My Kind of Farming

As regular blog readers know, I lived on a pseudo-farm for a few years growing up. Not a real farm, but enough for a kid that grew up on Long Island. Our current living situation is about as far away as you can get from an agricultural lifestyle. Something about breathing in those fumes everyday from the George Washington Bridge keeps things from growing.

Although our neighborhood is predominately occupied by people from the Dominican Republic, we have a large pocket of artists, actors, screenwriters and other assorted Yuppies that don't have much money. Not to generalize, but these people are generally very interested in saving the environment and living a healthy lifestyle. Because we are isolated from the rest of Manhattan (I like to call it marooned), it is very "neighborhoody" and there are lots of activities and family things to do.

One of the more interesting things to get involved in is the CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The basic premise is that you buy a "share" of the produce from an organic farm for a season. You pre-pay to help the farmer stay in business. If there are good conditions, you get lots of locally grown, organic vegetables. If there is a drought or some other blight, you are back where you started buying your veggies from the sidewalk market and are a little poorer.

Since I am making most of Henry's babyfood,(Hold your laughter please. I think my mother's comment was "That will get old quickly.") I thought this was a good thing to get involved with. He can eat vegetables that are in season and not get pumped up full of pesticides. I figure he is already behind the eight ball with the poor air quality and bad schools and that this was the least that I could do. In a buying frenzy I also signed us up for a fruit and flower share as well. The flowers are obviously for me.

Once per week, the farmer drives into NYC and drops off the produce. All of the hippies, I mean members trek to a centralized location with their own bags (reusable of course) to pick up their loot. To add to the commune like appeal, there is a work requirement. Each family has to put in four hours working at the drop off site.

Sounds fun, doesn't it? I'll keep you posted.