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.

Exploring the Concept of Eating Locally

The ebb and flow of trends in society has become familiar throughout fashion, film music and a number of other cultural facets. I often wonder if that same cycle will permeate things like our buying habits and the retailers we patronize. Are the big-box stores here to stay or will we eventually crave the mom and pop experience again . . . or is that happening even now? Some mark the market domination of stores like Wal-Mart as a declension in society, but others see it as affordable access to products for those living on a tight budget.

I’ve also recently been contemplating this circular flowing concept in terms of food. We have so much nutritional information readily available to us, but eat a ton of processed food and probably don’t think locally. What does it mean to think in terms of food locally or in an old-fashioned manner? I mean, I’m not talking about harkening back to an agrarian age, and while some of those tenants could certainly be seamlessly integrated into our lives (a little gardening anyone?), it’s more of an approach, a sensibility to the things we decide to put on our table.

In Jacksonville, the local farm and food co-op options are continuing to grow. You can go to the Riverside Arts Market on any Saturday and purchase locally grown produce, locally raised beef and things like homemade jams and jelly. And you can find a number of restaurants that use local products, with an emphasis on eating fresh. The benefits are numerous and range from bolstering locally-owned-and-operated businesses to the many health factors. I often think about how old the produce is in my grocery store by the time it gets shipped, often from South America, and put out for consumption. How much of it’s nutritional value is lost by the time you get it home and eat it?

I thought about State of the Re:Union Guest Contributor Alina Kodatt’s article about Crabtree Farms in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and their answer to her question, “How does Crabtree Farms impact the Chattanooga community at large?” They answered:

“Crabtree Farms educates and inspires the Chattanooga community to grow their own food sustainably. Throughout the years, we have cultivated a variety of partnerships from community-based organizations to government agencies in order to spread the message of sustainability and “growing your own.” We teach over 400 volunteers on our farm each year about the hard work and rewards of growing food sustainably. This year, our work with an inner-city kids camp and at-risk teens has impacted the lives of children in our most disadvantaged communities, teaching them life-sustaining skills.

Our urban farm offers gardening resources and classes, and grows region-specific plant starts to enable more food gardening in our community. Many former Crabtree employees and volunteers have gone on to start farms or work on unique local food ventures!”

Additionally, Crabtree produces TasteBuds Local Food Guide which inspires residents to connect with local food sources and celebrate our region’s rich culinary bounty.

It’s hard. We all have major time and financial constraints, but can you imagine if we implemented local, fresh food into our diets little by little? Geography also plays a key role. It’s probably far more difficult in some regions to achieve this than others.

We Want to Know:

• Do you try to eat locally?
• What type of fresh food options do you have in your community?
• How important do you think it is to make this type of shift?

You can read Alina’s article about Crabtree Farms and also watch our video about the work of Will Allen in Milwaukee, one of those places where food deserts exist and the options aren’t really there to eat local or fresh . . . until now.

Above Photo by Infrogmation: New Orleans: Crescent City Farmers Market, Magazine & Girod Streets, Saturday morning.