A new trend in farming is really catching on: consumers are buying shares of local, organic farms. The fees range from $300 - $900 a year. You get a guaranteed amount of produce from the farms -- and flower, for a bit more -- and you don't have to work the farm, unless you want to. Many of the part-time owners do work on the farm, just to help out. Watering, weeding, hoeing -- whatever needs doing.
The concept was imported from Europe and Asia in the 1980s as an alternative marketing and financing arrangement to help combat the often prohibitive costs of small-scale farming. But until recently, it was slow to take root. There were fewer than 100 such farms in the early 1990s, but in the last several years the numbers have grown to close to 1,500, according to academic experts who have followed the trend.
"I think people are becoming more local-minded, and this fits right into that," said Nichole D. Nazelrod, program coordinator at the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., a national clearinghouse for community-supported farms. "People are seeing ways to come together and work together to make this successful."
The shareholders of Erehwon Farm have open access to the land and a guaranteed percentage of the season's harvest of fruit and vegetables for packages that range from about $300 to $900. Arrangements of fresh-cut blossoms twice a month can be included for an extra $120 — or for the deluxe package, $220 will "feed the soul" with weekly bouquets of lilies and sunflowers and other local blooms.
Shareholders are not required to work the fields, but they can if they want, and many do.
Mr. Trisko said his family knows that without his volunteer labor and agreement to share in the financial risk of raising crops, the small organic farm might not survive.
"It's very hard for them to make ends meet," he said, "so I decided to go out and help. We harvest, water, pull weeds, whatever they need doing."
It's an interesting idea -- it would be a great thing to show city kids on the weekend. It guarantees you a local source of organic produce, and it makes the farmers less dependent on the market. They rely on the money paid in at the beginning of the year instead of guessing what the market will be like in the months ahead.
