Is A CSA Right For You?

by Jas Faulkner

writer's note:  Apologies to readers who might want to see what a share looks like.  The image application for Blogger isn't working.  Check out the links at the end of the article to get a look at examples of each farm's share.  Better yet, come to ENFM and take a look at the boxes and baskets that are picked up each week by happy subscribers.

You see them every time you visit the market, those people walking to their cars or pedaling home, happy as clams.  They're bearing boxes or baskets that would make Martha Stewart fling herself across her perfectly appointed four-poster and weep bitter tears at the perfection that defies all of her lifestyle maven's logic.  What is the cause of all of that peacock-strutting to the parking lot?  Only one thing could incite that kind of feeling: picking up a weekly share from one of the CSAs at East Nashville Farmers Market.

What is a CSA?
CSA stands for Community Shared (or Supported) Agriculture.  They offer consumers a chance to buy a share in dedicated crops that are delivered on a weekly or biweekly basis.  Most farms offer subscriptions that run from late Spring to mid- to late Autumn. Some farms offer Winter CSAs, which are usually shorter and provide whatever produce is available in the cooler months.  The average share per delivery is around a half bushel of fruits and vegetables.

The costs can vary, but you can expect to pay four hundred to eight hundred dollars per subscription depending on the duration and frequency of deliveries.  If paying that much money at once brings on a case of sticker shock, look for farms that offer early subscription discounts and installment plans. Keep in mind that upfront economy might cost you later on in terms of time, convenience, and gas. Some lower cost CSAs require a commitment to helping with the labor or actually driving to the farm or a designated participant's home to pick up your share. If you're in doubt, be bold about asking for the details regarding delivery and whether you'll be picking tomatoes or waiting in line to assemble your box or basket.

Why should I get a CSA?
I can give you four good reasons.  Siddown.  You're going to like this.

• Quality - Buying a CSA means you know your pantry is going to be filled with fresh, beautiful produce that was grown fairly close to where you live. The person who hands you your share every week is more than likely the person who grew it and picked it.  They take pride in what they sell and frankly, the nature of the business is that you're supporting them and they're feeding you.  It doesn't get more personal than that. 

• Well-being - Eating produce that is locally grown means eating plants that have adapted to the soil conditions and climate of your part of the world.  It also means eating with the seasons.  While most ongoing studies are still inclusive, there is strong evidence suggesting mental and physical benefits to eating in tune with your environment.
• Cost - Remember that sticker price that seemed so big at the start of the article?  Do the math.  If you break down the cost based on the weight of your average share, it comes to around two dollars per pound.  Try getting that much produce for the same price at your local market.
• It's the right thing to do - Supporting family farming in your area keeps agrarian culture alive for another generation.  By enabling local farmers to stay in business, you also help protect scarily dwindling arable land from disappearing and the ecosystems they support along with it. 

Is this right for me?
Could be.  Do you like vegetables?  Have you been trying to find some way to structure your kitchen management that will help you eat a healthier diet?  Do you like the idea of preparing fresh meals?  Are you the least bit adventurous when it comes to trying new things?  If you answered, "yes" to those questions, the CSA pickup will be a bright spot in your week.

However...and there's always a however, isn't there?  If you're a picky eater who has been known to throw out produce once it starts looking like a lab culture, you might want to continue buying your veggies a la carte.  A share means just what it says, a share of whatever the farm produces that week.  Finding out there is an eggplant nestled among your greens and a half-dozen of the prettiest peppers and tomatoes you've ever seen means you have to be a sport. The fat purple guy is going home with you.  The upside is you might get motivated to learn how to make a killer baba ganoush.

Where do I sign up?
Many of the Spring and Summer CSAs are already underway and few (if any) allow for midseason additions to their subscription lists. It's not too late to look into Autumn shares and get into the loop for next year. For more information, take some virtual trips to the farms that provide CSA deliveries to the ENFM.

• Produce CSAs
• Delvin Farms
• Flying S Farms
• Paradise Produce

• Meat CSAs
• Peaceful Pastures
• Westwind Farms

 

Delvin Farms' Green Revolution Is A Family Affair

by Jas Faulkner

“People are not going to buy produce with spots on them.”  

Family matriarch Cindy usually had a lot of faith in the next generation of the Delvin Family.  With one son having recently returned from a stint in the Peace Corp and a daughter who had found a new mission in life inspired by her urban middle school students, the idea of taking the farm one step further into a movement that could make the world a better place seemed well-intentioned, but far fetched.

The Delvins were already successful farmers.  From the beginning of their business in 1972 they had built up a clientele that included household names to most Middle Tennesseans such as Kroger and Shoney’s.  Their thriving twenty-five year old farm wasn’t in need of any kind of makeover.

Amy Delvin remembers that summer in 1997:

“During my brother’s time in the Peace Corp, he had observed farmers using methods that were passed down from one generation to the next.  He came home and tried to tell our parents that there was a way to have successful crops without using conventional technology: pesticides, chemicals, GMOs. 

 “Dad gave him a section of land so he could try it. He used organic methods to grow heirloom tomatoes, for which he got four times as much as Dad got for his conventional tomatoes. That was all it took for him to see that people would be willing to buy organic produce.”

Of course the bottom line was a consideration, but Hank and Cindy Delvin had always taught their kids the importance of maintaining a strong set of principles behind whatever they chose to do.  In a family that valued learning, growth, and doing things the right way, exploring more sustainable ways to farm was the logical next step.

 “My parents originally focused on one or two kinds of tomatoes, greens, and very  traditional, familiar  varieties of produce. We grow a greater variety of vegetables now.  People are more aware of what’s out there and so the demand is greater –not only for organic produce- but heirloom varieties as well.

“Growing up on a farm, you’re aware of the importance of taking good care of the land.  We began to educate ourselves so we could do what was necessary to become a USDA certified organic farm.”

 Part of that transition included expanding and changing their customer base. This would mean reaching out to a new kind of consumer.

Amy Delvin Tavalin prepares for
an afternoon at the Farmers Market.

Amy Delvin Tavalin had returned to the farm after years of teaching at a middle school in Baltimore.  During a discussion of Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird”, she had what some people would call a “lightbulb moment”. 

“We had just read the scene where Jem and Scout were in Boo Radley’s collard patch and one of my students asked me what a collard was.  I realized that these kids grew up never knowing what it was like to have someone in the family living and working on a farm.  Many of them didn’t even have grandparents who gardened.  They had no sense of where their food came from.”

She implemented some opportunities for her students in Maryland to learn more about farming, but realized her family farm back in College Grove, Tennessee offered an opportunity to educate children (and adults) about the importance of agriculture.  Working with educators in Tennessee she created programs that gave kids a day on the farm who might have gone their entire childhood without the chance to see a tomato ripening on the vine.

The new model of agribusiness they were following would offer the public another way to be more directly involved with getting their food from the field to the table.  By 1998, the 140 acre farm* was certified organic and in 1999 they began their CSA with 90+ subscribers. The philosophy was straightforward: provide a way for consumers to buy their produce directly from the people who grew it.  This would eliminate any mystery about the identity or the producer or the quality and safety of the product.

Ironically, simplification for customers meant a whole host of challenges and expenses for the Delvins.  The certification process was much more than just a matter of paperwork and fees.  Inspectors had to flown in, housed and fed, all at the expense of the Delvins.  In order to be able to identify as USDA Certified Organic, they had to submit to inspections of the land, the equipment and all of their paperwork, which has to account for the chain of custody and provenance of the seeds they use. 

Is it worth it? The Delvin Family seems to think so, and so do the over seven hundred subscribers who participate in their CSA.  Every year they enjoy weekly boxes of in-season produce from the farm that now grows over 80 varieties of organic fruits and vegetables.

When asked what plant had grown the most in popularity, Amy says it has to be kale. 

“We were the sole provider of kale to Shoney’s for a long time.” 

According to Shoney's logic,
kale was just too pretty to eat.

Anyone who ever visited a Shoney’s is probably trying to recall seeing kale on the menu. The truth is, it was never offered as part of their fare.  Diners certainly saw it on every plate to emerge from the kitchen, not to mention all over their salad and breakfast bars.  Remember those large, dark green leaves underneath certain entrees and buffet offerings and the curly green sides on every plate and around the edges of the buffet stations?  That wasn’t parsley, it was kale from Delvin Farms.   

“That’s right,” says Ms Tavalin,  “One of the healtiest items we grow was originally used as a decoration.  We sold them boxes upon boxes of kale and my mother would always try to talk them into cooking it.  She told them they could serve it just like any other green.”

Chef and slow food activist Rick Bayless advises anyone who wants to eat better to "get your food from the periphery of the store."  Take it one step further and get your food from the remembered periphery of a Middle Tennessee culinary institution.  This time, it's not about eating something on a dare from your big sister, it's tasting what you've been missing.

*Delvin Farm has grown considerably since then.  They now have 220 acres.