Having been asked recently what a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture veggie basket program) is and how one works we've got a few thoughts to share with you about how one does and doesn't work in our experience.
ONE.
There are a few ways a CSA farm can operate. Some do solely veggie baskets, no farmers' markets, stores, restaurants or other outlets. From the outset the CSA model has been for the farmer a way to gain the capital upfront to run the farm year, and a way to focus most activities on-farm. Lack of capital for supplies and equipment, and too much time spent commuting and distributing can be detrimental to farm success, so the CSA model promotes farm sustainability on the human scale. For both eaters and farmers, the face-to-face connection increases human well-being as well as connection to the land, the assumption being that eaters hear their farmers' stories, ask questions, and get back to the land vicariously through their farmer. Participating in fieldwork increases eater connection with land and farmer, broadening vision and tightening community for all. CSAs can be organized as mostly farmer-run, as ours is, or community-run. In some ways we'd love to be hired by our community to grow food for them. We imagine sharing the paperwork among the community instead of us doing the majority of it and growing and distributing the food too. But, our current model is a business-model with some distinctive features: we are food first, funds second. Our aim is not primarily to make a living, but to make the freshest food available to fellow Kingstonians. We cover our living expenses to enable our vocation. And, we aim to educate, learning along with others about the state of agriculture, ways to prepare and cook food, what crops thrive in our region at what time of year, and the methodology of market gardening and small scale distribution. An off-shoot of year-round locavore living is our practice of and training others in canning, fermenting, drying and preserving.
TWO
When faced with the reality of food-miles as part of the bigger picture of Amazon-style living which is prevalent in our society, our farm model is a response. We focus on growing food in our neighbourhood(s) to feed our neighbourhood(s). Currently we mostly serve Kingscourt, Inner Harbour, Sydenham Ward, Portsmouth Village and area, and the East end. In the past we've also served more of the West end and Amherst Island. We deliver to all of our current locations by Bicycle, to drop-points and homes. Using bicycles for the majority of our transportation on and off farm we vastly reduce food miles (think 3000km average of supermarket fare down to 3km average of our Kingston grown vegetables). And, we increase freshness and nutrition density by our delivery, harvest and post-harvest strategies.
THREE.
There's two ways to eat and two ways to cook. Alright, we're oversimplifying for the sake of brevity (there's still the harvest today once this is written and the Estimate complete). The two ways to eat are: from our local foodshed, the land right around us, based on what is in season (currently growing, or in a stored form); and, second, from other regions, as per supply chain by ground, sea and air transport to stores etcetera. Eating with a local farm affords, as noted above, relationship with the land around us and some of its caregivers (farmers), and shows solidarity with this area. By eating from here, we literally root ourselves here, and when we use money to do so we vote for such a way of life and sustenance. The two ways of eating are from your in-house supply, or from your meal-plan (recipe books, Google, imagination). What we mean is, there are two types of food preparers: those who look at what they have and start meal-planning from there, and those who look at recipes and plan their menu from there. For those eating from our foodshed, the primary question to the earth is: What's on the menu? We ask the plants that question when we prepare the estimated harvest, which becomes the baskets of vegetables our eaters receive. So, prior to asking "What's in season?" and "What's ripe?," our only menu-planning is imagining what sort of dishes we'd like to eat. Once the harvest is in, we get to use our culinary skills to turn whatever was ripe into the type of dishes we want to eat. For example, some of our eaters last year were a Philippina-South African family who love making and eating curries. When they discovered our CSA they found out there are a lot more items of fresh produce which make great curry ingredients than a) they imagined and b) recipes let on. It's all about becoming part of the process of cultivating, harvesting, and eating from our local foodshed. The Harvie (a.k.a. "harvest") system improves the CSA experience by providing recipes which incorporate veggies from the current harvest.
FOUR.
One of the best solutions we can imagine for the Canadian diet to be more sustainable is for us to mimic more of a Scandinavian and Eastern European diet. Such a diet is comprised of more brassicas in the cool months, much as we enjoy Central American, Middle Eastern and other warm-climate crops in the warm months. Now in and coming into season (when they grow well, at high quality, and contribute to fabulous soups, stews and other colder weather fare) are: turnips, kohlrabi, cabbage, radish and sun chokes. Don't sound like favourites? I know, our Polish friends relish the first raw Autumn radish with the fervour of Halloween candy collectors sucking their first sweets. But for the rest of us? It's all in the recipes folks. We hope you'll continue to learn and teach us new ways of being and eating together.
Thanks for eating with us, listening to this ramble, and being who you are in your eating journey. We wish you the best of health as you apply your culinary skills to eating local, in season whole foods.
