Friends: "Successful?" What makes successful? Long-running might be a
good measure, so I'm thinking of the Temple-Wilton Community Farm,
which is entering on its 24th season, if I do the math right. They
started in 1986, on of the two first CSAs in North America. T-WCF
inspired my first attempt to do a (short-lasting) CSA in Quincy, IL,
in 1988, the year Yellowstone burned, and then I was a member there in
the first years of the 1990s. In the most recent post in this thread,
there were casual references to "drops," i.e., dropoff points where
the farmer or his/her staff drop off, say, several dozen boxes or bags
of produce, presumably labeled with the consumer's name. Casual
reference, too, to a "far flung" network of dropoff points. The
organization would be happy to ding your checking account on a regular
basis. All very smooth, I'm sure, and businesslike. How long running
this CSA is, I don't know. But there's gotta be something more than
black ink on the balance sheet, and people are presumably happy with
the arrangement, another measure of success...but what is missing? I
will venture to say that I know, out of experience, for a ran still
another CSA in the late 1990s which did a lot of things right. One
example: They (the Core Group) made the shareholders come to the farm
to get their food. And they encouraged them to come at other times,
for a little mandatory work (8 hours for the season) and for festivals
at May Day, Summer Solstice, High Summer, Michaelmas at the end of
September.
The same deal for T-WCF, Come to the farm. Come and at least take in
the atmosphere of animals, and feed, and soil. Come and feel how it's
different in different seasons. Let the land touch the bodies of those
that it's feeding. Learn from the compost, from the unwashed carrots,
the eggs. Be greeted and be shown around the nearby rows of
vegetables; trip over a hose, get a whiff of the thyme and rosemary as
you go by. Touch the farm with your feelings; know how you are a part
of a living organism and be proud that you help it go 'round with your
dollar-energy. Connect with the others, your farmers and fellow-
traveler shareholders. Connect with the Others, the Nature Spirits and
Devas overlighting the land.
If a significant portion of the shareholders are experiencing
something like I describe, then I'll agree that the CSA is successful.
I know what I'm proposing is impractical; I know that the dropoff
system is more efficient. But in my opinion what is gained in
efficiency is lost when the feeling of participation, of
connectedness, never even happens.