Big River Farms and the CSA

I've been yammering on about the CSA for a few weeks now, so I thought I might share some information about what a CSA is and why Ryan and I are supporting it.

I found out about Community Supported Agriculture through my sister, Kate, last summer. It was her first year doing a CSA and she and her husband split a share with another couple. The only thing I really remember her mentioning is beets, lots and lots of beets (see my previous post for my non-love of beets).

This spring she asked if Ryan and I would be interested in splitting a share with them. It was pretty reasonable, at the time: About $450 for a full share, so about $115 each for Ryan and I. I definitely think we're getting our money's worth!

Another really appealing aspect is the locality of it. Big River Farms/MN Food Association is located in Marine on St Croix, about 40 minutes outside of the Twin Cities. So, we're "eating local", such as it were. MFA just got organic certification, so it's there's that feel-good aspect.

I think the best part about BRF is that one of the purposes of their farms is to train new immigrants to Minnesota how to farm in this climate. A lot of them were farmers in their home country--true to recent immigration patterns, largely they are Hmong and Hispanic. I'm a total softie for things like that, so I like that the big box o' veggies I pick up each week is also helping to strengthen the rural Midwestern economy, keeping the small-farm tradition alive and letting hard-working people earn a living off the land, all while treating the earth nicely.

Any hope of my becoming a farmer myself surely died with my 4-H career at age 9 or so, but nonetheless I like to think that Grandad Wes would be proud that I'm doing this very small part to help small farms!

More info: Big River Farms/MN Food Association