Time again to consider CSA -- that stands for Community-Supported Agriculture. You
invest some bucks in a local farmer's growing season and share the harvest.
   A note arrived from a neighbor yesterday reminding us about One Straw Farm in White Hall, northern Baltimore County. One Straw's Web site says it is the largest organic vegetable farm in Maryland. It has supplied Baltimore restaurants, retail stores and farmer's markets with
produce for years.
   In the One Straw CSA program, you pay the farming family $475 now, in
advance of spring planting, in exchange for produce as it becomes available
during the 2007 growing season. One Straw delivers enough produce for each
subscriber to feed a family of four between the first week of June and
Thanksgiving. That's 24 weeks, at about $20 a week. You have to pick the
produce up at certain locations. The produce, of course, varies with the
season.
   "They could be beets, lettuce, potatoes, strawberries, a watermelon --
whatever is ripe for picking -- enough to feed a family of four its vegetables
for a week," says One Straw's Web site. "We've tested this with our family and
you'll have plenty of vegetables all week and maybe some leftover to freeze
for the winter."
   And then there's the idea of supporting local agriculture.
   "This is an economical way to enjoy the same produce you would normally pay
retail for," says the neighbor's note, "and you will help support one of our
local farmers, [who] has committed to farming organically."
   One Straw already delivers to about 10 CSA sites. With 10 or more families
in our neighborhood joining up, One Straw will be making a weekly delivery to
a nearby church. "And for every 10 shares I drop
at the church, an extra one will be left for the church to use for an outreach
project," reports Joan Norman, who runs the farm with her husband, Drew.
   CSA is not an American idea; it reportedly originated in Japan, Sweden and
Germany, and arrived here in the mid-1980s.
   In CSA, farmers have income long before harvest, and their customers share
in their risks.
   "In return," says the USDA Web site, "they receive shares in the farm's
bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from
reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production."
   I like the sounds of this, and I've been doing the math: We pay $20 a week
easily at the local supermarket for produce and canned or frozen vegetables.
   Most of us are stuck with that. We don't have time for gardening on our
own. The fact that One Straw is an organic farm, and certified so by the Maryland
Department of Agriculture, makes this deal even more appealing, although
paying $475 up front carries some risk.
   There's no money-back guarantee if a crop fails.
   Then again, because One Straw grows a variety of vegetables and fruit,
chances are there will be something available every week -- if not tomatoes,
then maybe string beans.
   I like the sound of this.
   It's too bad we didn't think of it sooner -- back when all those small
family farms were dying off or selling out to developers.
   Imagine each post-World War II housing tract in the suburbs of Baltimore
with its own CSA, an organic farmer set up to serve all the families in all
those cul-de-sacs: fresh produce and healthier diets for the local residents,
the local residents directly connected to the farmer, the farmer serving his
surrounding community, keeping chemicals out of the soil and providing his
heirs with a livelihood for generations.
   Maybe one day, instead of building another golf course or strip mall, we'll
put farms where the farms used to be

Here is a note from Joan Norman who runs the farm...

2008 Prices:  No price change this year!!!!!

$475 if paid by March 1,2008
$525 if paid by June 1, 2008

Family-owned farms are in danger of being swallowed into a food system that does not support them, even though these farms are the base of the whole system. Our description of our CSA is a mutually beneficial relationship between farmer and consumer. Farmer or consumer are no longer subject to the whims of the larger food system where prices fluctuate, farmers can be paid less than what it costs us to grow the crop, government subsidizes a loosing system, consumers have no knowledge of the path or safety of the food sitting on their table.

Words like organic, locally grown, food miles, carbon footprint are spoken everywhere. I can't tell you how many people start a conversation with have you read: The Omnivores Dilemma; or Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?
It seems that everyone is reading and wanting to know the path of their food sitting on their table. Here is where I will add a fact that surprised one of my own sisters, (I won't tell you which one).

Organic food is the only food that is required by law, to be traced from your table, back to the farm where it originated, in what field and what day it was picked.

Conventionally grown food has no requirements to give you that information. It could be from Florida, California, or Maryland. Local was a term used in the produce industry to mean east of the Mississippi, Florida to Maine. Now the term local is changing.
Local will be followed with a mile term, 200-mile radius or 100-mile radius. We try to keep our CSA within a 50-mile radius.

Last year was not perfect or without a few growing pains. There were some crop failures; i.e., strawberries and Brussels sprouts. (We are working on those problems for this year.) The strawberries are closer to the house and have a deer repellent as well
as electricity surrounding them. We will also cover them this spring to be sure early budding isn't damaged by late freezes. The Brussels sprouts had harlequin beetle damage. They were a problem for many organic growers last year. I think Chinese Weeder
Geese are the answer. (Stay tuned to see if I get to try them. Drew won't know I wanted to try these until he proof reads this letter to you.)

In September, we had our tomatoes canned by a processor. This was to 'stall our harvest.'  The tomatoes were processed into #10 cans, their only size can. I have not found a processor who can do the 1-pound can on the East Coast. These cans are our
tomatoes crushed, nothing else-no water or salt. We still do not have the labels finished but are selling them without labels. A #10 can is restaurant size, and they sell for $6 / can. They are being used by:  Atwater's, Dogwood Restaurant, Woodberry Kitchen and Goucher College's food service - Bon Appetite. Retail sale of these cans of crushed tomatoes is available at Mill Valley Garden Center.

This year's new crops will include spaghetti squash. It was supposed to get planted last year and we forgot. That is where we are so far, if you have any questions please contact us. I am speaking at several drop sites this year to explain the CSA to interested
people. There will be a listing on the website of times and places. There is a membership form attached.

Joan
One Straw Farm
www.onestrawfarm.com