Good Food is Everybody's Business
Spend a little time in the presence of a local food advocate and you’ll hear a string of acronyms beginning with CS: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Community Supported Bakery (CSB), Community Supported Restaurant (CSR), Community Supported Winery (CSW), Community Supported Fishery (CSF). What is all this community support about and what do these programs really mean?
Yesterday was Tuesday which meant that we spent our afternoon at Jubilee Farm weeding. Actually, at this time of the year, the jobs fall pretty evenly between harvesting and weeding! Simply not enough time
Knowing where your food comes from – and getting to know your farmer – is a critical step in knowing what’s IN your food. Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and sign up for a CSA, how do you know who’s real? Success breeds competition and sometimes that competition is fudging it. Some of those CSAs you’re looking at are not REAL CSAs.
Modern supermarkets are as sterile as hospitals, the produce is mostly hard as tennis balls and practically odorless and tasteless, and the staff is less than helpful when you have a question. They have very little connection to the food they put on the shelves. In contrast, the farmers you meet at your local farmers market are directly connected to the food they raise and the land on which it is grown.
As cities grew, more and more people left the farms, and the food had to be brought to them. In the century since Seattle’s Pike Place Market was opened, a lot has changed and we have become distanced from our food and the people who produce it. It is today’s farmers market that is reconnecting American consumers to the land and to their food.
An old-fashioned county fair gathered farmers, their families, and hundreds of “city folk” to meet and connect over good food. Barns full of prize-winning livestock; exhibits of garden produce, baked goods and preserves; and lots of music and excitement helped build a sense of community. Seattle Tilth’s annual Harvest Fair is an urban version, but all of the components are there!
