Produce Direct from Producer

There’s a surprise in each box. And the prize is perhaps the opposite of the cheap plastic toy we used to find at the bottom of a box of sugar-laden cereal.

As a member of a CSA, each week, it’s fun to open your box and peer inside at the selection of healthy, locally grown produce your farmers have provided for you.

The farmers take pride in their produce and enjoy knowing who they are growing for. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Members buy shares of produce grown by local farms. Members get to know the people growing their food. You get to know the face behind your food. Typically, CSA farms grow sustainably.

We are lucky to have several great CSA’s in Central PA. But they are filling up fast. Beth Weaver-Kreider of Goldfinch Farm near Wrightsville in York County, PA, said they’ve had more first time inquiries about the CSA this year and they have sold out of shares faster this year than any time in their years of farming.

Seeing the pleased reaction of their shareholders each week is a great joy for Beth and for Amy Leber of Shared Earth Farm in Mechanicsburg, PA.

Combating Greenwashing

Noting that it's a time ripe for greenwashing, Food Alliance Executive Director, Scott Exo, announced Friday that Food Alliance had formed an alliance with PASA. Food Alliance is an Oregon based non-profit that certifies farms as sustainable. The partnership will extend food alliance certification processes to farmers, food packers, processors and distributors in Pennsylvania.

Explaining the need for certification, Brian Snyder, Executive Director of PASA, said, "I'm tired of people using the word sustainable any way they want to. It has a specific meaning." Snyder wants to help consumers make informed decisions about their food purchases by giving them a basis for evaluating marketing claims. A third party certification would give credibility to marketing claims.

The certification considers a number of factors including safe and fair working conditions, healthy and humane treatment of animals, and conservation. Use of genetic modified crops or livestock, use of synthetic hormones, and use of non-therapeutic antibiotics are prohibited.

Good economic news from PASA

Someone's hiring! Today, I learned there are more than 230 CSA's in Pennsylvania. There were at least five of them actively looking for interns during a job fair at the PASA conference. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Typically, members join an organic or sustainable farm, buying a share for a fee. Members then pick up locally grown, healthy vegetables each week during the growing season.

Thanks to two Central PA CSA's, Spiral Path Farm in Loysville and Lady Moon Farms in Chambersburg, for being sponsors of the conference.

Other employment opportunities are listed on the PASA website. Check it out:
http://www.pasafarming.org/opportunities/opportunities.htm

Run the numbers

About a quarter of my notebook is filled with notes from opening festivities of the PASA conference. Already! It was just the first three hours. I can't possibly share all of it with you now. I need time to reflect and talk with others. One thing Executive Director Brian Snyder spoke about which is both illustrative and short, is the attendance.

He said nearly 2000 people are here. There are 32 colleges and universities represented. 100 college students. 1100 farmers representing, to their best estimate, 48,000 acres. People from 30 states and 6 countries. Finally he noted with appreciation, that there are 700 people who are attending the conference for the first time. That number includes me.

So if I feel a little overwhelmed by how much I'm learning, I imagine there are 699 others here who feel somewhat the same.

PASA Conference

In the early spring, when I see little shoots of green poking through the earth, I feel no urgent desire to see the full tulip bloom. I enjoy spying day to day subtle changes in the plant, coupled with the knowledge that bulbs will indeed bloom soon.

With Punk Rock Gardens, I do feel urgency to see our blog bloom. And part of that is my desire to share experiences and information I gather from the - very shortly up-coming - Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture "Farming for the Future" conference.

The conference will be held in State College, Pennsylvania February 5th through 7th, 2009.

Our permanent site, www.punkrockgardens.com, is still in hibernation. So to enable me to post from the conference, I've set up this blog on blogspot. Once the full site is up and running, I will post features for the home gardener. Topics for stories from the PASA conference include the 21rst century victory garden and organic pest management for vegetable gardens. See you from the conference.