Dining / Cooking

Go Green. Go Local. Try a CSA.

By Kay Luna | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 | () comments

Kevin E. Schmidt/QUAD-CITY TIMES Lori Hess, left, and Darcy Eggimann both of Kewanee, Ill., pick peas at Teresa’s Tasty Produce, a Henry County farm that operates a Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, program. Buy this Photo

Joyce Ford says it feels like Christmas all summer long.

Every week, when she cracks open the lid of her cooler — packed especially for her by Teresa’s Tasty Produce in Atkinson, Ill. — the Moline woman feels the excitement of anticipation.

That’s because Ford never knows exactly what she will find inside.

Sometimes it’s lettuce, tomatoes and onions. Or maybe she’ll find rhubarb, sweet corn and potatoes.

A sampling of whatever produce is in season goes into the coolers, which are typically delivered each week to the 53 customers signed up for the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, program.

But this isn’t unique to Teresa and Steve Krause’s family farm in rural Henry County. More and more farms are offering CSA programs, which are quickly gaining popularity in the Quad-City region.

Although it might be too late to participate in a CSA this year — unless you’ve signed up already — it’s something to remember for next year, especially if you want to support local business, and know exactly when and how your food is grown.

This is how it works with most CSAs: Customers buy a share, or half-share, of the farm’s produce for the season, paying anywhere from about $200 on up, depending on the size of the box or cooler they want to receive and how often they want to receive it.

Each farm has its own rules about when payments are due, but many ask for fees early in the season to give them money ahead of time to buy seeds and pay for tools and labor to get the planting done.

Buying a share or half-share usually brings a reduced rate for produce and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, depending on the time of year, several CSA farmers and customers in the Quad-City region said.

This is Ford’s second year of participating in the Krause CSA. Farmers markets have “always been a huge temptation” for her, Ford said, so she thinks it’s great to have produce already waiting for her each week.

“It’s kind of a challenge to me to use it up and not waste it,” added Ford, who shares the produce with her husband, Quinton, and the rest of her family in the area. “You reap the benefits if they’re having a really good year.”

Many times, CSA farmers will include recipes or nutritional sheets with their produce, especially if the items are unusual. When Krause put kohlrabi — a turnip-like vegetable — in her CSA coolers, she included a sheet explaining what it was and how to prepare it.

Not only is the arrangement a benefit for customers who want a sampling of reduced-priced produce packed and delivered, but it’s also a benefit to the farmer.

This way, the farmers know in advance how much to plant, and the money is there for them upfront.

At Teresa’s Tasty Produce, Krause began the CSA program four years ago, but her customer base has grown each season. This year, she more than doubled her list of customers from 2007.

They deliver coolers to various farmers market locations several times a week for 20 weeks during the growing season.

“We usually try to start at the end of May; our last week this year will be the first week of October,” Krause said. “It’s a great way for our business to survive, too, because it’s money we can count on.”

Bruce Curry, the owner of a small working farm called Country Corner Farm Market in Alpha, Ill., said his CSA — now in its second year — is also good in terms of public relations. He enjoys the early cash flow it brings, but he also counts on word-of-mouth compliments from CSA customers to get more people to try out his produce, and “you can’t put a value of that,” he said.

At the 65-acre Nostalgia Farms site in Walcott, Iowa, Ed Kraklio and his partner, Joe Dennis — who heads up all of the planting production — say CSAs offer a window into where and how food is grown locally. Animals and produce at Nostalgia Farms are raised following organic and sustainable practices, which is inviting to many of their customers, Kraklio added.

“People are wanting to make sure they have good quality food,” he said. “They want to know it’s not been genetically altered. They want to know their meats are not inhumanely handled.”

Rather than selling shares to their customers, Nostalgia’s owners offer the chance to buy a line of credit at a reduced rate instead. For $100, their customers get $120 in value, and they can use that not only to buy produce but also anything else in stock at the farm. The CSA agreement runs from May 1 to the end of October.

Kraklio said he is thinking of beginning a winter CSA with products grown inside their high tunnels — greenhouses that are stretched out over the ground.

For 32-year-old Jennifer Smith of Davenport, participating in a CSA forces her to prepare and eat nutritious, fresh foods.

“It makes me a little more adventurous,” she said.

She also thinks it’s economical. Smith ends up spending about $9 per week to get a half-share of a CSA farm for the season.

Best of all, though, is the chance to meet the growers and hear about what’s happening on their farm, she said.

“I found that it’s been a really good experience. I recommend it to everyone.”

Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

WHAT IS CSA?

CSA stands for community-supported agriculture, a program in which members purchase shares of a farmer’s harvest.

You sign up with an area farm by paying for a whole season in advance or in regular installments. Once a week, you get a box or cooler full of fresh-picked fruits or vegetables, whatever is ripe at the time.

Deliveries and/or pickup dates usually run from about May to October.

MORE INFO

Want to learn more about Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, programs? Here is a small sampling of farm sites in the Quad-City region that offer a CSA:

n Teresa’s Tasty Produce, Atkinson, Ill. Go online to visithenrycounty.com/ttp, send an e-mail to ttp@geneseo.net or call (309) 936-7792.

n Country Corner Farm Market, Alpha, Ill. Go online to country-corner.com, send an e-mail to countrycornr@winco.net or call (309) 629-2359.

n The Farm at Skeeter Creek, Orion, Ill. Go online to skeetercreekfarm.com, send an e-mail to s.o.carlson@mchsi.com or call (309) 737-1099.

n Oak Hill Acres, Atalissa, Iowa. Go online to oakhillacres.com, send an e-mail to webmaster@oakhillacres.com or call (563) 946-2304.

n Nostalgia Farms, Walcott, Iowa. Go online to nostalgiafarms.com, send an e-mail to nostalgiafarms @mchsi.com or call (563) 940-0634.

Or find your own preferred CSA site by looking up available options on localharvest.org, a Web site that allows users to search by city, state or ZIP code.