Geraldson Farm is my local CSA farm. The community supported organic farm was started in 2007 when the Geraldson family sold the land to the county for this use.  The Geraldson family wanted this land to be used only in agriculture.

 They had owned this farm for several generation.  The family still owns the original home and resides there.  Grants and donations have paid for the new barn and watering system.  The farm is managed by a board and there is several people who work at the farm, all the others are volunteers from the community. The farm is self supporting from the sale of shares and sales of produce at local farmer's markets through the season.  All the produced that is not sold is donated to the local food bank warehouse.  

CSA farms came to the US from Europe in the 1980's and there is now over 12000 CSA farms in North America.  There are different ways these farms are organized but they all have one thing in common that the community supports the farm with shares or subscriptions. It is not about cheap food but good quality food that is picked fresh and goes straight to the table.  It is about knowing that the food is traditionally grown and very little chemicals are used only when necessary.  This movement has grown because of the large production corporate owned farms.  Many of the produce is genetically changed to be picked by machine and resist pests.  Most fresh produce isn't so fresh because it has been picked early before it is at it's peek and shipped for thousands of miles to the local warehouse before it gets to your table. Local grown produce tastes better because it is picked when it is ripe and many of the varieties are heirloom seeds that have not been genetically been changed.  

You can read more about the history of CSA farms.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture

I did not know about CSA produce until a year ago when following a group of food blogs.  The authors would write about their weekly boxes with the enthusiasm of getting a Christmas present.  They would then share recipes and pictures of how that produce was enjoyed.  I did an internet search and found that I had a community supported farm right in town.  There was a face book page and web page so I could follow what was being offered last spring.  Please take a look at all the pictures of this community project and events on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/geraldsoncommunityfarm

http://www.geraldsoncommunityfarm.org/

After looking into it I decided that this would be well worth the money. So I saved as much as I could from my food budget that I could to buy a share this fall.  It figures out to about $27 a week for my box and I plan to freeze any excess to be used later.  Besides, $27 is reasonable for a weeks worth of organic produce which includes herbs, salad leaf vegetables, flowers and other vegetables.  Buying flowers is a luxury for me now to put on the dinner table, which has me looking forward to them.  I also plan to take advantage of the U-pick offers through out the season.  This CSA does not offer fruit at this time in their weekly share.  The farm also offers a half share for small families that is picked up ever other week.

If you want to find a local CSA program in your area you can find it at Local Harvest web site.  http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Next Week:  Poverty's Dinner Table