We Have a CSA Member

Looks like we have our first CSA member of the year. Woo Hoo!

A Earlhamite who is looking to develop a relationship with us and our farm. I believe we may have a new member who "gets it".

We have been on the fence about even doing the CSA this year since we do not know how much food we will need to supply a CSA, the Eco-Farm store and two farmers' markets. I figure we will need more food than we produce but since we will be buying in some things perhaps it will be alright. Especially if we keep the CSA limited to under 10 members.

I have been surprised at how little interest we have had in our CSA program this year. So far I have had only 2 people express any interest at all. And those folks did not even inquire about the CSA until late April Early May. To do a CSA right the farmer really needs to know who will be a member in March so the grower can plan out the plantings for the CSA members. When they want to join so late it can be hard and shortages may well happen because the farmer was not able to plan properly.

You see, sustainable farming is all about prior planning. We have to look at the long term view. A well run farm will have 10 and 20 year plans, just the act of spring planning starts 6 months prior to planting that first seed. This year we put in several crops such as grapes, apples, peaches and asparagus that will not bear fruit for at least 2 years and in some cases 5 years. We do a 4 to 6 year crop rotation and that again means looking way into the future when we plan out where we will put things.

And the CSA is supposed to dovetail with this long term view but I forget sometimes that our culture is all about instant gratification and doing things NOW and not thinking too far ahead. If people would learn to think years and decades into the future we would not have an energy crisis, a lot of debt and other ills that plague our population. If we did like many Native American cultures and thought about how our actions will effect our relations 7 generations into the future instead of just thinking about how our actions will effect us right now we would have a far better world.

All that said, if you are interested in the Boulder Belt CSA click on the title of this entry and you will be taken to a page with all the information.