Columbus, Ohio USA
Return to homepage www.shortnorth.com
Do you know where your veggies are grown?
August 2008
by Mary Martineau
email mmartineau@northmarket.com
Return to Martineau Index
Return to Features IndexPhotos by See Gee!
In this day and age it can be frightening to turn on the television, open the newspaper or go online and learn of outbreaks of E. coli and salmonella. It can also be comforting to know exactly where your food is grown. When shopping at your favorite farmers’ market, you can have confidence that your local farmer is safeguarding your family’s health while providing you access to an abundance of nutritional produce.
Sandy Sterrett has operated a CSA for 8 years and serves an amazing 115 subscribers
with her virtually one-woman operation, Elizabeth Telling Farm.
There is a way to contribute back to the security of your local farmer and food system and simultaneously reap the benefits of a wider selection of vegetables available to your family. More farms are now offering CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) which offer participants a subscription in exchange for a weekly allotment of produce. Members make a financial commitment to the farm and are rewarded with a share of the farm’s vegetable output each week. The North Market currently has four CSAs operating: Elizabeth Telling Farm, The Greener Grocer, Just This Farm and Wayward Seed Farm.CSA: Elizabeth Telling Farm
Subscription cost: $450 ($17 per week)
Subscription length: 27 weeks
Things you might find in your CSA basket: cabbage, baby carrots, summer sweet onions, choice of herbs, lettuce and eggs
Availability: Sold out
How to subscribe: sandy@elizabethtellingfarm.com, www.elizabethtellingfarm.com
In its eighth year, Sandy Sterrett of Elizabeth Telling Farm has the longest-running CSA at the North Market. She learned about CSAs by reading about them in farm magazines and hearing about them at farm conferences. She instituted hers because she was attracted to the opportunity to build a community with her customers and have them become a part of her farm. Farming can be somewhat monetarily precarious with many costs at the front end. CSA subscriptions help to “even out the financial part”. Most of all, Sandy enjoys the interaction and appreciation from her customers as it gives her a lot of support for an otherwise lonely occupation.
Early on in her CSA career Sandy focused on large volumes of food. These days her shares are designed more for people who do not cook every meal at home. There is a lot more variety versus quantity. Most of her 115 subscriptions go to one or two person households who enjoy being able to experiment with things they may not otherwise have tried. If at a loss for how to prepare something, customers often turn to Sandy or other subscribers who are happy to share their successes.CSA: The Greener Grocer
Subscription cost: $600 ($30 per week)
Subscription length: 20 weeks
Things you might find in your CSA basket: salad mix, basil, apricots, zucchini, redskin potatoes, green beans, baby bok choy and baby fennel
Availability: available pro-rated by subscription date
How to subscribe: sign up at The Greener Grocer in the North MarketThe Greener Grocer opened in the North Market at the beginning of this year so it’s no surprise that this is their first year with a CSA. With their mission to buy directly from the local farming community and “educate the public about the importance of buying locally grown food to support small to medium size family farms” the CSA is a natural component of their business plan. If you have not subscribed to a CSA yet The Greener Grocer still has shares remaining and will pro-rate your subscription for the remaining weeks. The Greener Grocer obtains produce from half a dozen farms all over central Ohio. According to Susan Weber, co-owner, “we have a nice diversity of product and location of farms represented in our CSA. With a low expenditure of energy on their part, our subscribers support a wide variety of central Ohio farms.”
One thing that clearly sets The Greener Grocer CSA apart is their avid social responsibility. By subscribing to any CSA you are supporting local agriculture. They take it a step further and attempt to improve food access for folks who would normally not be able to afford a CSA. For every ten paid bags of produce purchased by subscribers, The Greener Grocer donates two bags to the Clintonville Community Resource Center, a local food pantry that also happens to be one of the pick up points for the CSA (the North Market being the other). Since The Greener Grocer represents a number of local farmers they also include information about their farms each week. Michael Jones, co-owner of The Greener Grocer is an excellent chef, so subscribers also benefit by receiving recipes and food prep tips with their weekly portion of produce!
CSA: Just This Farm
Subscription cost: $575 ($25 per week)
Subscription length: 24 weeks
Things you might find in your CSA basket: peppers, eggplant, hearty greens, tomatoes, lots of garlic (Kevin’s specialty), fall squash. New this year: blackberries, apples and pears
Availability: Sold out
How to subscribe: kevineigel@gmail.com, www.justthisfarm.net
Kevin Eigle of Just This Farm has 26 subscribers to his CSA. Kevin Eigel of Just This Farm is operating his third CSA. He recognizes a growing demand for CSAs as consumer awareness increases and people want to know exactly where their food is coming from. He also appreciates the financial support the program provides him as a grower who has most of his expenses in the spring before the crops are available for sale.
Kevin enjoys the personal connection he makes with the people in his CSA. Subscribers even have the opportunity to see the farm itself if they want to visit and pick up their share at Just This Farm in Galloway where everything is grown. Kevin likes the lessons CSA subscribers learn too. “Once they are in a CSA they are kind of ‘stuck’ but in a very good way. They know they will have veggies every week and it increases their awareness of the seasonality of central Ohio and puts them more in touch with local agriculture.” Kevin also provides this little tidbit, “in Japan CSA roughly translates to ‘food with a farmer’s face on it,’ there are no mysteries about your food when you can talk to your local grower.”
CSA: Wayward Seed Farm
Subscription cost: $500 ($20 per week) for 2 people
Subscription length: 25 weeks
Things you might find in your CSA basket: rat tail radish pods, baby carrots, black Tuscan kale, heirloom tomatoes, salsify and unusual root veggies
Availability: A new program will start running August 2 through late October that will cost $260 for 2 people or $140 for a one person subscription
How to subscribe: www.waywardseed.com or drop by the farmers’marketAdam Welly and Jaime Moore of Wayward Seed Farm are operating their first CSAs (yes, that is multiple) this year. They have a traditional vegetable CSA, a fruit CSA and a late season CSA that will be starting this month. The initial response to their offerings has been tremendous thanks to websites like LocalHarvest.org and they keep interested parties informed through their own email list. Based on this year’s success they have greatly expanded their CSA offering for next year. Wayward Seed Farm is known for growing unique items for their restaurant clientele which they then make available to their CSA customers. They keep the Refectory supplied in carrots, spring peas, salsify and baby turnips. For Rigsby’s they grow black Tuscan kale and Chioggia squash. La Tavola is stocked in Wayward Seed Farm’s cipollini onions and squash blossoms.
To support the Wayward Seed Farm is to support your options as a consumer. According to Adam Welly, “Our farm tries to use the income from our CSAs to put back into the farm to expand our offerings. Because of that, this year we were able to grow purple asparagus. Next year we will have rhubarb and raspberries. Continued expansion of our CSA will be the central focus of Wayward Seed Farm in the next couple years.”
Getting people to eat locally is challenging according to Sandy Sterrett of Elizabeth Telling Farm because society has narrowed the view of vegetables to include lettuce, corn, beans and tomatoes which are widely available in July and August. “There is an enormously extended season into the fall with a huge variety of vegetables that people just don’t know about or have not acquired a taste for. Swiss chard is good for you, it’s tasty and it’s so versatile!” declares Sandy. Go sign up for a CSA…it will make you eat your veggies…probably some you’ve never even heard of before!
Visit www.northmarket.comReturn to homepage www.shortnorth.com
©2008 Short North Gazette, Columbus, Ohio. All rights reserved.
