permaculture

["Michelle Maggiore" <mmaggior@mindspring.com>]

Hi- I am replying to two messages from yesterday....

There are several CSA s near where I live (Charlottesville, VA) and I highly
encourage you to purchase a share or share a share if you think each week
will be too much. It is really fun to get your bag or box each week, and see
whats going on in it for a few reasons-
if you like to eat, you will be eating what is growing nearby and is fresh
and if you plan on starting a CSA in the future, it is one of the best ways
to research what works and does not work in your area, and make valuable
connections. The only better way would be to work either full or part time
or volunteer (which many CSAs offer discounts on shares for members for a
few hours of work a month). There are many types of CSAs; we have belonged
to a summertime (mostly vegetable) CSA, and still have our milk share- we
"rent" part of a cow, and get its product (milk) once a week in a one gallon
pickle jar. Very nice. We used to get the milk for less $ when my daughter
and I milked once a week.
Lately, I have seen ads in the paper of CSAs that are several farms teaming
up to offer a much wider pallet of products weekly- dairy, bread, fruit,
nuts, meat AND vegs. This is a cooperative of local Mennonite farmers, and
it sounds very interesting.  I would imagine it relieves each farmer to some
degree to work as a team rather than as a lone entity in making customers
happy.  "Sharing the Harvest" is a great book about CSA s , even ten years
after publication, and will inspire if you've not read it already.

Along the lines of people banding together, we have started a local "barter
network"- I would imagine it is similar to a LETS system. It started last
year on March 21, with just five people at the inital meeting, and has grown
to over twenty.
For one dollar, you get your name in the directory, where you  list what
skills/services/products you offer, and 20 "Scottscrips". These are local
currency each representing 1/2 an hour. So, ten hours' worth of services to
encourage a new member to use the lime green coupons with a local design of
a boat once used up and down the James River, where our little town is
located.
There are many things people have used them for already- deck building,
rustic structures, raking leaves, party preparation (cooking), astronomy and
drama classes for homeschoolers, eggs, babysitting, computer help, rides to
town, assistance finding things, pet sitting, violin lessons....I know I am
leaving things out, but those are things our family has personally offered
or "bought" with Scottscrip this past year. The coolest thing about it is
that we knew our neighbors, and other families with children before, but we
have met many new people as a result of this, and it is a good way to find
out where things are locally- if someone is looking for something (who has a
tiller, who is selling sheep, who speaks, Spanish, etc...) someone in the
group can usually name someone locally. We are nearest to Charlottesville,
but still 20 miles away, so it is amazing to me how much we now can find and
get done in a town with a nucleus of only 500 people, two main blocks, and
much less traffic. For our first meeting, I wrote a short press release to
the local paper, encouraging those interested to attend, and it has grown
almost each time, slowly but organically. I ordered the Ithaca Hours video
and book, and we watched the short video and talked about previous bartering
experience the first meeting at the library. A lot of the projects people
seem to want to do are garden or alternative building related, and we are
looking forward to using some of our Scottscrip later this summer to finish
up our greenhouse with straw bales. It was very easy  to start (perhaps our
area was just ready for it) but it really not hard to maintain. No one is
"in charge", it just is a loosely connected group of people that believe
that everyones time is worth something, and believes in local connections
and strengthening their community.  Have fun!

Michelle