Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) (continued) An alternative to agribusiness, CSA is a relationship between farmer and consumer. You get a different and varied array of freshly harvested vegetables every week of the growing season. The farmers get your commitment before they plant a single seed. It means having the money to buy seeds and equipment, and the time to do what they love--farm. Not only does it mean not having to worry about selling crops in an unstable marketplace, it means not having to sell them at all, because they're already sold. Sharing the harvest means sharing the blight as well as the bounty. As a member, you are, in a sense, a farmer too. But you'll never go hungry on a farm as diverse as ours. Some crops thrive in some seasons, some in others, usually complimenting each other. CSA has its origins in the wisdom that gave birth to biodynamic agriculture; it is a small, but potent force recognizing the interdependence of farmers and consumers. All systems, economic as well as ecological, or biological, are microcosms that have their own integrity, but they all depend on one another. The relationship of one family to a farm was partially born on a biodynamic farm in Switzerland, which was the model for a farm in Massachusetts. Simultaneously, another farm in New Hampshire, centered around a Waldorf school, invited the community to become members/shareholders of their farm. Out of those two initiatives grew the phenomenon of CSA. There are now over a thousand CSA farms in North America. At this one, we take the word community seriously and playfully. We share the harvest in many more ways than one. We share the right to food that is fresh and clean and reasonably priced, and we share the responsibility of distributing it. We meet, eat, work and play together on this land, and we extend our idea of community by sharing our food with shelters and food pantries. Our community becomes part of the life of our farm, and our farm becomes part of the life of our community. Community Supported Agriculture, or agriculture supported community. It means being connected--to each other, to a farm, to the earth. Return to Home Page