Spring is the season for CSA subscriptions
By Nicole Barley

It’s like Christmas comes early. That’s what customers tell Don Kretschmann of Kretschmann Farm in Rochester, when heralding the perks of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), the food subscription program that brings fresh, locally grown produce right to regional residents’ doorsteps.

“For so many people, it’s like a present. They don’t know what they’re getting [week-to-week], but they’re so excited to get it. The kids even dive right in to eat the sweet peas or the little cherry tomatoes raw,” explains Jane Dillner of Dillner Family Farm in Gibsonia.

These bags, bushels, bins, and boxes, bursting with green beans, squash, corn, kale, carrots, cabbage, leeks, onions, herbs, peppers, and potatoes are more than a green gift though, as Neil Stauffer of Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance, with farm locations throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania, notes. “If we like having farmland in our region, the CSAs are a big part of keeping farmers on the land. It’s a way to be neighborly again, too. We’ve got 15 or 20 people in neighboorhoods opening their porches every week and saying, ‘Yes, we’d like to support local farmers,’” he says.  Doorstep drop-off is just one way the final product of the CSA gets to the consumer. Some farms provide local pickup stops in surrounding communities, while others distribute the produce right at the farm, where there may be exchange tables or a bartering system. If a week of lettuce isn’t desirable, trade with other participants for root vegetables or bread and butter corn.  Shares may be available in varying amounts, including small family, bi-weekly, large family, half-bushel (which is close to two grocery bags full), bushel, or a bushel-and-a-half. This will vary from farm to farm, but most farmers estimate a weekly plan will feed a family of four.

The United States’ system originated in 1985 when Robyn Van En established a program called Community Supported Agriculture on her farm in S. Egremont, Mass. The custom is believed to reach further back to when it was first practiced in Europe and Japan in the 1970s.

The trend has since spread heavily. Local Harvest, a Santa Cruz, Calif., Web site (www.localharvest.org) that offers a nationwide directory of small farms, farmers’ markets, and other local food sources, estimates there are more than 1,500 CSAs established throughout the U.S., up from just 50 in the early ’90s.  The site lists 107 programs in the state of Pennsylvania alone.  Jane Dillner’s burgeoning CSA faction echoes the experience of farmers all over Allegheny County and no doubt, all across America. “Every year, we grow. The first year was 50 shares, and the second year was 80. Last year was the third year, and we have more than 200 subscriptions,” she says.

Though the set-up of these programs ranges verily, the benefits to the land and its people are much the same. Growing participation in these programs signals proliferating awareness that CSAs sustain more than just fields and grain. For one part, the overarching idea of a sustainable lifestyle is propagated.  For another, the local economy is bolstered. Local food keeps dollars local.

CSAs spread ecologically sound agricultural practices, lend support to local farms and farmers, supply the freshest, most nutritious, and best-tasting food available, and provide eaters the comfort of knowing exactly from where food has arrived.  “You don’t necessarily have to eat those grapes from Chile,” says Kretschmann, who specializes in supplying patrons with fresh organic produce, including apples and assorted greens.  While offering a sense of safety about the source of food, locally grown agriculture also provides assurance that the harvesting practices leave a lesser impact on the environment — this food literally goes from local farm to nearby table.  “Things are coming right out of the field. They’re washed and packed the same day,” says Paul Sarver of Sarver’s Hill Organic Farm in Greensburg.

Margie Dagnal of Goose Creek Garden in Oakdale points out that produce from the grocery store may be between three and four weeks old and could have traveled close to 1,500 miles.  Dagnal runs a spring greens CSA from April to early June and is also a member of Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance.  “With corporate farms changing the makeup of fruit to ship well and hold up, to last longer, the food no longer has taste,” she says.

A number of CSA programs have a volunteer component; participants can pitch in on the fields — “some people weed, some harvest, some process the vegetables, wipe the dirt off, and package them,” says Randa Shannon of Mildreds’ Daughters Urban Farm in Lawrenceville/ Stanton Heights — in exchange for a wide variety of produce, including heirloom tomatoes right off the vine, brightly colored berries, and fresh-cut flowers.

“The idea of the CSA is creating a farm community, so there’s interaction, and participants are actually members of the farm and have some input on what the farm is going to grow,” says Sarver, who also has a volunteer system established.

Unlike farmers’ markets, there is typically a lesser option of picking and choosing what suits families’ tastes. Instead, participants enjoy an element of exploration and surprise with their produce. Many farms provide recipes or classes, such as how to cook greens, to accompany atypical deliveries, like kale or beets, daikon radishes or baby turnips. “With a CSA, you will get foods that you’ve never tried before. It will be an adventure in eating,” Shannon says.

CSAs are not limited to the spring, and subscription programs for dairy and meat, though not as widespread, are available throughout the region as well. Because the produce is seasonal, once autumn winds down, winter subscriptions are reduced from once a week to once a month. It is suggested that signups take place from late winter to early spring, but a late spring and even midsummer sign-on isn’t out of the question.

This early signup allows the farmers to determine how much to plant. To provide farmers with supplies to get through the season’s start, upfront payments are requested, too. “That helps a farmer get through the spring, and later, you get to partake in the bounty,” says Jennifer Montgomery of Blackberry Meadows Farm in Natrona Heights, where they grow 150 varieties of fruits and vegetables.

For folks who may not be totally ready for the sizeable commitment of a weekly delivery, Evan Verbanic, of Cherry Valley Organics in Burgettstown, offers an à la carte service. Conversely, for those with a penchant for produce, already procuring supplies from backyard gardens, Montgomery readily encourages participation. “A CSA supplements what you’re growing at home and vice versa.”

No matter the subscription’s distribution technique, the amount, frequency, or contents of a delivery, the benefits of Community Supported Agriculture remain the same across the field. Verbanic explains, “You will share in the bounty of the season, you will get to know your grower, and you will learn a lot about the seasonality of produce in your particular neck of the woods.”