Sharing the Story of CSAs
Our 50-foot-long high tunnel sits at the north end of the main garden, next to a stand of blue spruce Grandpa planted to catch the wind that would whip across the north pasture. With all the snow and snow and snow and snow and snow this year, it’s been a full-time job to keep the structure clear and standing. Many times, Kara has had to shovel the snow away from the sides of the high tunnel, so the snow from the roof would have a place to go!
A winding path shoveled through the drifts makes its way past the pines and to the high tunnel door, which feels like stepping down into a world of its own. This space is transitioning from hibernating through the winter to soon coming alive with green and growth. Already, a few of the starts intended to move out to the high tunnel are planted and thinking of spring.
The garden incubator space of the high tunnel is a well-known space on many small to medium-scale sustainably focused farms that grow each year for a set number of families. Instead of planting to sell on the commodity market, trying to find a place amidst the competition of mechanized growers working at enormous scales, these farmers are opting for a subscription based model, known as a CSA. Community Supported Agriculture has been around for several decades now, but for some folks it’s still catching on.
Recently, I was asked to give a presentation via Zoom to a gathering of folks at Hunt Hill Audubon Society, in Sarona, WI about CSA programs. I wanted to share some of that story with you and invite you to learn more about CSA programs and offerings in your area. You can view the beautiful images and slides from our farm that accompanied that presentation here https://northstarhomestead.com/product-category/memberships/
Initially, when we started growing more foods than we could eat on our homestead, we became founding members of the Cable Area Farmer’s Market, which we attended each summer for 15 years. I founded the Hayward Area Farmer’s Market as my Senior Girl Scout Gold Award Project, as well as hosted a farmer’s market presence at NorthLakes Community Clinic in Hayward for several years. In all, our farmer’s market adventures lasted from 2001 to March of 2020—quite a long run!
Farmer’s Markets are certainly a fun way to meet your local growers and learn to eat with the seasons, but it can be an exhausting process for the growers—packing up early, setting everything up, hoping the weather will be fair and that people will come, guessing what folks will want to purchase that day. It also means you have a once-a-week chance to connect your harvest and goods with clients, which can be a challenge given the perishability of produce.
As our homesteading efforts matured, we were yearning for greater connection with our client. We wanted to build sustaining relationships that nurtured both our farm and the health and wellbeing of the families we served. In 2007, we launched our first CSA program, offering 25 member shares through the summer growing season.
We’ve built upon that foundational model ever since, growing the program and its scope to include the full experience of our biodiverse model, including meats and value-added goods we produce. We’ve partnered with additional local and regional growers and producers to augment what we offer, growing and strengthening local food networks.
Instead of farming for commodity and ever-pushing to produce yet more product from acreage, the CSA model fosters an interest in farming for community. This is for folks who want to know where their food comes from, who want to understand the practices being used to grow what appears in their share basket each week. This involves communication, education, and empowerment.
These weekly articles are part of that communication, both to our farm’s members and to the greater community of interested folks, like you! Sharing what happens on our farm each week, the choices we make, the challenges we face, and the resiliency we embrace is part of how we not only show how this works but why it is important, right here, right now.
As part of that effort, our weekly member newsletters also include recipes from my sister Kara, featuring items in the share that week, pictures from the farm and updates, news about exciting new inventory availability, and more. Each farm’s program will be unique to them, as will their practices, so it’s worth exploring what is available in your area. Seek growers who focus on sustainability and doing what’s right for the land, people, and animals in their care. March is the perfect season for this, as many farms that offer CSA programs are accepting enrollment at this time.
If you’re not already growing for yourself, I encourage you to explore this special and unique way to connect with local growers, to build a relationship with a farm and their practices, and help to deepen the roots of local foods systems! Time to go plant some more seeds for springtime. See you down on the farm sometime.
