A Community Supported Agriculture Pickup Site in Northeast Baltimore...building community health and relationships for a 6th straight year!

24 Weeks of Organic Vegetables in Hamilton every Monday 5:30 - 7:00 p.m., June 7th through Nov. 15th, 2010

Craving a red, ripe Maryland Brandywine tomato just about now?

Wish you could buy your food knowing that it was grown nearby?

Love organic vegetables, but hate the expensive supermarket prices?

Does the snooze alarm keep you away from the weekend farmer's markets?

Want to support local farming anyway?

There's a solution -- you can pick up your veggies once a week, right in the neighborhood! During the 2010 growing season The Episcopal Church of the Messiah will host a community supported agriculture pickup site for One Straw Farm. This White Hall, Maryland farm, certified organic and in business since 1983, is the largest vegetable farm in Maryland. One Straw Farm belongs to the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance, and has a stall at the Waverly Farmer's Market. The Farmers, Drew and Joan Norman, grow a large variety of produce and are wholesale suppliers to Whole Foods and other large concerns. But their crops stay fresher and tastier if they are shipped fewer miles, and the Normans, who want to focus on staying local through their CSA program, are pleased to work with the Church of the Messiah to offer this pickup site to our neighbors for a fifth straight year. Nutritious, fresh organic food, grown sustainably, helps keep both the environment and our local economy intact. It also tastes better!

So What is Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA)?

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) creates a direct partnership between local farmers and consumers, eliminating supermarket middlemen and restoring the connection between a community and the source of its food. A good place to read about CSAs is at the Local Harvest website. To sum it up, people buy "shares" of One Straw Farm's harvest ahead of time and pick up their produce at Messiah under the shade of our maple tree on Monday evenings from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., for 24 weeks throughout the growing season.

Advance payment helps sustainable agriculture survive in Maryland by helping to pay for spring startup costs and guaranteeing an income for the farmers. Investing up front along with the farmer saves about 25% over the cost of the same produce bought at a farmer's market, and even more when comparing supermarket prices. Direct delivery to a CSA pickup site also saves on gas and transportation costs, and your vegetables are handled less.

In return for investing in the future harvest, CSA shareholders:

get the freshest, healthiest organic produce possible,

keep the food supply in their local economy,

protect their local "foodshed" from disappearing, and

help to support food security in these uncertain times.

2009 shareholders also enjoyed twilight picnic concerts at the farm. Owning a CSA share is like belonging to a green, community buyer's club where neighbors come together from early summer through fall!

Pictures of Messiah's CSA Pickup Site

How One Straw Farm's CSA Works

The cost of a share is $550 ($490 if paid in full before March 1st).

Unlike some CSAs, One Straw Farm has no field-work requirement. One share buys the shareholder 8 units of produce every week for 24 weeks, from June 7th through November 15th -- almost half a year! The price of a share, divided over 24 weeks, is very reasonable, especially in light of sharply rising supermarket food costs.

As an example, one week's pickup could include:

1 unit	=	1 bunch of leaf lettuce
1 unit	=	1 quart basket of tomatoes
1 unit	=	1 large eggplant
1 unit	=	3 cucumbers
1 unit	=	3 peppers
1 unit	=	2 bunches of kale
1 unit	=	1 quart basket of potatoes
1 unit	=	1 whole watermelon

8 units total

1 weekly share

A share is designed to feed a family of four the vegetables they would need in a week, and the bunches are what you find in the grocery store as a USDA standard. If one share sounds like too much for your household, you may make arrangements to split a share. Many families split the cost of a share and still have enough produce to serve their weekly needs.

See One Straw Farm's website, www.OneStrawFarm.com, for more information.

Pictures from a Shareholders' "Twilight Tour" of One Straw Farm

Why does the Church of the Messiah participate as a CSA pick up site?

Community Supported Agriculture is about so much more than just vegetables -- it helps build community health and relationships. And shareholders give back to the community by simply participating! Messiah receives one full share for every 10 enrolled at our Pickup Site, and and this enables us to deliver produce to seniors at the Harford Senior Center in Lauraville, the Caroline Center's Food Service Training Program, and to others whose needs come to our attention. In 2009, we were able to distribute 4 shares of organic produce to members of our community with otherwise limited access to such fresh, wholesome food. More shareholders signed up at our site means more produce for us to give to our neighbors in the community.

We are grateful to all past and present shareholders and to One Straw Farm for helping us serve our community in this way. We hope you’ll consider participating in this year’s CSA season by becoming a shareholder, spreading the word, and/or by volunteering at the pickup site once the season begins. If you'd like to download the brochure for this year's CSA season, please click here.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Joan Norman at (410) 343-1828.