May 8, 2004

By ROBIN PALMER Staff Writer

David Hale's two young sons are red with tomato juice by the time they leave Mimi Arnstein's farm on a summer day.

Arnstein runs a community farm and Eli, 5, and Gage, 3, help pick their family's weekly share of vegetables. Hale estimates the two boys consume nearly as much as they pick and spend the rest of their week looking forward to the experience.

"It really became the kids saying, 'Is this the day we go to Mimi's?'" recalls Hale of last summer's adventures on the farm.

In creating her community farm a year-and-a-half ago, Arnstein envisioned moments like this and envisioned providing area residents local, organic vegetables, herbs and flowers. Last summer, 45 families or individuals visited the farm weekly. She's hoping for 60 members this year.

Set on 185 acres in a lush Marshfield river valley, Arnstein's farm and its membership concept represent what's known as community-supported agriculture, a concept that's growing in Vermont. It places local goods in community members' hands and offers support for Vermont agriculture.

Started in the 1960s in Switzerland and Japan, CSAs sprouted in Vermont in the late 1980s, says CSA farm owner Jinny Hardy Cleland of Royalton, who started her CSA in 1991. In 2003, there were 44 CSAs spread throughout Vermont and 1,000 nationally, according the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.

"There's just so many in Vermont," says Cleland. "Some states don't have any."

CSAs in Vermont have a strong niche, says David Lane, deputy secretary of agriculture development for the state.

"A CSA is a real opportunity for someone to get into the marketplace with somewhat low risk," Lane says. "I think there's a lot of opportunity for CSAs. The con-sumers increasingly want to know where there food is coming from."

CSAs are called "teikei" in Japan, a word that translates roughly into "putting the farmer's face on food."

Farm industry marketing consultant Pam Knights of Northfield calls CSAs a "socially responsible" choice and a healthy alternative to grocery store produce, which often travels 1,000 miles or more before reaching the store shelf.

The benefit for farmers is that they get the fairest return on their products and help in sustaining farms and working landscapes, Knights says. CSA members receive fresh local produce, open a connection to growers and to the land, and save over organic retail and farmers market prices, Knights says.

Most CSAs offer at least two sizes of produce shares, a half share and a full share, at a cost of $225 to $495, a savings of 20 to 30 percent over organic retail and farmers market prices. Members pay up front to help farmers prepare for the season, when expenses are greatest. Most membership sign-up periods end by mid-May.

Lane says CSAs are diversifying, including linking with neighboring farms and local producers to offer other products such as bread, cheese and milk. Creativity is driving the industry, says Lane.

Some CSA farms also offer the pick-your-own experience, which the Hales enjoy; many others deliver or bring produce to a central location.

Cleland brings some of her 50 members' produce for pickup at co-ops in White River Junction and Randolph. Members deliver the majority to neighbors through what Cleland calls a work share. Those members get a discount off the $300 and $450 regular and jumbo size shares.

"I don't encourage people coming to the farm, because it's a long way," Cleland says. She has members from Canaan to Montpelier and Vershire to South Woodstock. They get a basket of fresh produce every week - and for an extra cost they can receive eggs, poultry and cheese - as well as a note on what's in the basket, information on how to prepare the vegetables or sometimes recipes and information on what's happening at the farm, including growing season progress and planned monthly events.

"It's just a whole educational process," Cleland says. "When they become members, this becomes their farm and they're welcome to use it for a lot of things, not just their food."

Cleland calls the CSA concept beneficial for her as it's "risk-free." Members pay in advance and commit to a certain amount of produce. "That's a more secure way for me to farm," says Cleland, who also runs a bakery, sells produce at farmers markets and is now opening a campground on her 70-acre Gee Hill Road Four Springs Farm.

Cleland says members get affordable, fresh produce and knowledge of how that food is grown.

"They're supporting their local economy and supporting me locally as a farmer," Cleland adds.

West Rutland's Greg Cox calls his farm "a hobby run amok."

Cox and his wife Gay own the Broadman Hill Farm. Cox has been in the vegetable-growing business for 26 years. He plants 54 different vegetables across 10 acres of cropland on the 70-plus-acre farm. "If you can think of it, we probably grow it," says Cox, 53.

The farm also raise pigs, chickens for eggs and meat, and turkeys. The farm distributes its goods at a Rutland City farm stand seven days a week and at the Vermont Farmers Market in Rutland on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Members pick up their vegetables at either the stand or market.

"For us, it works better," says Cox. Members are invited to the farm for a harvest party in the fall.

Broadman Hill Farm charges its 50 members $160 for a half-share and $320 for a full share of vegetables. One hundred local seniors also receive shares through a farm bill grant. "We always have working shares," says Cox.

Cox says community agriculture provides consumers with fresher produce than they're getting in grocery stores and offers a way for members to invest in their community "rather than sending their money to the wonderful state of California or Florida."

It was that local support for farming that brought Arnstein to Vermont.

Arnstein, 31, grew up in New Jersey and spent two years on a community farm in Massachusetts before interning at the Intervale Community Farm in Burlington, the largest CSA in Vermont.

"I came to Vermont because I recognized it as a very supportive place for small-scale farming," Arnstein says. "I had a dream of having my own farm."

She bought into a conserved former dairy farm in Marshfield a year-and-a-half ago with two other families and named her vegetable operation the Wellspring Farm. Members, many of whom are from nearby Montpelier, pay $325 for a small share or $495 for a family-sized full share. Subsidized shares are also available.

Last week, the petite Arnstein unloaded potassium for her fields from a delivery truck with her John Deere tractor, worked in the farm's small greenhouse and fretted over snow that fell on already seeded, but cold-hardy vegetables as four white ducks padded around the chilly barnyard.

When the vegetables are readying for harvesting in June, the ducks will be locked up, the temperature will be seasonally pleasant and members will be able to stop weekly to collect produce from bins in a former equipment shed or pick some vegetables, flowers and herbs of their own.

"We have a few pick-your-own vegetables. It's great farm experience for people of all ages. It's a labor-saving opportunity for us as well," says Arnstein.

"Harvest days are my favorite days because members come with their children and with their friends," says Arnstein, describing families strolling through the farm's gardens.

Members might collect a head of lettuce, four cucumbers, five tomatoes, a quart of peas, broccoli and a dozen ears of corn in a given week.

Hale, of Cabot, says his children get the connection to the land.

"When my 3-year-old son is asking, 'Daddy, did this zucchini come from Mimi's?' you know there's a connection," he says.

Hale is campus executive chef at the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier. The cooking school buys several shares from the Wellspring Farm each year. Hale says students enjoy collecting the food at the farm and take pride in producing high-quality dishes with the fresh vegetables.

"It's local. It's fresh. It's organic. It's abundant," says East Montpelier's Ginny Burley, who's a member at Arnstein's farm. "It gets you eating more vegetables, which is a good thing. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Lists of CSAs in Vermont are available on the NOFA Web site, www.nofavt.org, and at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture site, www.vermontagriculture.com.

Contact Robin Palmer at robin.palmer@timesargus.com or 479-0191, ext. 1171.

© 2004 Times Argus