What the Kale - CSA's Add Nutrition and Variety
by Corey Radman
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CSAs Add Nutrition and Variety
“What the heck is this?” My five-year-old is holding a bunch of orange root vegetables by their green tops. They have the shape of a beet and the size of a golf ball. I’m stumped. I send her to ask the delivery driver from the farm.
“They’re a funky kind of carrot,” he explains. “Oh,” says my girl dubiously. “Maybe they’ll taste good?”
Each week last year from June through December, we approached the red CSA farm share box with anticipation and a bit of trepidation. “What wonders will we be enjoying this week?” I would think... Ok, really I was hoping there wasn’t to much kale, but I would hoot out loud when the box contained pie pumpkins, fresh dill and surprising root veggies harvested barely a day ago.
Joining the Grant Family Farms Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) was the beginning of a culinary adventure that I’m so glad my family agreed to do. Inspired by books like “Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, and “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver, I was frustrated with the quality and taste of the food I was getting at supermarkets. And judging by the trends, I wasn’t the only one.
When the CSA movement began in the U.S. in 1986, there were just a handful of participating farms. Last year the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicated that 12,549 farms in the United States marketed products through a CSA arrangement. The website www.localharvest.org lists 77 farms in Colorado for 2009, 19 that deliver to the Fort Collins area.
What is a CSA?
Over the last 20 years, some farms have begun selling “shares” of their harvest before planting time to individual consumers, bypassing the enormous bank loan and the grocery store buyers altogether. This Community Supported Agriculture model provides farmers with the up front capital that pays for the season’s seed, enabling many farms to finally run in the black instead of hemorrhaging money untilharvest time. CSA members share in the risk and the rewards, typically picking up a box of freshly harvested vegetables once a week.
Grant Family Farms operates one of the largest CSAs in the country with 3,000 members. Incredibly, their first CSA season in 2007 had only 126 members.
Grant Farms CSA Director, Josh Palmer says the money that came early in the season from CSA members saved the farm in the 2008 growing season. “We came off of a big drought and then had bad hail storms in ’07 and ’08. Had it not been for the CSA, we might not be farming any more because the bank might have seen us as a poor risk. In 2009, all the money we needed for seed was supplied by the CSA, which means we’ve been running entirely without bank loans for a year now.” In a time where dozens of family farms succumb to debt each year, solvency is a huge accomplishment.
Membership Has Benefits
I can hear the question already. What do you get in a share?
Let me say right up front: in Colorado, there are no June tomatoes. But by August, they are bodacious, succulent and completely worth the wait. In the meantime, a weekly share box will include greens like spinach, lettuce and kale; root crops like beets, carrots, onions and potatoes; herbs; other vegetables like corn, broccoli, eggplant, green beans and peppers. The variety depends on the individual farm, the natural growing season in Colorado and the weather; each week is a surprise, though through email members generally have a good idea of what to expect.
Many CSAs in Colorado are certified organic or grow organically or biodynamically without that USDA label (which is pricey for a small operation).
“I like local, organic food and really believe it is a better nutritional choice for my family,” says Sunda Friedman TeBockhorst, a Grant Farms subscriber. “I also like the idea of supporting the farm to ensure that it will continue to be here.”
“It was fun,” TeBockhorst continues about their first year with the CSA, “I really had to be creative to find interesting ways to use up what came in the box. We invented a new family favorite with kale, fettuccini, and turkey sausage,” - hilariously named ‘dog fart noodle’ due to the appetizing aroma.
Other benefits of buying a farm share include: ultra-fresh produce full of flavor and vitamins (that wane the longer they are in transit or on shelves), exposure to new vegetables and cuisines, huge incentive to eat more vegetables (due to a bulging crisper drawer), a relationship with the people who produce your food and firsthand knowledge of where it is grown (field trips to the farm are encouraged - many CSAs do distribution directly from their farms), and supporting the local economy instead of an out-of-state corporation.
Economic Impact
Dollar for dollar comparisons between CSA shares and organic produce are difficult to find, however Palmer indicates that trying to buy all that they provide individually would cost as much and probably more than you pay for an annual share. Regional shares range in cost from $100 to $500 and vary greatly in the amount of produce provided.
Remember too, that the hard costs of hand-farmed organic produce are factored into the share price – not so with grocery store bought food (which is subsidized). Soft benefits of buying local food matter in the decision as well.
A recent study cited by Civic Economics (an economics analysis consultancy) noted that a slight shift in consumer purchasing behavior – diverting 10 percent of purchases from national chain stores to locally-owned businesses – would each year create 1,300 new jobs and yield nearly $200 million in incremental economic activity.
According to a University of Iowa study: “Communities reap more economic benefits from the presence of small farms than they do from large ones.” This is because small farms re-invest more money into local economies by purchasing feed, seed and other materials from local businesses, whereas large farms often order in bulk from distant companies.
Grant Family Farms employs 25 people year round, and 200 seasonal workers. They bank locally and buy seed locally – as do most of the other CSAs operating regionally.
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How to Choose a CSA?
If Grant Farms takes any criticism (other than perhaps an overabundance of kale) it is that they are too big for some families. “We understand that our wide distribution model isn’t for everyone, which is why we happily recommend Happy Heart Farm as another local option,” says Palmer.
Happy Heart Farm, founded in 1981 on West Elizabeth Street in Fort Collins, is owned and operated by Bailey and Dennis Stenson. Entering its 20th year as a CSA, Happy Heart was the first in Colorado to adopt the CSA model. With only 155 shares, they require members to come to the farm to pick up, thus serving as a meeting place for like-minded people.
“Being an urban CSA, members can easily walk, bike, and drive here. People enjoy more of a personal connection with the farm, the farmers and the other members. We have a number of educational opportunities and several working memberships, where members enjoy a reduced fee for coming to help work the crops,” says Bailey Stenson.Interested veggie-eaters should check websites and are encouraged to call their chosen CSAs with any questions. Most offer memberships for food items other than vegetables such as fruit, eggs, cheese, even chocolate or mushrooms. All the farmers will tell you that if you don’t like their approach, please try a different CSA in the area.
Who Shouldn’t Become a Member?
Asked if there are people who don’t enjoy the CSA experience, Stenson says yes. “If you too are too busy to cook or don’t like to cook, if you are very picky about what you will get – say you want only carrots or potatoes throughout the season, then the farmers’ markets are a better venue for you.”
Overall, my family has enjoyed having a variety of veggies fresh from the farm, many that I would never have picked up at the store, but have come to love. If there is any downside for us, it has been abundance. Not every growing season is the same, so next year there may be less lettuce (some of which I left anonymously at the neighbor’s house) and more of those funky carrots. I do know that we’ll join the CSA again. And in case you were wondering, my daughter thought the carrots were delicious.
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Skip the Big Box Groceries
Between CSAs, farmers’ markets, local dairies and ranches, it is possible to obtain almost everything you eat from a local source. Some businesses deliver directly to your home, making it even easier to eat locally.
Dairy
Morning Fresh Dairy is just north of Fort Collins in Bellvue, and was founded in 1894. Co-owner, Laurie Graves (great-grand-daughter-in-law of the founder) explains that their delivery service includes their locally produced, all-natural milk and now yogurt, but also Bean Cycle coffee, Beeyond the Hive honey, MouCo cheese, Eileen’s cookie dough and even eggs from the Graves kids’ chickens.
“We believe it’s a priority to invest in local food, because we need to have a sustainable agricultural economy here. Buying products produced in Northern Colorado means you’re not relying on the Midwest or California to provide your food. It means more local jobs. And it means a cleaner environment,” says Graves, who admits that she thinks about all of their products as a mom first and a business owner second. “I figure if it’s good for my kids, it’s probably what other parents want for theirs too.”
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Morning Fresh Dairy converts alfalfa to bottled milk every 24 hours and delivers it all over Northern Colorado before the milk is a day old.
Their entire operation, including alfalfa fields, cows and bottling facility, spans about two square miles. Compare that to a carton of grocery store milk, whose exact origin is unknown, but was likely trucked thousands of miles in its journey to your table.
Morning Fresh operates as an all-natural operation, using no pesticides on the feed, no added hormones for the cows and no preservatives in the milk. Additional information can be found at www.morningfreshdairy.com.
Meat
Keeping it local, meat can also be obtained from within a short drive of your home. Grant Family Farms offers chickens through their CSA program. And the following ranches are just two of many who sell beef and other meat at farmers’ markets or through their websites.
- Sunshine Ranch
- Grass Fed Beef
- Loveland
- Sara Puharich
- (970) 679-4330
- www.sunriseranch.org
- Kiowa Valley Organics
- Certified Organic Beef and Egg CSA shares
- Sara Bevan
- www.kiowavalleyorganics.com
- For more farms and ranches see:
- www.localharvest.org
- www.eatwild.com
Produce
- Partial list of Northern Colorado CSAs fount at: www.localharvest.org
- Cresset Community Farm (June-February)
- Johnstown
- Ursula Holmes
- www.cressetcommunityfarm.com
- (970) 278-0499
- Grant Family Farms CSA (June-December)
- Wellington
- Becky Jackson
- (970) 568.7654
- www.grantfarms.com
- Happy Heart Farm (May-October)
- Fort Collins
- Dennis Stenson
- (970) 482-3448
- www.happyheartfarmcsa.com
- Monroe Organic Farms (July-October)
- Weld County
- Jacquie Monroe
- (970) 284-7941
- www.monroefarm.com
Corey Radman is a veggie eating motherof two who is slowly learning to appreciate the virture of kale chips.