What is a Harvest Box?
What
if, instead of getting a news magazine every week, you got a box of produce
from a farmer down the road.
And what if that box would be filled with fruits and
vegetables, freshly picked , bursting with flavor and nutrition?
That's what you
get when you subscribe to a CSA.
Community-Supported
Agriculture (CSA) is also known as "subscription farming."
You buy a share, or subscription, from a local
farmer just like you buy a
subscription to your favorite magazine or newspaper. But instead of receiving a
magazine
each week, you receive a "share" of fresh, locally grown fruits and
vegetables.
While new in name, Community Supported Agriculture brings us back to an earlier
time; a time when people knew
where their food came from, ate in harmony with the
seasons, and enjoyed a delicious, healthy diet of pure, fresh foods.
"In season" is what CSAs are all about. The grocery store knows no seasons. Those
who must shop there lose touch with nature. Sure, you can buy tomatoes in January-
but they will not taste
as good as those picked ripe off the vine in August. What
we have gained in convenience, we have lost in flavor,freshness,
nutritional value,
and human connection-to each other and to the land.
When
you subscribe to a CSA, however, you remake all those connections.
Of course,
you'll never get tomatoes in June. In June, your CSA share will be full
of luscious lettuce, cabbage, strawberries
and other early-summer delights. When
August comes, then you will experience an explosion of true tomato flavor with
your
first bite of a juicy, just-picked, sun-ripened tomato- proving once again that some
things are worth waiting
for!
CSA subscribers don't so much "buy" food from particular farms as
become "members"
of those farms. CSAs provide more than just food, they offer ways for eaters to
become
involved in the ecological and human community that supports the farm.
