Community Supported Agriculture

A few weeks ago, Corbin and I spent a wee bit of time with a college friend of Corbin's. Ben and his girlfriend, Paige, had become part of a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture program. What this means is that at the beginning of a growing season, they paid a couple hundred dollars to a farm and every week the farm provides them with a box of vegetables or other things that come from the farm. It seemed like a very intriguing idea.

When I got home I did some internet research to see if there were any CSA programs in Richmond or nearby to get a better feel for what it could be to be part of one. I found a berry farm that provides just berries for a few months out of the year; I found a farm or two that has a CSA which begins in April but a) we were nearly done with the season and b) it had sold out anyway. Bummer. I gave up on the idea, thinking that we would get in on it for next year's growing season.

That is, until Corbin and I watched Food, Inc. on Monday night.

We were both horrified and appalled at what we learned. Though, to be quite honest... I already knew a lot of it. I had just somehow been able to ignore it. Though Corbin and I have wanted to spend more of our money at farmer's markets and less at grocery stores, we haven't totally been able to do that. But this movie invigorated both of us.

I'll spare you the horrifying details of the food industry (watch the movie) and instead tell you about a farm that they highlighted in the film called Polyface Farms. It's a farm in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia near Staunton and they use the best, most humane practices they can to raise animals for meat. Here's an example: pigs, which in most slaughterhouses would spend their time crammed in some stall with a hundred other pigs, live their lives in the woods at Polyface. They are happy pigs. They get to roam around in the open air, play in the mud puddles, and lead better lives before they provide their meat. All of the animals at Polyface are herbivores. None of them are given hormones or anything else that might artificially make them bigger and meatier.

First of all, this farm sounds awesome. Second of all, the guy who runs the place seems like a really funny, awesome guy. So we were intrigued. Corbin, in his usual fashion, spent some time after the movie doing some online research, but I eventually went to bed.

Lo and behold, the next morning, I receive a Groupon in my inbox: $20 of produce from Farm to Family for $10. I'd seen Farm to Family around town: a mobile farmer's market. A bus that drives around and parks at various places throughout Richmond selling vegetables, meat, dairy, fruit, bread, etc. I hop on to the website. What's this? There's still time to join their Fall 2010 CSA? I must know more. Let's see, every week you get milk, eggs, cheese, yogurt, bread.... and $15 of meat from Polyface Farm!?!?

This is too good to be true. It's like they knew I wanted to do this so they waited for me to watch Food Inc and then set up the groupon for the next day. I talked to Corbin and we decided to head over to their new stationary market. First, we fell in love with a hand-made rocking chair on the front porch, which we still might buy. Then, we bought a few things: zucchini, squash, a whole chicken, bacon and potatoes for the dinner we had planned (loaded baked potato soup in the slow cooker). Then we signed up for the CSA.

So here's the deal: the Farm to Family bus parks at Ellwood Thompson's, near our house, every Thursday from 5:30-7:30, and we can pick up our food there. Officially, every week we get:

$15 of meat from Polyface (or however much meat we want with $15 off)
One dozen eggs from Polyface
One half gallon of whole milk
One half pound of cheese, which changes weekly
One quart of farm fresh yogurt
Local bread or baked goods

Also, we get a half pound of butter or goat cheese every other week and... this I find really awesome... a Polyface Thanksgiving turkey delivered the week before Thanksgiving.

Corbin and I are both super excited about this. Not only are we supporting local farmers who do good things on their farms but we're also getting some good and good-for-us food. The other cool thing is that this is not stuff we buy from the grocery store on a regular basis, so in order to make sure we use it all I will be pushed to find some new recipes and use ingredients I might not normally use. Lastly, we don't spend much money on meat usually – but now it's built into what we've already paid, so we get to eat something other than chicken!! And it's going to be GOOD!

I highly encourage you to look for something like this in your area. And like I said, watch the movie. My decision to spare you from the horrifying details was not because I don't think we all need to hear them. We do. I just wanted to spend my time in this post highlighting the awesomeness.

p.s. The loaded baked potato soup was delicious. Our potatoes came from Farm to Family as well as the bacon. Corbin couldn't tell the difference between that bacon and regular bacon, but personally I thought it was amazing! Tonight we're making pesto with our home-grown basil and some fresh Bombolini tomato-basil pasta that we bought at a farmer's market on Saturday.