Community Supported Agriculture

The last few days I’ve been considering my summer plans.  Mostly, whether I wanted to hare off to Europe this summer and be less fiscally responsible than I’ve been trying to be.  (The other option is to go on a long-distance bicycle ride with my sister.  I don’t think this summer is the most realistic one to try to get me to cycle through the Rockies.)

I decided that, while going to Europe for even just a few weeks would be awesome, it would also put me back in other areas.  I’m really looking forward to having a summer to work on my story in some leisure, to tend my container garden, to explore Halifax on foot and by bike; I also have some academic projects to work on.  And while I could certainly work on my creative writing in Europe, and, being a medievalist, I have been known to make the argument that a trip to Europe totally counts as research, nevertheless I decided against it for a simple reason.

I want a farm.

I want to live in the country more than I want to go to Europe right now.  I want to live by writing and gardening and maybe the odd sessional course or paying guest.  (I think hosting a writing/artistic retreat would be delightful all round.)  I want to grow most of my own food and have plenty to share, I want to have time, I want to live seasonally and with my fingers in the soil.

This is all quite manageable, eventually.  I reckon most of what I want to do will start being self-sustaining after about five years.  Before then I need to come up with a down payment and enough continuing income to pay for a mortgage and other necessities, and a car.  If I work on my gardening skills, I might be able to put together what’s called a CSA — a community supported agriculture — programme.  Basically people buy shares in the crop from the farmer, who has the benefit of a set income, and in return the shareholders get good, local, seasonal produce in a weekly box.

This being the case, I thought it behooved me to participate in a CSA from the shareholder side of things.  This was the other part of the decision about summer plans: whether I could buy a year’s worth of weekly food deliveries without them going to waste.  A week here or there isn’t too much of a problem, as I can probably find a friend willing to get them that week for me, and, if not, it goes to the food bank.  Six weeks . . . not so brilliant.

So I’ve decided, I’m staying here, eating locally, seasonally, and as healthily as possible.  I bought three shares in the TapRoot Farms CSA: one of vegetables, one of fruit, and a biweekly one of meat.  These start on 2nd April; I’m sure I will let you know what I get and how it goes.  I’m very excited.