What's Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) all about?
Participating as a member of a CSA is a lifetsyle shift into a unique form of eating close to the seasons and the ecosystem we live in, and in direct relationship with the person who grows your food.
Community Supported Agriculture works because members of the community offer the monetary resources necessary for the farmer to grow vegetables for them for an entire season to feed their families well and with high integrity. In essence, I become "your" farmer. When I receive your request for membership, I commit to buying seed, planning enough variety, type and amount of crop to grow, preparing the soil in a sustainable manner, and planting, weeding and cultivating enough crop for the appropriate number of members. I make a commitment to each member to personally harvest and deliver a bountiful, diverse, fresh, nutritious, all natural, labor intensive vegetables for the whole season.
For their part of this relationship, CSA members commit to pay for their share of the harvest, and pick up their vegetables during their chosen pick up hours for the whole season. Of course, flexibility is assumed in this arrangement on both sides for lots of reasons, for example, some vegetable varieties that are planted aren't successful and therefore are not harvested, and some members go on vacation or forget to pick up their share some weeks. This is expected and not perceived as any "failure" of the general commitment.
I am always working to provide information about the experience of being a member of our CSA so you may make an informed decision about whether this unique way of eating, buying, and relating to your food, the land and your community will work for you for the season you commit to. Above all else, CSA's are about developing integrity in human relationships, to each other, to what we put in our bodies, to the place we live, and the planet.
Whole Earth CSA members generally express that their CSA experience has exceded their expectations. It's an adventure for us all as we grow in appreciation of the benefits of a CSA that we could not have predicted without experiencing them. As any partnership, this is an evolving, creative process. We all learn together.
HARMONY & ABUNDANCE!
Shyryn Joy
Congratulations Whole Earth CSA Members!
You are all the co-parents of 30 healthy vegetable crops!
With several veggies now ready for eating and several more maturing more fully over the next couple weeks, we plan to deliver you our first harvest the week of January 20th for Saturday deliveries, and Tuesday deliveries will start January 23rd. Though this is later than we originally planned, it now seems perfect to be expecting our first CSA harvest for the beginning of a new year. New initiatives, new creations, new connections - a fresh start.
Whenever we refer to "our CSA", we intend a collective "our" so please read it as "your CSA" because this, as any CSA, is truly a collaborative effort. In fact, I hesitate to use the acronym, prefering to use the extra breath to express the reality of this endeavor, which is no less than community - supported - agriculture. It is because of you and all of Whole Earth CSA's members, that we are able to participate as farmers and sharers of this little corner of the Earth's bounty and nourishment. We are honored to join you.
May the intentions you cultivate for the New Year bear sweet and abundant fruit.
Your Farmers, Sharon, Carrie & Matt
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CSA updates
1 comments:
Congrats on getting the blog off the ground and the goodies coming out of it!!! I simply canNOT wait to sink my teeth into the fruits of your labor... and I want to come out to help harvest too!!!!
thanks for all you do and happy new year!
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