With Community Supported Agriculture, Patrons Can Own Part of the Produce

Imagine tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, zucchini, eggplant, onions, peppers, potatoes, spinach, garlic, fresh herbs, and even flowers — all from the farm to your table week after week.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) makes it possible for hundreds of people through the cooperation of local farmers and shareholders. Agriculturists offer a certain number of shares to the public and in return, each holder receives an ongoing portion of fresh produce throughout the season.

At Patterson’s Cascade Farm, members pay $600 per season. Their weekly share, 50 of which were sold last year, is enough to feed a family of four. The program was so popular that the farm upped its capacity and is working with 75 stakeholders this year. Each member will receive about 350 pounds of food over the course of the season, which runs from May to October.

“With most farms, farmers take the risk,” Cascade’s manager Margaret Wilder explained. “In the CSA model, members take a risk with the farmer.”

According to Wilder, people are especially willing to participate in community farming programs these days because they are more aware of the economic and environmental impact of transporting produce. 

“Supermarket food typically travels 1,500 miles from the source to the table,” says Wilder. “With a CSA, you are paying for more than just produce. You are paying to have a farm right in your community.” 

The CSA concept developed out of a growing concern for food safety in Japan in the 1960s. The idea spread to Europe, and arrived in America around 1980. It gave consumers more information about the food they were eating and it gave farmers a more stable marketplace.

Since then different variations of the CSA model have popped up throughout the region. The Ryder family in Brewster has been tilling their soil since 1795. They added a CSA component 10 years ago, with a season that lasts 16 weeks. Unlike Cascade, which offers only full shares, Ryder members can purchase a full weekly share at $450, a half-share per week at $300 or a bi-weekly full share for $225.

Yorktown’s E.B. Golden Harvest Farm operates for 50 weeks, supplying its members with maple syrup, honey from their own bees and homegrown herbs and tisanes when freshly harvested items are unavailable. In addition, they freeze, can or dehydrate summer products for use in the winter months.

Some CSAs require a work effort as part of the membership agreement. But Betsey Ryder calls her farm a “drive-by CSA.” She pre-assembles packages every Wednesday morning and members can swing through any time during the week to pick them up. There is no work requirement. 

Cascade members are not required to work either, although the bulk of the gardening is done by volunteers. Food is available for pick-up on Thursdays from 2 to 7 p.m. The crops are piled up on long tables for members take their allotted portions and do their own packaging. All the while it is a social event, with the consumers discussing the week’s harvest and swapping recipes.

New City’s , opening this spring for the first time as a CSA, requires its members to put in 14 hours of work during the season.

“Once you have a feeling of ownership, there’s a better chance you will succeed,” says Heshi Gorewitz, executive director of the Rockland Farm Alliance. Approximately 200 people have signed up so far.

The Cropsey Farm has attracted members from all walks of life.

“The oldest ‘culture’ we share as a species is ‘agriculture,’” Gorewitz pointed out.  At Cropsey there are “firemen, policemen, Democrats, Republicans — in the end, a cucumber is a cucumber, a tomato is a tomato.”

For more information, contact:

• Cascade Farm in Patterson
• Ryder Farm Cottage Industries in Brewster
• Glynwood Center in Cold Spring
• Cropsey Community Farm in New City
• E.B.'s Golden Harvest in Yorktown Heights
• J & A Farm, Pleasantville