By Cricket Desmarais
Imagine sharing a delicious home-prepared meal with family and friends that’s not only organic and nourishing, but whose ingredients have traveled a little over a single sea-side road to get from the earth to your plate. Impossible, you say? Considering how much of our food is sprayed with pesticides and other harsh chemicals before it gets boxed up and shipped across continents before it makes its way to distribution centers, supermarkets and finally, your hungry tongue, your doubts are understandable. By then it may have been weeks since it’s been plucked from the dirt from which it sprang, loosing valuable vitamins, minerals and nutrients along the way.
A group of locals in the lower Keys have decided to take a different approach, addressing and taking charge of the health and well-being of both their bodies and their environment. Enter CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, a program that creates a partnership between a farm and a community of supporting members.
“There was a real lack of fresh organic produce in Key West and we really liked the idea of going directly to the farm as well as trying to raise awareness in the community about organics and CSA programs,” says Jody Smith, co-organizer of the lower Keys group. “We think that the movement of sustainability is very important. Creating this program is one thing we could do to start the process of it being more prevalent in the Keys.”
By simply paying up front for what they will receive during the season, CSA members insure that the farmers can make it happen in the first place by purchasing seed, fertilizer, labor and any other operating capital they might need for that year’s production.
“It helps the small family farms survive,” says Marie Pikarsky, owner of Bee Heaven Farm and affiliate of Redland Organics, the partner of the lower Keys CSA.
Pikarsky started Bee Heaven Farm more than ten years ago after what she calls a “twenty-five year detour in the world of data” from her former biology studies. What originally started out as an avocado grove in which to literally bring her “back down to earth” has since flourished into a colorful farm of edible flowers, bee-hives, rows of lettuces, radishes, turnips, tomatoes and a bevy of other good-for-you goodies. Half of those years have operated in association with the CSA program—now boasting over 200 members.
Bee Heaven and a group of other cooperating local farms out of Redland provide the variety from which the lower Keys participants benefit. Each Saturday from mid-November to April (a total of 19 weeks), the veggie coop members pick up their share from the coolers and boxes that line the walkway of co-organizer Ashley Kamen’s home in Key West. Bright baskets of heirloom tomatoes, billowy bags of arugula greens, beautiful boxes of sweet strawberries; each week is a surprise bounty from what Mother Nature brings.
“I’m completely happy with this program,” says Key Wester Holly Shea. “It challenges me to eat a whole range of foods I normally wouldn’t come in contact with and be creative in how I prepare those foods. I’m eating better and feeling better.
“It also helps a lot to not have to go the grocery store all the time,” says the mother of a young son who is conscious of what she puts on their plates each day. “The foods are just so vibrant and alive and fresh—it really translates into your whole sense of well-being and comfort when you eat the food. I think that organics are a great gift of this planet.”
The program is not, however, for those unwilling to broaden their horizons or take some risks. First and foremost is the fact that you could quite possibly lose your initial investment should harsh weather create crop failure. As storm-and-flood-bearing souls, we know our way around that sort of loss, and some of us are better at taking it than others. Know who you are before you sign up.
The other issue is this: you get what you get and you either like it or give it away. This is not a supermarket, where you pick and choose from big bins, select what your cook-book recipe calls for. No, as Shea put it, this program asks you to get creative with your week’s bounty, to try it even if you’re not quite sure of what it is.
Fortunately for members, there’s “THE COMmunity POST,” a weekly newsletter that informs members of farm news and tells them what’s exactly in that week’s share, with pictographs and all. Sometimes there’s even a recipe to help the less inspired out, turning that Pei Tsai (Chinese Lettuce) into something other than future compost.
Sign-ups for next year’s CSA will begin in August, with an October deadline to insure your shares in the program.
“If at least sixty members from the Keys sign up,” says Pikarsky, “we will consider hiring someone to deliver to the upper, middle and lower areas.”
It might cost a bit more each week, but as it stands now, members are assigned one weekend each to drive up to the farm to pick up their group’s bounty.
“Everyone has put in a substantial amount of effort to make the program happen,” says Smith. “But it’s proven to be really worthwhile—definitely a success.
While it may seem like a long haul to get your eats,
consider the journey of most store-bought chemically-treated produce and it
won’t seem a nary long. The farm itself
is a lovely escape, lush with hues of green, rich-smelling soil and friendly
staffers washing down fresh picked vegetables or snipping edible flowers in the
fields. Then factor in the aquamarine
seas on either side of you as you drive the one road there and back, and you’ll
count yourself lucky to be living— organically and healthfully— in the
beautiful Florida Keys.
For more information about next season’s CSA programs, visit www.redlandorganics.com or call 305.247.8650.