Acton Eats: What is Community Supported Agriculture?

Part 1 of 2

The snow is falling as I begin this blog entry, but I'm already thinking of spring. For one thing, the fruits of last fall's harvest are almost gone. The only fresh vegetables I have left are one lonely butternut squash and a few heads of garlic. I also have a dozen Ziploc bags of last year's produce in the freezer, but I know these, too, will soon be gone.

I'm sure some of my friends and family members are studying the seed catalogs and web sites, planning what crops to plant in their backyards this spring.

For those of us who crave fresh vegetables, but lack the space, the time, the skill, or the patience to grow their own gardens, there is an alternative. And that is the phenomenon known as Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, for short. When you belong to a CSA, you pay a set fee at the start of the year for a weekly share of produce throughout the growing season, roughly from the first of June to the first of November.

My wife and I have been CSA members for more than 10 years. For two years, we belonged to Meadow Brook Farm, which had fields in Lincoln and Sudbury. Then, when farmer Chris Kurth took a hiatus to teach at The Farm School in Athol, we switched to Lindentree Farm, also in Lincoln, where we've been ever since.

If you buy mostly conventional supermarket produce, you probably won't save much money by joining a CSA, but if you prefer fresh locally raised and often organic fruits and vegetables, it's definitely worth it.

Plus, most CSA members will have the opportunity to try a much wider variety of veggies than they would if they stuck to the supermarket. In addition to staples like lettuce, carrots, peas, potatoes, and zucchini, we've sampled salsify, celeriac, amaranth, purple cauliflower, tongues of fire beans, kohlrabi, and many others. And once you're accustomed to picking ripe tomatoes right off the vine, it's tough to go back to eating flavorless grocery store tomatoes.

And cooks who love a challenge will enjoy planning their weekly meals around whatever is fresh that week. When you have kale, leeks, or eggplant piling up in the fridge, you will learn new recipes!
For farmers, running a CSA is a way of having a guaranteed income, in addition to that earned by selling to restaurants, in a roadside stand, or at the farmer's market. And they get paid up front, at the time their buying equipment and supplies for the upcoming season.

Even farms that have followed traditional distribution models are starting to realize the benefits of selling directly to CSA members. For example, Kenney Farm in Concord is starting a CSA in 2010, after selling vegetables on the wholesale market since 1885. The farm will charge $550 for a bushel basket of fresh vegetables every week, for 20 weeks. Half shares are available for $300.

A CSA is truly a partnership between the farmer and the consumer. Becoming a member gives you a stake in the farm, as you and the farmer will share in the joy if the cornfield produces a bumper crop and share the disappointment if the tomato crop is decimated by blight, as it was at many CSAs last year.

Harvested closer to peak of flavor, vegetabes from the CSA taste fresher and also keep much longer. Vegetables purchased in the supermarket may be locally grown, but often have sat on the shelf for several days, losing flavor and nutrients in the process.

And increasingly, a CSA is not just about vegetables. Lindentree also grows its own raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, and more. My wife also loves the flower share, which allows her to have a fresh bouquet on the table every week. We also pay an extra fee for a weekly share of fruit, delivered from Autumn Hills Orchard in Groton, giving us a peck of apples, pears, or plums every week throughout the fall. And we've taken advantage of freshly baked breads from Iggy's, fresh mozzarella cheese from Fiore di Nonno, and beef raised at nearby Matlock Farm.

Some CSAs have a work requirement, while others do not. At Lindentree, my wife and I generally work a couple of mornings during the season, and we really gain a greater connection to land by helping to plant, harvest, or weed the farm. Some farms, such as Lindentree and Stearns Farm in Framingham, even offer "work shares," where you can put in a few hours every week in exchange for a share of the harvest.

Next: Choosing a CSA