Fresh food delivered weekly

Bloomington Winter Farmers’ Market customers lined up to sign up for Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions Saturday at Harmony School.

Local farmers deliver weekly or biweekly boxes of their harvests to subscribers through the CSA initiative.

Eight of the 15 farms within a 100-mile radius of Bloomington offering CSA subscriptions were on hand to recruit subscribers. Different farms deliver products ranging from fresh fruits and vegetables to eggs and meat.

“You get a weekly allotment of fresh produce,” said Jessie Skaggs, assistant director of the Local Growers Guild. “You also know you’re supporting local farmers.”

The Local Growers Guild sponsors CSA subscriptions.

The guild started five years ago as a way to help grow and sustain a local food economy. Local Growers Guild members also commit to using environmentally sound farming practices.

“All the farms who are members are either natural or organic,” Skaggs said. “They’re pesticide-free. They’re good stewards of the earth.”

CSA memberships are on the rise, Skaggs said.

“Even from last year we have three more farms,” Skaggs said. “We see an increase every year in farms offering CSAs.”

CSAs benefit local farmers because they provide a steady customer base and a steady source of income, Skaggs said.

Martin Hollow Farm has been a member of the Local Growers Guild CSA program for the past five years. Martin Hollow offers different heirloom produce during spring, late spring, summer and early fall.

“I began my farming working for a farm that did CSA,” Martin Hollow farmer Jon Navota said. “It’s a direct connection with consumers.”

Martin Hollow delivers weekly to Bloomingfoods, where its CSA customers pick up their orders.

IU student Kelly Thomas subscribed to LIFE Certified Organic Farms’ CSA last year.
“I was eating the same veggies all the time,” Thomas said. “If I already made the investment then I would learn how to cook those new vegetables.”

Thomas said LIFE Certified Organic Farms delivers a variety of vegetables in each customer’s box. Each week she had to learn to use unfamiliar vegetables but said it was a fun experience.

Her biggest challenge came when beets showed up in her box from LIFE.

She boiled the beets for a roasted root vegetable mix and put the greens in a mixed greens dish, “Both of which were very good.”

Thomas said one of the reasons she joined LIFE was because the subscription seemed cost-effective. She was happy enough with her subscription to look around for more programs.

“I just want to see what’s out there,” Thomas said. “I was really happy with LIFE. I’ll definitely get another CSA, though.”