Community Supported Agriculture benefits farmers, consumers

It is only the middle of January, yet many of us are already thinking about the upcoming gardening season. The spring and summer of 2020 saw a large increase in the number of people who started vegetable or flower gardens as one way to cope with staying home and other pandemic-related inconveniences. I hope that for many of these “newbies” that initial effort will be repeated this year and well into the future.

Gardening is good for us for many, many reasons. It provides exercise in the great outdoors, teaches us patience, requires planning, rewards hard work and it is also very challenging. I found it amusing last year to hear from many people who are extremely talented and more than competent in many activities who were absolutely befuddled by the challenge of trying to grow something! Gardening can be a humbling endeavor and sometimes it is good to be humbled. I hope that many people will try again this year, but for those who have decided that it is just too much like work, there is a great alternative.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) links farmers and consumers directly with an agreement that benefits both parties. The way it works is that essentially, the consumer prepays for a supply of food that will be provided on a regular basis over a pre-agreed upon period of time. Most of the

CSAs that I am familiar with are for fresh produce but it is possible to have a CSA for meat, dairy, flowers or almost any other agricultural commodity. For example, a local vegetable farmer will offer to provide a grocery bag of fresh vegetables weekly to a customer who pays a fee in advance. The fee is often collected in the winter before the season even begins. The vegetables provided will vary with whatever is in season at the time.

Early in the season, the grocery bag may be mostly early greens such as lettuces and spinach with radishes or peas. Later on, there might be beets, beans, summer squash and cucumbers followed by tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn and, finally, winter vegetables such as winter squash, cabbages, potatoes, onions, Brussels sprouts, etc. The advantage to the farmers is that they are paid ahead of time which allows them to purchase seeds, transplants, etc., without going into debt. If any particular crop fails, there is usually another crop that can be substituted. This takes tremendous pressure off the typical “go into debt” early and “hope to break even” later situation that really makes life hard on many farmers. The consumer benefits by receiving a steady supply of healthy, fresh, local produce on a regular basis at a very reasonable price overall.

Most of the CSAs I am familiar with are also organic. The consumer is also pleasantly surprised each week, or every other week by the assortment of vegetables that are received. In some cases, there may be vegetables that the consumer has never tried or is not very familiar with. It is a good thing to be able to try new vegetables without risking the time and effort to try to grow them on your own!

Most CSAs are somewhat flexible in the fact that the consumer can request, or the farmer can comfortably offer to provide, a good supply of certain specific crops. In other words, the farmer can pretty much guarantee that there will be lots of fresh tomatoes and sweet corn when they are ready to harvest but there may not be as much garlic or basil in any given year if those crops do not perform well.

Some CSAs are structured so that the consumer also offers to help

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) links farmers and consumers directly with an agreement that benefits both parties. The way it works is that essentially, the consumer prepays for a supply of food that will be provided on a regular basis over a pre-agreed upon period of time.

with the farm work at the busiest times in return for a reduced price. There are some similarities to food co-ops in this regard. The key to success is having the consumer and farmer communicating with each

other before, during and after the season.

There are a large number of local CSA’s in our region that are now accepting new members. Your local office of Cornell Cooperative Extension may be able to connect you with a farmer who operates a CSA but social media outlets also have many people listed.

Before you commit cash to a CSA, ask for references from other satisfied members. Almost everyone I personally know, who uses a CSA has been more than satisfied.