thanks for posting a comment.
I applaud ALL efforts to grow local!
Farming is a learning process that continues for a lifetime. I planted my first ‘garden’ about 78 years ago and have not stopped except for a few years in transit, military, apartment living, etc. I still have a small plot and will start my seedlings in February after digging up a few forced Hyacinths, etc. beginning after Christmas. And I’m still learning by mistakes that fortunately are not fatal….
CSA’s will continue to prosper because they offer a unique opportunity for many folks to get into growing things on a large scale, with professional help right behind them.
Good Luck to you!
Hooray for Jim! A DIY CSA is fine, but ARF should be your inspiration, not your motivating disappointment. Using fresh, locally grown vegetables also means learning to eat and cook seasonally, and storing that bounty for the months without fresh local produce. Most importantly, perhaps, you should have considered a half share membership where you got a full amount of vegetables every other week rather than the splitting of a whole share. You might have felt more satisfied with the quantity. So you really only paid $400 for the full season…for organic produce. Despite the east coast wide tomato blight, rain, mud and less then optimal sunshine we did get lots of the vegetables that thrived despite these conditions, such as a large variety of greens and peppers, sweet and hot, green and yellow string beans, lots of red, white, and blue potatoes as well as sweet potatoes, great tasting organic celery, carrots, herbs and more. Please take a look at this blog for some inspiration from a CSK-a Community Supported Kitchen! http://foodnanny.blogspot.com
Enjoy your journey…Meryl
I hear what you’re saying about the farm, and understand your complaints. I really missed my favorite arugula this year. But it just wasn’t meant to be, and it wasn’t the farmer’s faults (blame mother nature, the great giver and taker-away when it comes to farming).
A key aspect of CSAs is that you share both the risk and reward of farming WITH the farmers. They get a fair wage (still WAY too low compared to the importance of their jobs) and you get a steady supply (7 months worth!) of farm-fresh produce — which for this CSA, is organic.
Some years are good, and some are not. This year wasn’t a good year because of all the rain and the high-clay content of the soils. The farmers planted the crops you wanted — lettuces, tomatoes, onions, potatoes (and much, much more). Those particular crops just didn’t all do well this year because of the weather. They wouldn’t have done well in your local at-home garden either. AND your local at-home garden would have had a much harder time keeping organic with all the bugs/pests to worry about.
These farmers have incredibly difficult jobs, as do all farmers. If you’re a real supporter of CSAs, you’ll stick around to support them rather than bailing after one bad season.
Or maybe you’ll be back after you see how time-intesive, labor-intensive, and HARD the work is. Or maybe not … but either way, be respectful for how hard this work is, and recognize that all farms and farmers go through the occasional bad season.