CSAs share the bounty and risk of eating local

David Fitzgerald raises chickens for meat and eggs, produces honey from dozens of beehives and grows a variety of vegetables -- all without antibiotics, hormones or chemical fertilizers.

Despite the long hours, he considers it all a dream.

"It's a dream to turn back and show that it can still be done, that it can still be sustainable," said Fitzgerald, who operates Honey Hollow Homestead in western Goochland County. "That we can be good to Mother Earth, and Mother Earth can be good to us."

Fitzgerald, 58, is a retired Henrico County police officer who has been farming for eight years and is a partner in Rural Virginia Market, a cooperative of a half-dozen farms in central Virginia that joined to form a CSA -- CommunitySupported Agriculture.

CSAs sell "shares" to consumers who receive a weekly bag or basket of produce or other farm items during the growing season. By making a financial commitment, the food-buying public also shares with farmers the risk of a bad harvest because of harsh weather or insect infestation.

CSA farms generally are small, sometimes little more than extensive backyard gardens. They provide an array of products. In addition to vegetables, Rural Virginia Market partners, for example, offer herbs, goat cheese and even homemade pasta.

Debra Stoneman, whose Byrd Farm in western Goochland is a primary producer of vegetables, along with Trail's End Farm in Hanover County, for Rural Virginia Market, said shares are sold on a per-season basis. A full share of weekly vegetables is $224 for spring and fall, and $475 for the longer summer season. Half shares also are available. Last year, Rural Virginia Market tried limiting shares to 50; this year they have increased capacity to 75 subscribers per season.

"There's a lost connection between the eater and the grower," Stoneman said. "The CSAs are trying to reconnect them."

The CSA concept has been around at least since the early 1980s, but it has gained popularity in the past decade, along with farmers markets, as consumers have become more interested in knowing where their food comes from, more concerned about food safety and more aware that much of our food travels hundreds of miles to reach local supermarkets.

In 1990, there were an estimated 50 CSAs in the United States. Now, there are more than 2,200, according to Local Harvest, an organic and local food Web site (LocalHarvest.org) that maintains a nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets and other local food sources.

In Virginia, there are at least five dozen CSAs listed with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, representing a big jump in the past several years, said VDACS spokeswoman Elaine Lidholm.

"We've seen a tremendous increase in the whole 'buy local' phenomenon," she said. "I think the interest started right after [the terrorist at tacks of ] Sept. 11. People became more conscious about where their food was coming from, who was growing it, how they were growing it, food safety, that kind of thing. It started coming more into the popular culture at that point."

Barbara Haber, author of "From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals," who spoke to The Woman's Club of Richmond last week, said CSAs remind her of the "back to the land" commune movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The communal model typically didn't work well because too few of those involved knew enough about growing food and too many others weren't willing to expend the necessary effort.

"Joining a CSA is a better way to get back to the land," she said, "in that expert farmers are involved and their customers feel good about themselves not only for supporting small producers but for having found a way to eat fresh and wholesome products with a known source."

The notion of locally grown produce received a shot of publicity last week when Michelle Obama turned soil for a vegetable garden at the White House.

This is the time of year when local CSAs are selling subscriptions for the spring, summer and fall growing seasons. Most local CSAs still have shares available. As the number of local CSAs has increased, so too has the number of people wanting to buy shares.

Victory Farms Inc., a small, family-run farm in Hanover County, had 100 subscribers in 2007, its first year, 200 in 2008 and will have 400 this year, said Gina Collins, vice president and co-owner with husband, Charlie.

"With the economic crisis, people are definitely thinking more along the lines of ways to save money or to spend money wisely," said Gina Collins. "I've noticed more and more of our members are saying they're planning to cook more at home . . . and asking more about canning and preserving and freezing to make [the food] last a little longer."

The Collinses have expanded their garden to 6 acres this year and will grow a wide range of vegetables as well as cut flowers. Drs. Theodore Wu and Deborah Koehn and their two children have been Victory Farms customers since its inception. The experience has introduced them to unfamiliar vegetables, widening their choices at the dinner table, Wu said. They've even helped in the garden, harvesting vegetables.

"As physicians we always advocate healthy, nutritious diets for our patients," said Wu, who lives in Mechanicsville. "This was an opportunity to not only obtain the highest quality organic product, but to support a local farmer and to learn a little about the enormous challenges and opportunities involved in food production today."

Other CSA subscribers say supporting local farmers gives them a sense of community as well as the pleasure of grow-your-own vegetables without having to grow them themselves.

"I work a 9-to-5 job, and I tried to have a garden one year and it was a disaster," said Bucci Zeugner, of Richmond, a shareholder in Rural Market Virginia. "I appreciate having fresh vegetables that I don't have to bend over to pull weeds for."

Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or .

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