3rd party csa

Do you know what a CSA is? It's Community Supported Agriculture. In a traditional CSA, a farmer sells "shares of the farm" and the shareholders receive a portion of the crop. It is a great way to get fresh organic vegetables and fruits and a good way for farmers to stay in business in this economy.

For a couple years, we were "sharecroppers" with a CSA in the region. This year, they decided not to continue to serve the area in which we live. I'm not sure why, probably because it involved trucking the produce a couple hours and gas prices continued to rise. Also, they may have had enough customers in their immediate area that they were able to meet everyone's needs (theirs and their customers) much closer to home.

We were left with "What to do?"

S.O. did the research and came up with "Your Backyard Farmer"...right here in our area. YBF provide several different levels of service and this year, we are having them do the whole thing. They prepare the area, irrigate, plant, harvest, and send us recipes. Works for me. Maybe next year, we will go up a level and have them teach us how to begin working the farm ourselves.

(our garden plot...or farm close to home)

(the cardboard kills the grass and they don't have to do
the back breaking work of removing the sod--plus,
they participate in recycling by having a relationship
with a local appliance store and take their
large boxes off their hands)

(step two: bean poles and pea vines are up)

I have a purple thumb myself. I've never been very good at keeping plants alive so this is a whole new adventure for me. I am so looking forward to having live food--fresh, organic, live food.

I'll keep you posted with pictures along the way.