Well, it's been a long, cold winter, but the snow is shrinking slowly away and the ground is starting to wake up. I won't say it's here quite yet, but spring is definitely coming!
Lucky Moon Farm on Lincklaen Road in the hills near Cazenovia, is run by "locally grown" farmers, Sue & Claude Braun. On the farm, they grow vegetables for the CSA, their farm stand and several winter farmers' markets. They also produce and sell maple syrup, cut flowers, garlic, eggs and hay.
Sue & Claude started in 1992 on 50 acres of worn-out farmland and have been rebuilding the soil using cover crops, compost, minerals, rock powders, and certified organic fertilizers with the knowledge that the best tasting vegetables are produced from healthy soils. Although Lucky Moon is not certified organic, Sue & Claude have used organic practices for 19 years and they annually sign the NOFA Farmers' Pledge. They offer small and large shares, depending on you're family's consumption as well as a delivery or pick-up option in Cazenovia or Manlius.
If you're new to the idea of CSAs, here's a description of how they work and what the benefits of participating in one can be for individuals and a community:
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and is also called Subscription Farming. It's essentially a way for farmers and consumers to interact directly, without the produce having to go through all those middle men before it reaches your table. Members of the CSA sign up and pay for a share of the harvest at the beginning of the season, and then the farmer provides those members with a box or a bag of fresh produce once a week. By paying for the vegetables up front, the members ensure that the farmer has enough funds to purchase the seeds, tools and natural soil amendments that he or she needs to grow the crops. It also means that the CSA members and the farmer share the risk of a crop doing poorly due to weather, disease or insect problems. However, shortfalls are pretty rare and more often than not, members end up getting extra produce when a crop does better than expected.
I really like subscription farming for lots of reasons. My personal favorite is that as a member, you can see for yourself exactly how your food is grown. Eating real food, grown by someone you know in your own community, makes a big difference when you consider all the repercussions of our country's current method of growing and transporting produce. Whether you're concerned about ingesting chemicals from industrial herbicides or pesticides, or you are aware of the incredible amount of oil that goes into petroleum-based fertilizer, or the effect of the chemical run-off from industrial farms on surrounding ecosystems, the CSA system offers a sustainable alternative.
And even if none of those issues really influence your eating choices, you simply have to taste the difference when a tomato or a carrot or lettuce isn't shipped all the way across the country (or from a different hemisphere!) Eating produce grown a few miles away and harvested the day you pick it up is an experience that too few of us enjoy these days. The difference in flavor and texture is incredible!
So that's my spiel- Subscription farming offers a sensible (and tasty!) alternative to the produce section of the average chain grocery store, and it helps you and your family get reconnected with the land. Knowing where your food comes from and how it's produced is really important. We are eating this stuff, after all.
If you're interested in joining the CSA for next year, or want to find out more about Lucky Moon's program, please contact me by email
