| FEBRUARY 7, 2011 -- Sharing in farm fresh food is an idea sprouting across Fairfield County.
Known as community-supported agriculture, or CSA, the practice gives area residents a share of a farm's crops for a fee. And while local farms are soliciting sign-ups for spring and summer, demand is quickly exceeding supply.
Nancy Earle of Fairfield started a multi-farm CSA about a year ago. Her CSA primarily serves the Black Rock section of Bridgeport and the beach area of Fairfield. She works with three farms and has 20 residents picking up orders.
"People interested in this are often interested in organic food and will take locally grown second," Earle said.
More than 1,700 CSA farms supply hundreds of thousands of people from across the nation. According to Connecticut Northeast Organic Farming Association, CSAs can benefit both consumers and farmers. People can purchase local organic food and farmers have guaranteed sales.
Participating Farms
In Westport, the Green Villiage Initiative worked with Stone Garden Farms in Shelton to bring residents the option of joining a CSA.
GVI describes the CSA as a partnership in production and consumption between farmers and members. Members of the community purchase a“share” of the anticipated harvest, and make payment in advance at an agreed price. The program costs $600 per share or $300 for half a share and runs from June through October. Crops run the gamut from scallions and Swiss chard to tomatoes, pickles, eggplant, winter squash and sometimes fresh eggs. Pickup locations are in Fairfield, at Wakeman Farm in Westport and Wooster Market in Shelton.
In Ridgefield, residents can sign up for a CSA with The Hickories. A summer share is $600. Currently, the farm delivers a weekly harvest of lettuce spinach, tatsoi and kale to Ancona's Market every Friday.
Fairfield's Earle became interested in running a CSA during a dinner party. At first she considered running a farm stand, but the idea of distributing farm fresh food quickly took root.
"It morphed from doing a Farmers Market to the idea of convenient pickup points," Earle said.
One farm Earle favors is actually in New Paltz, N.Y. Right now it supplies her group with the taste of summer.
"He flash freezes produce at end of summer and we enjoy it now," Earle said. Participants also can partake in egg shares, and soon enough coffee shares, if they choose.
Another farm on Earle's list is Ridgefield's Garden of Ideas. This CSA signup runs from Dec. 1 through March 1. It costs $150 for a six-week spring share, $450 for 18 weeks of a summer share, and $150 for a six-week autumn share.
Garden of Ideas also offers a flexible swap program for those who either don't like something in the share or have a food allergy. Shareholders can choose a farm stand item of similar value instead.
And if someone can't make pickup day, the farm will store the goods for a time.
The Loss of Farmland
While not all local farms participate in CSAs, they do support the objective.
"A CSA would consume most of what we now offer to the public," Neil Gluckin of Wilton's Ambler Farm said. "It would limit our reach. The demand for participation has been growing pretty steadily."
Last year Ambler Farm hosted farmers from three area farms that do run CSAs.
"It fits into the education aspect of Ambler," Gluckin said. "Connecticut is losing farmland at a rate faster than other states."
According to Gluckin, between 1997 and 2002, Connecticut lost more farmland to subdevelopment than any other state in the country. The 2007 Census of Agriculture reported total Connecticut “land in farms” increased from 357,154 acres in 2002 to 405,616 in 2007. That is still fewer farmland acres than what existed in 1997 at 406,222, reports the Farmland Information Center.
While total farmland may have increased in 2007, "total cropland" decreased by 6,987 acres over the same time period.
Total farmland loss is difficult to tally because if a farm is taken out of production, it doesn't mean it has been converted to development, reports the Working Lands Alliance, which works to preserve Connecticut's farmland.
"To get a clearer picture of conversion, we need a reliable source of farmland conversion data," the alliance states on its website. "The National Resources Inventory (NRI) ... used to provide reliable farmland conversion data at the national and state levels, but the agency has not had adequate resources to support this effort for several years."
And while it's hard to confirm statistics, it appears between 5,000 and 7,000 acres of farmland are lost each year, largely because most farmers in state work rented land, Gluckin said.
"There is a movement afoot to make life easier for farmers and the environment more hospitable to small farming," Gluckin said.
'Produce in Front of People'
Meanwhile, Easton's Sport Hill Farm, established in 2001, is waiting list only. It offers a 21-week program.
"At a time when many established farms were selling off their fertile land to developers, my husband and I took a gamble to see if we could make a difference," Patti Popp writes on her website. "When we purchased this house back in 1997, it was not a working farm, we turned it into a farm through hard work and perseverance."
Many people like CSAs because they help support small family farms.
Because people pay their share in advance, farmers can purchase the necessary seeds, fuel, and other equipment. And participants know they'll get fresh, organic produce each week, Earle said.
"The No. 1 priority is to engage the community, to raise awareness about sustainable farming," Ambler Farm's Gluckin said. "It's agriculture as an educational mission – and the best way to do that is to get produce in front of people." |
