Going from the big city to the countryside can be quite a challenge. Saying goodbye to the fancy coffee shops, sushi on the go and public transportation, as I moved across the country from Washington, D.C. to a very rural part of Washington state, I wondered what I was getting into. Beyond the big city’s amenities, I was worried about the community of friends, neighbors and co-workers I left behind. Here, my closest “neighbor” is a grain silo overlooking a few dozen acres of alfalfa. So instead of trying to find the big city in the countryside, I decided to embrace my new life and the offerings of living so close to nature. In particular, I was excited about the readily available fresh produce. Sure, you can get locally grown produce at the farmer’s markets in the Dupont Circles and Union Squares of the big cities out east, and, on occasion, I would buy a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread for $15. But I was ready to find accessible produce that could be eaten on a daily basis and not just as a special treat.

Upon arriving here, one of the first things I did was join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm.  As the name suggests, CSAs involve the public community supporting a farm through buying “shares,” typically consisting of a box of seasonal produce, offered weekly during the harvest season, which runs roughly from May through November. Over the last 20 years, CSAs have become a popular way for consumers to buy locally grown food directly from a farmer, and for farmers to receive financial support from the community.

This system benefits both parties in an impressive show of synergy. The farmers receive payment early in the season which helps with their cash flow, as well as having the opportunity to know the people to whom the fruits of their labor go. And members of CSAs get to know who is producing that food, creating a relationship with the farmer, the land, and their surroundings. Additionally, the food is fresh, local, and often organic. At the same time, one element of joining a CSA accepting shared risk. With a CSA, there is no guarantee of what you will get; it depends on what is growing and being harvested. This promotes the feeling that we are all in on this together; if the farm is productive, we reap the benefits and if it suffers we feel the consequences.

Schreiber & Sons, the CSA I joined, started offering community shares to the public in 2006. Along with the box of organic produce, I get a weekly email, telling me what is going to be in my box and what is going on at the farm; that the tomatoes will be out later this year due to the unusually cool spring or cilantro is suddenly plentiful due to a few warm days. This new sense of connection with my environment allows me to see how much the weather impacts agriculture, and now, me. Coming from a city, rain used to mean that I had to wear a rain jacket. Cold temperatures caused me to leave the house with an extra sweater. Now, these things translate into the amount of mixed greens and strawberries I will be eating.

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The true beauty for me though, is the way that CSAs draw people together.

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“In a lot of communities, with the whole agricultural system in this country, the farmer was getting more and more pushed off to the periphery where you actually didn’t know your farmer as a member of the community. He was the guy that lived on the outskirts of town and you never actually went to his farm to visit. I think this is pulling that member of the community back into the circle where he or she can be seen,” said Pete Shelton, a fellow CSA member, who himself spent some time working on a CSA farm.

In my case, this union of farmer and consumer came to fruition at a Farm Party. Schreiber & Sons has two Farm Parties a year, one in the spring, which I went to last weekend, and one in the fall. This party involved a farm tour followed by a roasted pig and grilled asparagus provided by the farm and long tables piled with pot-luck dishes brought by all of the members of the CSA; about 200 showed up. Handwritten recipes next to the dishes illustrated the numerous ways the farm’s bounty could be prepared. The food was delicious, the conversation easy, and I was struck by how naturally the community was brought together as we were led through fields of cilantro and greenhouses full of peppers, marveling at all the work it took to bring us the food we ate each week.

“Generally CSA’s do things that connect their members to what they do. We’re really taking people who have not been involved in farming like this and putting them into an agriculture area and we really are connecting them to the food and where the food comes from,” said Alan Schreiber, owner of Schreiber & Sons.

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Having been introduced to the CSA model has connected me to my food, my community, my farmer and my creativity.

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But we were also connecting with each other as we sat on the lawn and ate the homemade food and swapped stories about what we were doing with the weekly radishes in our CSA boxes. These were people I had not known until the Farm Party, who were now inviting me over for their next pot luck dinner.

Though there is no official count of how many CSAs are currently in the U.S., Local Harvest has the most comprehensive directory of CSA farms, with more than 4,000 listed in its database. I am glad to hear they are on the rise. This new model of farming is redefining property ownership, creating new forms of cooperation and a new agricultural economy for farmers that want to go beyond the large scale agribusinesses our farmland has been turned into. It’s a model that connects us and allows mutual benefit to be the rule.

Opening my box each week is like a little adventure. And I know that all over town, my fellow CSA member are opening their boxes and figuring out how to turn that into dinner. We have had a lot of asparagus so far this season, so I’ve had to come up with new and interesting ways of eating it, branching out from grilled asparagus to asparagus soup and asparagus salad. But it is more than being overjoyed by the abundance of fresh and healthy produce. I already ate pretty well in D.C., doing my shopping at Whole Foods and the occasional stint at the overpriced farmers market, but I never felt any connection to my fellow Whole Foods shoppers, or the people I bumped into at the weekly farmers markets. Having been introduced to the CSA model has connected me to my food, my community, my farmer and my creativity. My newsletter said next week’s box will include strawberries and rhubarb, so I already know a pie is in my future.

We say April showers bring May flowers, but for me, May is a happy month for another reason: it marks the beginning of farmers’ markets in Evanston, Illinois, the city where I live and go to school. After a long, cold winter, the coming of May means sunny Saturday mornings at a market just down the road, ambling through stalls of fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers and baked goods. Neighbors come to stock up on produce and chat with vendors, while artists showcase their paintings and musicians strum guitars for a gathering crowd of kids.

I developed a soft spot for food markets when I studied abroad last year in France, where local food is an important part of daily life. Since returning to the states, I’ve noticed that farmers’ markets are getting more popular here, too. There are about 6,132 farmer’s markets across the country, and thanks to the USDA’s Food Environment Atlas, it’s even possible to map their locations. The atlas, which gives a spatial overview of factors like farmers’ markets, food taxes and grocery stores, helps show which communities have access to healthy food. Unfortunately, it reminds us that many neighborhoods aren’t as lucky as my own. Just this month, the USDA also released a national map of food deserts, which are found in low-income neighborhoods whose residents must travel far to reach the nearest grocery store (beyond a one-mile radius in cities or a 10-mile radius in rural regions). It’s interesting to place both maps side by side, considering how the absence of farmers’ markets relates to the presence of food deserts.

Beyond the obvious implications for public health, how do communities hurt when they don’t have access to good local food? We tend to think of farmers’ markets as a way to help the environment or get fresher produce, but they also serve an important social purpose. According to Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, they reinvigorate public spaces and foster relationships by giving shoppers an opportunity to talk with vendors about the food they’re purchasing. In an essay for The New York Times, Pollan explains that people are 10 times more likely to stop and chat at a market than they are at a grocery store. We exchange not only food and money, but also our ideas.

I think it’s good news, then, that farmers’ markets are on the rise. Last year, the USDA announced the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program, which will give $10 million in grants over 2011 and 2012 to improve existing markets or create new ones. In some states, farmers’ markets are also acquiring equipment that can process the debit cards used in state food stamp programs, allowing more low-income people to buy their groceries at a local market and build stronger relationships with their neighbors.

We Want to Know:

• Does your neighborhood have a farmers’ market? What’s your favorite part about it?

There aren’t that many big changes in American life that I would consider a 100 percent net positive development. Usually, there are pluses and minuses, something gained and something lost. For instance, I love being able to stream videos and buy books and music online, but hate the idea that book stores and records stores (yes, even video stores) are going away. The dearth of public places where people gather and browse is a big loss.

But if I did have to come up with a wholly positive, 100 percent good change, it would be the growing number and size of farmers markets throughout the land. Whenever I visit a new place (if in the spring, summer or fall), I invariably make it by the local farmers market.

Admittedly, I’m not always buying kale. I may get a cup of coffee and an adobado burrito (if I’m at the Santa Fe Farmers Market) or a buffalo brat (back home in Denver), but occasionally some actual produce does find its way into my bag.

Farmers markets combine public spaces with increased consumer choice and better nutrition. They help support local producers and make it more possible and popular to have “farm-to- table” eating experiences, whether in a chic restaurant or at home. And more and more farmers markets are doing something else—promoting better nutrition and greater access to affordable, fresh produce in lower income, inner city communities.

I first noticed this trend in 2008 when New Haven, Connecticut, won an All-America City Award and one of its projects was an ambitious city effort to bring farmers markets into produce-deprived low income neighborhoods. Now Ann Arbor, Michigan, a 2011 All-America City finalist has joined the trend.

At age 91, the farmers market in the Kerrytown section of Ann Arbor its one of the largest producer-only farmers markets in Michigan, an agglomeration of more than 100 market vendors including farmers, growers, bakers and artisans. The market operates year round on Saturdays and also on Wednesdays from May through December.

And since 2004, the Project FRESH program has made farmer’s market produce available to low-income, “nutritionally at-risk consumers,” specifically the 5600 participants in Washtenaw County’s Women, Infants & Children Program. Program participants receive a booklet of ten $2 coupons to be used at their local farmers markets between June 1 and Oct. 31. Only fresh fruit and vegetables may be purchased (no prepackaged foods or baked goods).

Getting the project started was not without its difficulties, however. When it was first launched only five market vendors were willing to participate, preferring to sell on a cash or check only basis, but these days about 80 percent of vendors participate, with an approximate redemption amount of $5,088.

The market has also joined forces with the state and federal low income food assistance programs (FAPs), better known as food stamp programs. Eligible participants receive food assistance benefits electronically on a state-issued “Bridge “Card, which the Ann Arbor Farmers Market began accepting as a form of payment in 2009.

This was a little tricky because earlier the market only accepted cash and checks, so as food stamp program changed from paper vouchers to electronic swiping cards a new process had to be developed. Participants were asked to swipe their Bridge card in the market office and request a dollar amount to use at the market. The amount is then deducted from their card in exchange for market tokens to use at participating market vendor stalls. To avoid a stigma being associated with using tokens, the market also began issuing tokens for any shoppers who wish to pay with a credit card.

FAP recipients can use the Bridge Card to purchase fruits, vegetables, baked goods and pre-packaged foods at the farmers market. In 2009, there were approximately 20 market vendors participating with a redemption rate of $4,750. By 2010, there were 56 market vendors participating with an approximate redemption rate of $16,200.

This, as I said before, has to be one of the 100 percent wholly positive developments and it seems to be something of a trend. Farmers markets in Portland, Oregon and Detroit have similar programs. Ann Arbor market manager Molly Notarianni calls it a “win-win-win” solution, adding an extra “win” to the usual “win-win.” It’s good for the farmers, who have more potential customers. It’s good for the government, which can get more nutritious food to nutritionally “underserved” communities. And it’s good for the food assistance recipients, who get to eat healthier for less.

Win-win-win.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.