‘Share’ the Farmers’ Bounty with Community Supported Agriculture

On average, food travels approximately 1,500 miles from the farm to the table, according to the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project.

Most often, consumers aren’t aware of where their food was grown, how it was grown, or who grew it. Buying locally could change that. 

As a way for local residents to enjoy locally grown food and support agriculture, many farms offer Community Supported Agriculture programs. Farms offer a certain number of "shares" to the public and, for a fee, customers are given access to a weekly allocation of produce during the summer and fall months.

Consumers may be able to choose from a full share or half share, depending on their needs, or to work on the farm for their share. 

And for many farms, the customer’s share doesn’t begin and end with just local produce. Flowers, cheese, maple syrup, and baked goods are also part of the program at some participating farms. 

One advantage for the farms involved with the CSA programs is a flow of income as CSA sales begin during the winter months, when they aren’t producing as much. 

“It helps in the off season when the farms aren’t producing and there’s really no income,” said Erin Windham, co-owner of Windham Gardens in Granby. 

Windham said money that goes toward purchasing seeds and heating the greenhouses can add up. 

“Certainly it’s a good opportunity to have that extra income coming in,” she said. 

Brooke Hall Lindstrom, a farm tech at George Hall Farm in Simsbury, agreed.

“Because you don’t have markets, people don’t come around,” she said. “In Connecticut, everything is happening in the summer.”

This is the second season that Windham Gardens will offer the CSA program to the public, and in that short period of time, the number of shares that were purchased has doubled. Last year, roughly 25 were sold. 

“So far this year, we’ve doubled that,” she said. “It’s continually growing.”

Many farms provide a pre-selected bundle of produce each week, although the method varies from farm to farm. Windham said she uses a “shopping bag approach.”

“I let people come in and take what they like,” she said. “I am there to answer questions and give them ideas.”

Lindstrom said the CSA program offers people a variety of certified organic food that they may never have tried before. 

“It does help people try new things,” she said. 

At the Simsbury farm, Lindstrom said people can choose from about eight to 10 items a week. The farm has been offering the program since the late 90s and has had as many as 130 people buying shares in one year alone. 

Granby resident Debby Reelitz has bought a share from Granby’s Holcomb Farm for almost 10 years. 

“It’s been a journey,” she said. “I’ve been exposed to foods that I’ve never had before.”

Reelitz said going to the farm on a weekly basis has also afforded her children a wealth of knowledge on how the veggies are grown, through the pick-your-own-crops approach.

“This is, to me, such a gift with my young children,” she said. “They can go into the field and see where that green bean comes from or where the strawberry comes from. There are so many advantages to the CSA.” 

Being able to converse with other local residents who have also purchased shares is another advantage to the program, Reelitz said. 

“It brings food back to a community experience,” she said. 

LocalHarvest maintains a directory of all of the CSAs, searchable by city and state or zip code. 

Some of the CSAs in this area include:

• Tulmeadow Farm, Simsbury; full share is $400/year, half share is $200/year.
• George Hall Farm, Simsbury; summer share is $525/year, winter share is $160, both $685 and half share available with a partner.
• Holcomb Farm, Granby; **sold out for the 2011 summer season** full share is $630, half share is $315.
• Windham Gardens, Granby; full share is $495, summer membership is $295, flower shares are $100, half share is $295.
• Wild Carrot Farm, Canton; $325 for a farm store voucher share of $400, $600 for a farm store voucher share of $740, work share of 45 hours of farm work for equivalent of $400 voucher share or 80 hours of work for the equivalent of $740. 
• Grow Hartford, Hartford; full share is $350/year
• Just Grow With It, Newington; full share is $450
• Renaissance Farm, Burlington; full share is $350; a-la-carte debit program for custom orders requires a $100 initial deposit.