> Chris - Thanks for your post. It brings up another question: how does > a CSA farmer (you? people you know?) afford to contact potentially > quality members for a CSA? > > Myself. this past year, 99% of our members came as a result of a plug > Leigh was able to get for us in the washington post. We went from 1 > share, I think, to 160 shares and a waiting list almost that big.
>On the other hand, my weekly requests via the newsletter for help on the > farm resulted in maybe 10 TOTAL hours of donated time even though we > were located at an incredibly beautiful site relatively close in and > could offer nature walks and a petting zoo. > > -Allan Hey Allen, We got started the same way, with an article in the Nashville paper. That basically got enough names for 3 farms to get started. Since then it has been all word of mouth and we (haven't needed any advertising) and the other farms have basically not needed to push too hard to get an increase in members. As far as the second part of your post, I have been contemplating this inherent problem in our society for a long time and I'm actually taking off from farming (for our income) next year and maybe for good to try and focus on this problem. With our CSA, what really struck me the hardest was that our customers didn't need our food (they had ample money, the availability of plenty of organic food and didn't REALLY understand the difference of BD), but they did have a tremendous need for something. Nearly every person that I've come into contact with goes from one moment to the next constantly looking for satisfaction from entertainment, material or sexual inputs. But you know from your own experience that it's those times on the farm when you may be stressed of in a hurry and your wondering why your even doing this, and you look up and the sunset is catching the clouds, a owl hoots, you feel the breeze on your face, feel the Earth under your feet, smell that rich smell of a healthy farm and all of a sudden it makes sense, there is something real and alive, and money, time, work, life and even death not only don't matter but they aren't even an issue. If a person feels that, even 1/20th of the time that most of us (BD) farmers feel it they cannot help but DO something because it is more real than any other thing in their lives. I feel that humanity is getting more and more burned out on this frantic search for fulfillment from the material and is in the deep throws of a desperate search for something more. So how to accomplish getting people to feel that? In one word I'd have to say that it's JOY. So my answer (or question) would have to be, How can we make our experience (farming) more joyful? And we each have a different answer for that. For me, I have a knack and a joy for showing the inner workings of the natural world to people. I don't look at it as talking about the incredible diversity or the complex dance of the insects in the garden or even what makes the walk of a fox special. To me it's more like, Look at this, isn't this joyful and this, doesn't it bring you joy to see that even the most obscure insignificant thing in the garden has a purpose, a place and is in harmony with the world and is at peace. Oh my God I see in their eyes, if harmony can exist so easily out here than it's also possible for me/us. I believe that our true answers are both simple and complex at the same time. Simple because what we're really looking for is joy, complex because we don't know quite how to get it and we've convinced ourselves that the answers lie in the physical or intellectual. So what I wish for you in your CSA above (but not excluding) all else is joy. (This of course would also take care of the first question) Peace be with you throughout this holiday season. In Love and Light, (Mr)Chris
