Provident Organic Farms

    prov‧i‧dent [prŏv'ĭ-dənt, -dĕnt]  adj, providing carefully for future needs and events 

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The State of the Onion 2009

To the members who have already signed up for the 2009 season, thank you for your continued support, we look forward to a bountiful growing season and supplying you with the very best produce that our skills and mother nature will allow.

To the members who have not signed up yet, but intend to, please do so soon. We are getting a lot of interest from new folks this year and don’t want to leave any of you out.
To those of you who are undecided as of yet and to the new folks who are considering joining our CSA, I would like to offer a few thoughts on the importance of the Community Supported Agriculture movement in general and our CSA in particular.

The CSA movement has been growing steadily for over 20 years in this country. There are CSAs serving as few as 10 family members and as many as thousands of families. The beauty of CSAs is their adaptability to any farm model and any community model and the relationship they foster. CSAs can provide a guaranteed baseline income for a farm, provide real food for real people, build community and help restore local, living economies. This is an imperative to address what lies ahead.

The Provident Organic Farms CSA has chosen the path of a multi-farm model. This is new territory for CSAs. We chose this path for a couple of reasons. As much as I hesitate to admit it, my physical health is a major reason. I simply cannot continue to work the way I have for so many years. I also struggle with understanding and accepting the work ethic of most of the younger people that I have worked with in recent years. I admit there may be as much cause at my doorstep as there is at theirs. Another important and related reason for the shift to the multi-farm model is the reality that we all suffer from a severe shortage of farmers. We have plenty of people talking about sustainable agriculture and we should all appreciate their efforts, but the reality is we don’t need more people talking about sustainable agriculture, we need more people doing it. We are using the CSA as an incubator for emerging farmers. We are about growing farmers as much as we are about growing food. This work is being funded by LESSON (Lower Eastern Shore Sustainable Organic Network) through a grant from the Town Creek Foundation. The CSA provides these emerging farmers with a reliable market for their wares while they hone their skills. We have been offering workshops to anyone interested in learning, bringing in experts along with offering our own talents. LESSON also helped send some of our farmers to the PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) Conference in February. This conference is considered the best gathering for farmers to share their experience and knowledge in the east. I know each of them was very appreciative of the financial assistance. LESSON board members are approaching Wicomico County on using county owned land for the purpose of creating community gardens for residents of the county. We hope to also use the site as an educational facility for emerging farmers and to host tours for school children. This would be a dream come true for me. We are also working on a garden project with Professor Jim Hatley at Salisbury University. Jim has secured a small plot from the University where we have built 5 raised beds. The students have selected crops they want to grow and I am helping them implement the plan. This project is being driven by the students’ desire for fresh, local produce in their fare. As with all successful movements, the momentum is building from the ground up.

Laura Hunsberger, Shawn McEntee and I have been working with our CSA farmers through the winter months tailoring the crops to be grown for the CSA to the individual farmer and farm. Each of us has selected the crops we have confidence that we will be able to provide for you. We have a good plan (it works on paper!) and we owe a debt of gratitude to Shawn and Laura for their many hours of help. Having members help put together a plan is invaluable to us.

We have raised the core group from the dead. We have held three meetings, open to all, this winter. Bob Murphy has taken charge of the Steering Wheels and is doing a great job. Nancy Murphy and Pat Vorus are coordinating the efforts of our on farm volunteers this year. Ed Nock, who has helped with the harvest here, is going to help with training for the volunteers at Ted’s farm this spring. Shelton and Verna Lankford have done a most wonderful job of updating and beautifying the website. Other members have helped steer the course and we are grateful for their input. I believe the more member input, the greater the chance for success and impact.

Speaking of impact, I asked you to turn out for a public hearing on the cluster density bonus in Wicomico County’s ill conceived and poorly implemented agricultural land zoning provisions. Many of you did and I thank you. There has not been a vote by the County Council yet but it is abundantly clear that if they vote to keep the density bonus in place they will be doing so in direct contradiction to the overwhelming evidence of the ill effects of uncontrolled sprawl and the will of the people. I will then ask you to act again. The point here is that we are becoming a force to be reckoned with along with other groups of like mind.

We face tough times ahead. I don’t think the visionaries that have been predicting “the downfall” for so many years really have a grip on the depth of what will be expected of us to dismantle this unsustainable economic system that is destroying our home. Nor do I think we comprehend the multi-dimensional effort required of us to rebuild a new living, locally based economy founded in sharing the wealth of our home and loving our neighbors, as we are required to do by any faith tradition.

In the months leading up to the Supreme Court handing the keys to the White House to George W. Bush in 2001 I was reading a book titled “Dream of the Earth” by Father Thomas Berry, a Jesuit priest and cultural historian. In his book, Father Thomas spoke about our need to come to a “transformative revelation”. He said we must come to the realization that the path we are on is more destructive and uncomfortable than the path we must take. Being ever hopeful, I started thinking “What possible good can come from having this village idiot occupy the White House for the next four years”. It was unconscionable to me that his term would last for eight years. As the insanity unfolded, I came to the realization that the good that could be achieved by Bush’s presidency may be that his ill-gained “leadership” would hasten our shift to the transformative revelation that Father Thomas wrote about. Now that we have endured Bush, I do believe he has served his purpose in that respect. We are on the verge of creating a new world, one that turns away from building empire to building earth community. As David Korten says, “We are the ones we have been waiting for”. Our time is at hand, we must seize the moment. In our own small ways we can contribute to building earth community. Joining a CSA is a good step in that direction……. because the best way to predict the future is to create it.

To your health and well being, blessed be us all.
Onward,
Jay