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COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE We believe that everyone should have access to a full-spectrum year-round diet produced right within their local area. I guess you could say we're locavores! Eating locally produced food is beneficial to our community's economy, the safety and stability of our food supply, and to our personal relationships with the food we eat. But most of all, eating locally and supporting local farmers helps guarantee access to the freshest, most nutrient-rich, healthy produce. We have started our CSA here in Alpena, MI in order to realize some of these benefits both for our own family and for the members of this beautiful community. We are still a ways off from being able to either grow, or source locally, all of the food our family consumes, but starting our CSA has definitely been a small step in that direction. The acronym 'CSA' stands for Community Supported Agriculture. This model is becoming increasingly more widespread throughout the country, and not only for vegetable farms. There are meat, dairy, grain, fish, and fruit CSAs, to name a few that i've personally read about, that are all based on the idea that a community should have the opportunity to both know who produces their food and have a say in the ways that said food is produced. Individuals are given these opportunities based on their willingness to support farmers and commit to specific local projects, allowing the farmers to count on a certain number of sales in advance. This provides a stable economic base from which farmers area able to grow food using the a more sustainable and health-conscious model that the mere 'bottom-line' model doesn't always necessarily allow. In our CSA we ask members to commit to a delivery of fresh produce each week for our 14 week harvest season. We are then able to gauge how much produce we need to grow for the season (as well as cover our initial seed and planting costs) without having to worry about whether or not we will be able to find a market for our produce when it comes time to harvest. Our members are in turn able to sit back and reap the bounty of our each week's harvest knowing that they are receiving fresh, local, sustainably produced produce for their family from a farmer they know. We are offering either single (1-2 people) or family (3-4 people) shares for $350 and $650 respectively. That boils down to about $12/week per person. There are four different share pick-up times/locations for you to choose from (they are listed in our membership agreement) We will also be selling our produce at the Alpena Farmer's Market this season, so you can look for us there as well! Cheers, Ben and Chelsea Kline
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