Pay now for fresh, locally grown produce later

By Mary Reid Barrow
Virginian-Pilot correspondent
© January 11, 2012

YOU CAN do more than just dream about spring. You can do something about it. It's time to sign up for 2012 CSA baskets.

Local farms are beginning to open enrollment in these programs in which customers pay in advance for weekly baskets or bags of veggies and fruit throughout the growing season.

"CSA" stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Members invest in the farm of their choice and receive dividends in the form of good things to eat.

Some farms offer variations on this traditional theme in which, for example, you pay up front and then do your own shopping, buying whatever you want whenever you want.

Here's a trio of options to get you thinking:

The organic option

Mattawoman Creek Farms on the Eastern Shore is taking subscriptions for its 2012 CSA. Bags of Mattawoman's certified organic produce are delivered weekly to pick-up points in Norfolk and Virginia Beach during the growing season.

Mattawoman is expanding its certified organic acreage to 44 acres from 11 in 2012 and will be growing several new crops. For more information, see the farm's website at www.mattawomancreekfarms.com.

Fruit and a twist

Cullipher Farm in Virginia Beach is enrolling members for its Spring/Summer CSA. Cullipher Farm offers a traditional CSA and a cost-share program in which you pay ahead and have an allowance to spend over the season. It also offers something new, a Fruit Share CSA for lovers of fresh fruit. These CSA baskets consist of nothing but fruit, such as strawberries, blackberries, melons.

Pick-up points for Cullipher Farm CSA baskets are the Pungo farm, Virginia Beach Town Center or Church of the Good Shepherd on Hampton Boulevard in Norfolk. For more information, go to www.cullipherfarm.com.

Everything else

Coastal Farms Co-Op is another CSA-type program that runs year-round and is a special help in the winter months when not many farm markets are open. Members of Coastal Farms shop weekly from an online menu of locally owned Virginia farms.

Find everything from local greens and hydroponic lettuce to meats and seafood, from locally prepared meals to homemade jams, jellies and breads. Visit http://coastalfarms.luluslocalfood.com.

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Other local farms and CSA's

Submitted by kevinjamison1 on Thu, 01/12/2012 at 9:54 am.

Hello, thanks for spotlighting locally grown food as wells as CSA and CSA style programs in the area. I think that many people in the area do not know that these types of options are even available! I do hope, although, that the Pilot would not merely advertise and support just several of the largest and richest local farms, and put out a complete list of all of the local farms that work really hard to get their CSA members great, fresh, healthy and locally grown produce each year! I wont mention any particular farms but they can easily be found through a quick online search.

Do they have some sort of bond or insurance...

Submitted by Pembroke on Wed, 01/11/2012 at 10:26 am.

...in the event something like a hurricane or drought interferes with the harvest? If the farms are having so much trouble acquiring more conventional financing, how are these investors to be assured the mortgage payments aren't behind and the farm isn't about to be forced into bankruptcy or foreclosure?

At least there are regulations requiring disclosure when people buy stock in an official corporation.