It’s about dirt. That’s what some people will tell you.
“There’s something therapeutic about sticking your hand in the freshly turned
earth,” says one member of Genesee Valley Organic Community Supported
Agriculture, the largest community supported agriculture collective in our
area.
It’s
also about produce picked in the morning and on the table that night. In an era
when commercial tomatoes have all the flavor of a bathroom sponge, the
experience of biting into a truly fresh vegetable can be a revelation. You’ll
hear some people say that it’s what food tasted like in the old days. Also,
before corporate mega-farming transformed American diets, there was an amazing
variety of locally grown foods. And frequently, a CSA will grow as many
varieties as it can, both for taste and for protection against pests and
disease.
Most
CSAs allow members to help on the farm and to get organic produce. But the
defining principal is shared risk. Members pledge money (and often their time)
to guarantee that farmers will make a decent living at their work. And once a
week members receive a bag of whatever the farm is producing.
“It’s a
way for people to really support local farms,” says Liz Henderson, one of the
farmers who work with GVOCSA. “CSAs are a form of direct marketing, in which
nonfarmers agree to share in the risk and the benefits of farming. If the farm
has a good year, then the members get more for their money. If it’s a bad year,
then they get less.”
Yes,
there is an element of risk for the members. However, the farmers who run CSAs
are pretty good at what they do, and they’re getting better. In the last few
years, local CSAs have been quite successful in sending full bags of food home
to their members on a regular basis.
Beside
common vegetables, some CSAs provide exotic produce too. Alongside your peas
and carrots, you might also find daikon, shallots, kohlrabi, dragon-tongue
beans, leeks, and arugula. The Fresh Food Buying Club, which farms inside the
city proper, has okra and collard greens. Most CSAs focus on vegetables, but
some deal with fruit too. For instance, the Unitarian Universalist CSA in
Canandaigua provides members with cherries, apples, raspberries, pears, and
peaches.
There’s
also a significant community aspect to the CSA experience. Working alongside
your neighbors, whether picking peas or picking rocks out of the field, washing
the spinach or weeding the onions, is something many CSA members value. A group
effort, working shoulder to shoulder with others to produce something that
gives real pleasure, is a rare experience these days.
And
then there’s the simple fact that small farms are vanishing quickly from the
American landscape. It’s likely that in a few years, the only farms not owned
by corporate behemoths will be CSAs. So these community supported farms also
serve the function of keeping farmland usable, unpoisoned, and locally owned.
There
is no typical CSA member. You’ll find a wide spectrum of people involved: rural
and inner city, suburban and small town, well to do and struggling,
octogenarians and kids.
The
one common theme however, is a great emphasis on the quality of what’s for
supper. Liz Henderson says that CSA members are often “people who really care
about food. They like to cook, they like to talk about food, they trade
recipes, and talk varieties.”
And so,
a weekly infusion of fresh toxin-free produce is extremely appealing. On any
Thursday night or Sunday morning, you’ll see dozens of people outside the
Abundance Cooperative Market, lined up for their GVOCSA shares. The food
distribution is like a small town social event. People trade gossip and small
talk, get to know new members, discuss events on the farm, and catch each other
up on their kids’ activities.
Compare
this to the parking lot of supermarket bigger than an airplane hangar. Lone
shoppers trudge out with their carts full of Chinese apple juice, California
lettuce, and industrial-grade cereals. At CSA distributions, it’s more like a
celebration. Another week of shared risk and, often, shared success. Members
own the CSA, make the CSA happen, and benefit directly from the CSA’s strength.
But
it’s the food that’s the focus. And good food makes these people very happy.
All CSAs listed here are actively seeking new members:
Porter Farm
Contact: Kathy Rice, 757-6823
Number of members: 250
$300 per share
23 weeks of delivery
Farm location: Elba
Delivery points: Saturday mornings in Henrietta, Pittsford,
Rochester, Fairport, Penfield, Irondequoit
Work requirement: none
Pine Meadow
Contact: Faith Harding, 315-589-9236,
pinemeadowfarm@juno.com
Number of members: 40
$300 for a working share, $400 for nonworking share
20 to 22 weeks of delivery
Farm location: Marion
Delivery points: Irondequoit Farmer’s Market (Thursday),
Fairport farmer’s market (Saturday), and at the farm in Marion
Work requirement: working share members must spend 15 hours
on the farm
Fresh Produce Buying Club
Contact: Katie Lavin, 704-4508
Number of members: 16
$175 single membership, $300 family
22 weeks of delivery
Farm location: Rochester
Delivery points: The Vineyard (Thursday), Public Market
(Saturday)
Work requirement: none
Unitarian Universalist Church of Canandaigua
Contact: David Kavanagh, 394-0553
Number of members: 30
$17.50 per week
Deliveries June through October
Farm location: Phelps
Delivery point: Canandaigua
Work requirement: two shifts of four hours per share
Genesee Valley Organic CSA
Contact: Michele Liguori-Alampi, 241-9680
Number of members: 280
$16 per week for full share, $10 per week for partial share
26 weeks of delivery
Farm location: Arcadia
Delivery point: Abundance Cooperative Market in Rochester,
and on farm
Work requirement: full share: 12 hours on farm and five
hours at distribution; partial share: eight hours on farm; two and a half hours
at distribution.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2004.
