Writing about local food in the Roanoke Valley. Add any comments or links that would be of interest to those producing, eating or selling locally grown food in the Roanoke Valley.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Welcome to the Roanoke Valley Locavore Blog site.
What's going on in the roanoke valley locavore arena?
Every once in a while, you make a small decision that gets you thinking about bigger issues in life. Last year my neighbor David Perry approached my wife and I about splitting their membership with a community supported agriculture group called Seven Springs Farms. They had been receiving large quantities of fresh produce during the growing season and often received more of the perishable stuff than they could consume. So, instead of waiting for their excess, we decided to invest half of the annual fee with the Perry’s and see how the whole local agricultural experience would work out. If you’ve never worked with a CSA before, it’s really a simple concept. In the case of Seven Springs, the farm owners sell shares to a number of consumers. It’s not unlimited. They kind of figure out where there production and consumption boundaries are, and match their ability to produce with their shareholder’s ability to consume, as well as their ability to make a modest living from their production. With your share, you get a weekly delivery of seasonal produce. In return, you also have a couple of other obligations: You have to work a few hours on the farm and you may need to transport some produce to a collection point. Over the time span of a whole growing season, it’s really not very much time at all. You are making a commitment though. The initial short run cost is significant. You can check out Seven Springs costs on their Web page. So, when the pounds and pounds of high quality locally produced vegetables started rolling in, we felt compelled to cook it and eat it. The corollary consequence of using our own kitchen is that we went to the grocery store less and stayed home preparing and eating good food. We definitely had to expand our repertoire of vegetable preparation, but we like to cook and it ended up working quite well for us. I didn’t attempt to keep track of grocery store savings, but from April to October my trips to the produce section of the local industrialized food production center were minimal. If you’ve been purchasing large quantities of fresh organic spinach in plastic containers, you know that how quickly that can add up. Aside for what really good stuff we got to eat I like the idea that someone, locally, is producing food in a clean sustainable way. If you go to Seven Springs Farm, one of the things you notice is that there’s a lot of land that’s not under cultivation. That’s counter intuitive to the tenets of modern agriculture where one person on a huge tractor borrows hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a monoculture crop on hundred of acres. I understand how that’s economically productive in the short run but it is it really a long term solution to food production. What I see at Seven Springs is a sustainable system that benefits a local economy and I’m really glad to support that.
Well said Mike. This comment is from Mike's wife, Theresa. We thoroughly enjoyed the fresh and sometimes unusual veggies that had us hitting up google for prep and cooking tips. The food was full of "good energy"! And here is a shout out to our neighbors, Dave & Kelly, who hooked us up with the Seven Springs CSA. Thanks you two....and a special thanks to Polly Hieser of Seven Springs CSA for all of her hard work!
woot woot! hooray for local yummyness! we are just beginners but we are loving checking out local offerings such as beer, wine, honey, veggies and fruit whenever we can afford to do so! We also enjoyed our fruit csa share from Good Food Good People...and with little kids, we seek out opportunities to pick local fruits whenever we can (berries, apples, etc) as a family activity. another local favorite is Mr. Wertz's Farm Market...
and we recently purchased 1/4 local grassfed cow-nice to have more and more local options!
I guess we've paid up and are ready to participate in this season's bounty from Floyd. The first few warm days of prespring always get me thinking about putt'n stuff in the ground!
Every once in a while, you make a small decision that gets you thinking about bigger issues in life. Last year my neighbor David Perry approached my wife and I about splitting their membership with a community supported agriculture group called Seven Springs Farms. They had been receiving large quantities of fresh produce during the growing season and often received more of the perishable stuff than they could consume. So, instead of waiting for their excess, we decided to invest half of the annual fee with the Perry’s and see how the whole local agricultural experience would work out.
ReplyDeleteIf you’ve never worked with a CSA before, it’s really a simple concept. In the case of Seven Springs, the farm owners sell shares to a number of consumers. It’s not unlimited. They kind of figure out where there production and consumption boundaries are, and match their ability to produce with their shareholder’s ability to consume, as well as their ability to make a modest living from their production. With your share, you get a weekly delivery of seasonal produce. In return, you also have a couple of other obligations: You have to work a few hours on the farm and you may need to transport some produce to a collection point. Over the time span of a whole growing season, it’s really not very much time at all.
You are making a commitment though. The initial short run cost is significant. You can check out Seven Springs costs on their Web page. So, when the pounds and pounds of high quality locally produced vegetables started rolling in, we felt compelled to cook it and eat it. The corollary consequence of using our own kitchen is that we went to the grocery store less and stayed home preparing and eating good food. We definitely had to expand our repertoire of vegetable preparation, but we like to cook and it ended up working quite well for us. I didn’t attempt to keep track of grocery store savings, but from April to October my trips to the produce section of the local industrialized food production center were minimal. If you’ve been purchasing large quantities of fresh organic spinach in plastic containers, you know that how quickly that can add up.
Aside for what really good stuff we got to eat I like the idea that someone, locally, is producing food in a clean sustainable way. If you go to Seven Springs Farm, one of the things you notice is that there’s a lot of land that’s not under cultivation. That’s counter intuitive to the tenets of modern agriculture where one person on a huge tractor borrows hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a monoculture crop on hundred of acres. I understand how that’s economically productive in the short run but it is it really a long term solution to food production. What I see at Seven Springs is a sustainable system that benefits a local economy and I’m really glad to support that.
Well said Mike. This comment is from Mike's wife, Theresa. We thoroughly enjoyed the fresh and sometimes unusual veggies that had us hitting up google for prep and cooking tips. The food was full of "good energy"! And here is a shout out to our neighbors, Dave & Kelly, who hooked us up with the Seven Springs CSA. Thanks you two....and a special thanks to Polly Hieser of Seven Springs CSA for all of her hard work!
ReplyDeletewoot woot! hooray for local yummyness! we are just beginners but we are loving checking out local offerings such as beer, wine, honey, veggies and fruit whenever we can afford to do so! We also enjoyed our fruit csa share from Good Food Good People...and with little kids, we seek out opportunities to pick local fruits whenever we can (berries, apples, etc) as a family activity. another local favorite is Mr. Wertz's Farm Market...
ReplyDeleteand we recently purchased 1/4 local grassfed cow-nice to have more and more local options!
I guess we've paid up and are ready to participate in this season's bounty from Floyd. The first few warm days of prespring always get me thinking about putt'n stuff in the ground!
ReplyDeleteTis' the Season!!! Picked up our first bounty yesterday. Greens, scallions, radishes, cabbage, and lettuce.
ReplyDeleteYep,
ReplyDeleteTime to get friendly with bock choy again