supporting the organic farmers
June 26th, 2008Thanks to people like Michael Pollan (author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” (Penguin Press, 2006) and “In Defense of Food” (Penguin Press, 2008)), CSAs have become a viable option to keep our local small organic growers in business. We belonged to Eatwell Farms for a little over a year, not renewing as we received a few hundred too many potatoes and onions for our diet. (I was beginning to feel like The Potato Eaters) I’ve been anxious to join another CSA as the concept of supporting local farmers helps me sleep at night and nothing forces you to incorporate more fruits and veggies into your diet like a weekly cornucopia arriving on your front porch. I also think it is important in this world of fast food and packaged goods to teach my children where food really comes from. We don’t maintain much of a kitchen garden because I haven’t taken the time to figure out what will grow on our rather shady lot, but they get a decent education at the farmer’s markets we frequent. The weekly box is another segue into the “real food” conversation with the kids. We’re also lucky to be surrounded by as many “pick yer own” farms as grocery stores, providing additional opportunities to educate the kids on good food once the littlest is old enough to be trusted NOT to trample the crops or eat an unweighable amount of the picked yer own before buying. But back to the CSA, I think it is probably most influential for them to see us get as excited about our weekly box of farm goodies as they get about Christmas.
SFGate had an article talking about the CSA movement and mentioning a few in the neighborhood. Some that I am interested in:
FrogHollow – Fruit only.
RiverDogFarm
Full Belly Farm
Terra Firma Farms
Michael Pollan speaking at Google: