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...Come grow with us |
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Bertrand Farm, Inc. |
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Community Sponsored Agriculture |
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CSA Community Sponsored Agriculture is an idea in farming that has been gaining momentum in the USA since the 1980’s. The concept originated in the 1960’s in Switzerland and Japan, where consumers who were interested in safe food and farmers who were interested in stable markets joined together to create partnerships. CSA’s consist of a community of individuals who support a farm operation so that, legally and/or spiritually, the farm belongs to the community of members. The grower and members then share mutually in the risk and benefits of the food production. Members receive shares in the farms bounty through out the season while contributing to building a more local, sustainable and equitable agriculture system. Bertrand Farm offers a unique CSA experience for those who want to reconnect to the land and participate more directly in their food production. Our working CSA allows members to participate in every step of farming from planting to harvest. Working members commit to work at the farm three hours each week throughout the growing season (May—September). Optional work and pre-season mini workshops are held on Saturdays in April. Working members are active in the entire farming process and contribute to the success or failure of crops. In addition to the great bounty, members gain a sense of the true cost of food and are educated in the current sustainable practices of organic food production. Most weeks members can count on an overflowing bushel basket of fresh, organic produce. We also offer non-working memberships during the heart of the season (June - August) and some delivery. We are now taking 2012 CSA membership registrations. Our 2012 contract is available upon request for both working and non-working memberships. |
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Enriching the Earth
To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass to grow and die. I have plowed in the seeds of winter grains and various legumes, their growth to be plowed in to enrich the earth. I have stirred into the ground the offal and the decay of the growth of past seasons and so mended the earth and made its yield increase. All this serves the dark. Against the shadow of veiled possibility my workdays stand in a most asking light. I am slowly falling Into the fund of things. And yet to serve the earth, not knowing what I serve, gives a wideness and a delight to the air, and my days do not wholly pass. It is the mind’s service for when the will fails so do the hands and one lives at the expense of life. After death, willing or not, the body serves, entering the earth. And so what was the heaviest And most mute is at last raised up into song.
Wendell Berry Farmer, Poet, Humanitarian |
