THINK SPRING!

In addition to getting your garden projects with an order through Fedco Seeds, we strongly encourage you to think about investing in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share this year if you’ve not done it before.

CSAs establish a direct relationship between a farm and its customers. In late winter/early spring, CSA members sign up and ‘pre buy’ a season’s worth of the farmer’s harvest, usually at a discount vs. the rates expected at the farmer’s market. This gives the farmer the benefit of income at a time of the year when they need it, and the member the benefit of a cost savings, but also, more meaningfully, truly becoming a member of a farm’s community and sharing the risk and rewards of farming with the farmer(s).

Exact specifications of CSAs vary farm-to-farm, the most popular option is a summer share which consists of some combination of vegetables, fruit, and/or herb crops, available for pick-up on the farm or via delivery, from roughly June to October. Many farms now offer winter CSAs as well as specialty shares such as meat or seedling shares.

A radical transformation of our food system is an integral part of our society’s larger transition from a top-down, centralized fossil-fuel based economy to a distributed, community-oriented renewable energy powered economy. CSAs are a fantastic model for supporting that transition.

There are CSAs in every corner of our region – Western Massachusetts to Downeast Maine – and far too many to include here (though organic farming organizations such as MOFGA and NOFA-NH do a great job at it).

We’ve chosen to include a listing of the farmers who we’ve had the delight of being able to partner with to install solar at their farms:

MAINE

• 3 Level Farm – China, ME
• A Wrinkle in Thyme – Sumner, ME (Fiber CSA)
• Bar Harbor Community Farm – Bar Harbor, ME
• Crystal Springs Farm – Brunswick, ME
• Dow Farm Enterprise – Standish, ME
• Harris Farm – Dayton, ME
• Hatchet Cove Farm – Warren, ME
• Little Ridge Farm – Lisbon, ME
• McDougal Orchards – Sanford, ME (Sanford Farmer’s Market)
• Wolf Pine Farm – Alfred, ME

NEW HAMPSHIRE

• Coppal House Farm – Lee, NH (Farmer’s market/farmstand)
• Eastman’s Corner – Kensington, NH (Not technically a CSA but they offer a farm market with over 90 local farmers and markets represented)
• Stout Oak Farm – Brentwood NH

MASSACHUSETTS

• Farmer Dave’s – Dracut, MA
• Middle Earth Farms – Amesbury, MA