Buy local. Buy organic. Buy seasonal.
Take a bank loan too? You’ll need one.
This was my dilema when I moved to Greenville, SC. I wanted to eat the good stuff but it was a struggle to afford it.
You say: Grow your own?
I say: Yes, yes. I know!
In time I’ll have the garden running like clockwork. Yes, the dream is to grow as much of my own produce as possible. But for now the worms are taking an age to make compost and I’ve planted the broccoli too far in the shade and the chickens keep jumping up to prematurely harvest the beans.
Worms say: chill man, we’re getting there.
Chickens say: let’s play jumping beans!
Broccoli says: these caterpillars will be the death us.
In the short term, Community Supported Agriculture has saved me. I’m pretty sure it can also save the hectic family, the full time workers, the 10th story apartment, the lazy and the inept.
Probably the biggest sweet potato I’ve ever seen, unfortunately it does look like the brain bug from Starship Troopers.
What is CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture is a small farm model that invites the community to invest in ‘shares’ of the farms seasonal produce. I’ve bought a Fall Share for $120, which entitles me to visit Furman University Farm every tuesday and collect my share of that week’s harvest. As with all investments I accept the risks and the rewards. Should winter strike the kale dead tomorrow then I’m scuppered.
So far so good. I’m very excited by my first weeks bag of food, although the sweet potato scares me. I like the randomness of it. The fact that I’m now going to search for a recipe for collard greens and sweet potato.
The other amazing thing is that Furman Farm are accomplishing this on a 1/4 acre. It gives me hope for my future little piece of land and the idea that one day I’ll be the Agriculture that’s being Community Supported.
Keep up your aspirations — even if your yard is small, sometimes its possible to “borrow” other people’s property!
This year my better half asked a friend (whose yard gets a lot more sunshine than ours) if he could “borrow” three rows.
The better half was able to harvest 40 lbs. of red onions, 250 lb. red potatoes, and 90 lbs. of beets for the local Food Bank, which ultimately redistributed the bounty to needy families here in Southwest WA.
There was no burden on our friend who has 5 acres, 100% sunshine in his garden area (a big deal here in the Pacific Northwest), and of course, because it rains so much here, there was no watering on our friend’s part. My husband and daughter weeded a few times, and did all the harvesting…And quite honestly, they were very proud to contribute a decent amount of organic food to families in our own area.
Kudos to Mr. Jabberwockey and Jabberwockey Jnr.
There’s a vacant plot next door…
So glad you found a local farm for your CSA. They’re growing at a good pace across the country and with food prices going where they will, it is a beautiful thing.
There were actually options in my area – it’s a great development.