CSA NEWS

CSA Mini-School Helps Farmers “Share the Harvest”

January 2008

From national magazines to hometown newspapers, Americans have been hearing of the many benefits of eating local food. All of these articles recommend Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA’s, as one of the best sources for this food. Having grown in number from a handful of examples in the 1980’s, to over 1,200 today, CSA’s are a system where consumers agree to buy a “share” of food each week from a farm, and sometimes even help out with the farm work.Today in the lower Midwest, demand for CSA farms exceeds supply, with many farms having waiting lists. To help facilitate more farmers in developing successful CSA programs, the Kansas City Food Circle CSA Coalition was formed in 2007. And this January the 2008 Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference hosted its first ever CSA Mini-School in St. Joseph, Missouri.Farmers from Arkansas to Iowa heard from Chris Blanchard of Rock Spring Farm in Highlandville, Iowa; Rebecca Graff of Fair Share Farm in Kearney, Missouri; and Elizabeth Henderson of Peacework Farm in Newark, New York. The release of the recently revised and expanded edition of Henderson’s classic book Sharing the Harvest---A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture, served as a focus of the session, along with a training manual developed by Michigan State University. The course covered the many complexities and benefits of CSA farming. Chris Blanchard talked about the organizational techniques he and his wife Kim use to provide for 175 CSA members, a farmer’s market, and a local food coop. With all the details, he still stressed “the need to have fun,” especially in those hot, hot days of August.Rebecca Graff, who interned with Henderson in 2001, spoke on the experiences of learning CSA farming firsthand, and then starting one herself with partner Tom Ruggieri. Their farm, which provides 100 CSA shares, is modeled on Peacework Farm, and members are required to come out to the farm 1 to 2 times per season to help with the labor-intensive job of harvesting. 'Members get a real ‘hands-on’ connection to their food this way,' she noted, creating a true community.Along with farming, Henderson has talked with, visited, and re-visited hundreds of CSA farms and farmers since first publishing Sharing the Harvest in 1999. In telling tales of both problems and successes she stressed the importance of community in the CSA model. In describing her first CSA year in 1987 where she grew for a local group, The Politics of Food, she noted how “at first I thought I was just growing vegetables, and then realized I was into something bigger”.Over the years that CSA became an entity all its own---the Genesee Valley Organic CSA. This group takes care of all administrative aspects of the CSA and runs the weekly distribution site. This allows Henderson and her fellow farmers to stay on the farm and concentrate on their strength---growing nutritious, organic vegetables for over 250 CSA shares.To learn more about joining CSA’s, or starting one of your own, you can go to www.KCFoodCircle.org/KCCSAC/, www.CSAFarms.org, or www.CSACenter.org.