Stephens Farm

This is my second year as a member of a CSA through Hazon and Stephens Farm. CSA stands for Consumer-Supported Agriculture. In this case, this means that a group of people have bought share and half-shares into a year's harvest from a local organic farm. Every week from about June until October or November Farmer Ted drives all the way to us to deliver the vegetables. The result is that each week ND and I then go to the JCC and pick up a bag with our name on it that already contains freshly harvested produce. Sometimes if we don't want a particular vegetable we can trade from a trading crate, and all leftovers are donated to a food bank.

Yesterday we went out to see the farm. This was my first trip out there. It was a long drive, almost an hour and a half, and when we were there my allergies flared so badly that I had difficulty breathing and today am taking it very slow and easy as my poor lungs recover. However, it was so worth it. I was quite moved by the experience. The farm is on an enormous piece of land, much larger than I realized, and the family that's working the space works so hard to maintain it.

Steve, the Rabbi who has been organizing all of this, has developed a really beautiful relationship with the family and brought a sukkah for us to sit in during part of our trip. First we walked around a little, getting a small tour of the place with Annemarie. Then we helped pick some squash for this week's harvest. After that we returned to the sukkah and did leaf rubbings, then ate lunch and chatted a little with the family. Steve shared some words of Torah and Ted and Annemarie talked about how hard it is to maintain the farm in an age when our acquisition of food is not so very organic or local.

When we were done talking, Steve said Birkat Hamazon aloud in English. I was deeply moved to hear his words thanking G-d for the harvest, and sitting across from the very people who worked so hard, often at financial risk to themselves, to get the food to us. They don't have an easy life. We do.

I'm really glad we've chosen to do this CSA. It hasn't always given us all the vegetables we want in a given week, and sometimes blight and other real-life problems have hurt the quality of the food. But we're helping a family with their livelihood and, in return, we've been brought closer to the land ourselves.