By Jim Slama

Ready to add more fresh local and organic food to your diet? Want to build a trusting relationship with your food and the people who grow it? Have a desire to connect with your inner farmer and satisfy an ancient craving to be part of a nurturing agricultural community?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then a CSA may be for you. Community Supported Agriculture is a burgeoning part of the local food movement that allows people to become a member of a local farm. In essence you pre-pay for a share in the farm’s harvest in advance of the growing season, then receive a weekly box of fresh, local food delivered to a drop-off site in your community throughout harvest season.

Here in the Chicago area, 47 CSA’s are represented in the FamilyFarmed.org 2010 Chicagoland CSA Guide. Most offer typical midwestern farm vegetables in season. In June you can expect greens, rhubarb, herbs, and asparagus, followed by the summers abundance of squash, melons tomatoes, peppers, and more. Fall will bring back the greens, plus potatoes, winter squash, and finish up eggplants, peppers and tomatoes.  Click here for the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s “What’s in Season” guide for a great listing of the peak season for many fruits and vegetables in Illinois.

In addition, 5 CSA’s serving the Chicago area sell meat. These shares typically give customers the opportunity to choose a number of cuts and different varieties of animal such as beef, poultry, lamb, or pork. Other CSAs offer flower shares, eggs, prepared foods and dairy products. Earth First Farm even gives you the opportunity to become part of an apple CSA, enjoying your way through several apple varieties from late summer through the fall.

The concept of CSA has evolved over the years. Initially it was a way for farmers to get advance payments for their crops. This timing is an important way to support the cash flow of growers when they need to purchase seeds and other inputs for the coming season.  This aspect is still an important element of CSA as many farmers sell a large portion of their shares close to the start of the growing season. First deliveries usually begin in early June and continue through the fall. Some CSA’s now offer Spring, Winter, and even year round shares depending on the farm.

An important concept to recognize before joining a CSA is shared risk. By becoming a member, people acknowledge that they are part of a farm community, which faces certain challenges. If the farm is adversely affected by hail, drought, severe winds, or other weather events, it may negatively impact yields, thus dropping the amount of product customers receive in a given period. While this is a rare occurrence, community members must be prepared to face this and deal with it.

That being said, a CSA community offers many tangible benefits that go far beyond the fresh, local food you receive and the farm you are supporting. Most farms offer weekly newsletters to keep folks up to speed with farm life—what’s being planted and harvested, the weather, social activities, and even recipes being cooked in the farm kitchens with seasonal produce. CSA’s also offer members the opportunity to participate in farm gatherings. A favorite activity at some farms is a communal potluck featuring food from the weekly produce box. I remember attending one of these at Angelic Organics back in the mid 1990’s where Farmer John Peterson set up table after table in the fields so members could watch their tomatoes ripen. Other CSA’s offer members a chance to work on the farm doing weeding, harvesting, packing, or other tasks. Talk about connecting with your food!!

Now that the CSA delivery season is upon us, you might want to consider taking a leap and joining the movement. The number of communities with drop off-spots continues to grow and FamilyFarmed.org has even worked with the Illinois Tollway Authority to help set drop off sites at the Chicago area Oases and the Aon Center to offer a CSA at the second largest building in Chicago.

So it’s not too late to join up. If farmers have already begun drop-offs for the season, they usually are willing to pro-rate the cost of the share price to reflect the remaining number of deliveries. To help folks sort through the many CSA options, here are some farms in the FamilyFarmed.org 2010 Chicagoland CSA Guide with shares still available as of June 10th. 

CSA Shares are still available from:

Dea Dia Organics, Jeff & Jen Miller | 847-207-6292  www.dea-dia.com | millers (at) dea-dia.com

Earth First Farms, Molly Breslin | 510. 684.7461 www.earthfirstfarms.com | info (at) earthfirstfarms.com

*this is an apple-only CSA and does not include vegetables

Freedom Organix, Cindy Nawiesniak | 847-910-1160 www.freedomorganix.com | maverickdesign1 (at) aol.com

Growing Home, Inc., Tegan Brace | 773-549-1336 www.growinghomeinc.org | info (at) growinghomeinc.org

Harvest Moon Farm, Jennifer Borchardt  |  773.805.3210  www.harvestmoonorganics.com | info(at) harvestmoon-farms.com

M’s Organic Sustainable Farm, MM Graff | 815-338-8148 www.msorganicfarm.com | msorganicfarm (at) gmail.com

Sweet Earth Organic Farm, Renee Randall  |  608-875-6026  www.sweetearthorganicfarm.com | greener (at) mhtc.net

Tomato Mountain Farm, Stephanie Spees | 608-712-1585 www.tomatomountain.com | info (at) tomatomountain.com

Erehwon Farm, Beth Propst & Tim Fuller | 630-485-9964 www.erehwonfarm.com | alpropst7 (at) yahoo.com

Videnovich Farms, Vera Videnovich  |  269-426-4556  www.videnovichfarms.com |  videnovichfarms (at) gmail.com

Gibbs Family Garden, Daniel & Jennifer Gibbs | 920-892-2005 www.gibbsfamilygarden.com | gibbsfamilygarden (at) hotmail.com

Jim Slama is the founder and president of FamilyFarmed.org, which encourages the production, marketing and distribution of locally grown and responsibly produced food and goods throughout the Midwest.