Good reads

BUYING THE FARM
© Lydia Walshin (Rhode Island Monthly, April 2004)

THURSDAY AFTERNOON AT WISHING STONE FARM in Little Compton: It’s a picture-postcard kind of day. Clear blue sky, grey shingle barns, happy chickens cluck-clucking. A steady stream of minivans and station wagons pulls into the parking area, where crisp white tents shade the bins of freshly-harvested vegetables and fruit, homemade salsas and pesto, warm yeasty bread. Everyone – parents, grandparents, kids – greets the proprietors by name. “Hi Skip! Hi Liz!” Even the dogs bound up to say hello.

It’s Week 10, mid-August, at Wishing Stone Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and on Thursdays members come to pick up their share of the week’s harvest: one head of lettuce, a cabbage, a melon, two peppers, two cukes, two zukes, a bunch of scallions, a pound or two of tomatoes, peaches, beans, onions, potatoes.

Community supported agriculture, an innovative model for connecting farms and consumers, began more than 30 years ago in Japan, where a group of women concerned about increased food imports arranged to purchase directly from local farms. Called “teikei”, which translates to “putting the farmer’s face on food”, the idea spread to Europe and eventually to the United States, where the first CSA opened in Massachusetts in 1985. CSA members buy shares of the harvest at the beginning of the growing season, which provides the farmer with operating capital to pay for seed, fertilizer, water, equipment and labor. In return, the farmer promises to provide members with fresh produce throughout the season. Members and farmers share the risks inherent in farming – bad weather, crop failure – and the rewards. And by supporting local farms, the community encourages land stewardship and preservation of open space.

Kenneth D. Ayars, chief of the Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Agriculture, sees huge benefits to the state’s economy. “Over the past 15 years,” he notes, “we’ve been making a transition from an economy based on wholesale-type crops, like potatoes, to direct relationships with farms through farmers markets, roadside stands and CSAs. In fact, our farmers sell more food directly to the public than in any other state. By eliminating the middleman, farmers get a good price for their product, and this helps keep small farms in business.”

For the ten CSA farmers in Rhode Island, member support means more than just financial security; they relish the direct connection with their customers, the feedback, the exchange of ideas. A former chef who started his CSA in 1998, Craig Totten of Greenview Farm in Wakefield counts among his members “an amazing diversity of people, including some firebrand vegetarians and even a deer hunter or two.  Some are very into the sociopolitical issues, or join for philosophical reasons, but my favorites are the ones who just think the food is better.”

Wishing Stone Farm co-owners Skip Paul and Liz Peckham, who started their CSA in 2000 after running a farm stand for years, agree that “the best part is being here on pick-up days, getting to know our customers.” Paul attributes growth in CSA popularity in part to “vegetable guilt, that feeling that we should all be eating more veggies.”

Local farmers have addressed two early complaints about CSA: too much food, and too little choice. (Let’s face it; nobody wants to get pounds of okra and kohlrabi, but no lettuce and tomatoes.)  Many farms offer market style bag-your-own or, for some items like cherry tomatoes and herbs, pick-your-own, with amounts set by the farmer each week based on availability. Arcadian Fields’ Diana Kushner observes that “most people take what they need, and use the same kind of judgment they would at a supermarket.”

A share by any other name may be exactly the right size for your household. Farms offer half shares, single shares, small family or full shares. Before you join, ask the farmer how many people each share size is designed to feed. The average share cost at all farms is $20-25 per week for 18-22 weeks, starting in June. Wishing Stone Farm offers a 10-week summer share; several CSAs even have pick-your-own flower shares.

You don’t need to live near a farm to join a CSA. Arcadian Fields and Wishing Stone have pick-ups in Providence. Manic Organic goes to Newport. Moosup River Farm brings CSA shares to farmers markets in Woonsocket, Central Falls and Warwick. And Southside Community Land Trust, at the Urban Edge Farm in Cranston, opens for CSA business this year with pick-ups at City Farm in South Providence.

WRITER LISA TENER MOVED FROM BOSTON to Saunderstown four years ago and joined Casey Farm, the oldest CSA in Rhode Island. For her family of three, she picks up a single share every week. Tener enjoys the variety of foods that expand her cooking repertoire. “We get lots of spicy greens like tatsoi and arugula. The first year I joined, they picked purslane with the herbs, and included an explanation in the newsletter of how to use it. It’s really nice to discover this ‘weed’ that I’d never used but is so full of nutrients. One of the best things is learning to cook foods you’ve never used before, or might never choose. I would never buy cabbage, but because we get it in our share, I’ve found a recipe for a warm sweet and sour dish I make in the pressure cooker.”

The single share size is just about right for Tener’s family, which includes young son Will Patterson, who loves to venture out into the fields with her to pick raspberries and herbs. When asked what he likes best about going to the farm, the three-year-old thought for a minute. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I just like it.”

Casey Farm is the only CSA with a work requirement; members must contribute 8 hours of volunteer time during the season, on tasks ranging from sifting compost to cleaning garlic. For Tener, it’s a lesson in how hard the farmers work, and an opportunity to make new friends. “While you’re there,” she points out, “you meet people from all over town, people you probably wouldn’t meet any other way.”

ON TUESDAY AFTERNOONS, Skip Paul loads his truck and drives from Little Compton to West Providence, where Wishing Stone Farm’s city members pick up their shares. (This year he’s scouting locations on the East Side, where a majority of his customers live or work.) People stop by, attracted by the boxes of gorgeous vegetables, thinking they’ve lucked into a farmers market. “I feel badly,” Paul explains, “because I have nothing to sell them. This food is promised to our CSA members. And any shares that aren’t picked up we donate to those in need, through the Rhode Island Food Bank or local food pantries.”

Brother Kevin, who lives at St. Francis Chapel and Monastery in downtown Providence, collects a double family share every week. “There are twelve friars, ranging in age to quite elderly,” he notes. “For us, this basically makes one meal. We supplement with other groceries, of course, but we love fresh vegetables, so we’re trying this out.”

The atmosphere in town is quieter than at the farm, as people arrive on their way home from work to weigh and bag their own tomatoes, potatoes, melons, greens, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, onions. While the customers don’t interact much with each other, they all greet the farmer – who knows most of them by name. “Hi Skip! How’s the farm? These purple things are beets, right?”

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