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Michigan CSA by Cycle |
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Marty Heller, 36 and Michelle Ferrarese, 33
spent last summer and fall touring Michigan by bicycle visiting and
farming on thirty-one CSA farms along the South and West side of Michigan.
That is roughly half of the current CSA farms in Michigan. Farms ranged in
size from six members to two hundred members. According to Heller, “We wanted to learn from the farms we visited, because we want to start a CSA ourselves.” Their other goal, Heller claims, “We also wanted to spread the word on CSA.” Michelle Ferrarese completed a Master’s Degree in Horticulture at Michigan State University, was the first farm manager and was instrumental in starting the MSU CSA (www.msuorganicfarm.com) in 2003, according to Dr. John Beirnbaum, Professor overseeing the farm. Marty Heller was working at the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at MSU (http://www.mottgroup.msu.edu). Their adventure covered 960 miles, starting in Ann Arbor, then west to Kalamazoo and finally north to Petoskey, toting camping equipment and wearing protective gear although they were invited to stay as guests at many of the farms. As Heller sums up their experience in one of their website (www.glbconference.org/csatour2006) blogs, “One flat tire, a few screaming matches, endless weeding, lots of good food and a whole lot of fun.” If you think there aren’t very many CSA farms, Heller claims the farthest distance between farms was only 62 miles. The couple has rented a farm in southern Leelanau County with its tempered climate from the waters of Lake Michigan and the Grand Traverse Bay to experiment with growing and to see if this is a good spot for them. “If everything goes okay, we plan sell our first shares in 2008,” claims Heller. “One of the things that I learned on the tour was the diverse ways the CSA model is being interpreted and how it can adapt to farmers and communities,” said Heller. He sites an example, “A farm we visited lets people choose what they wanted instead of a pre-arranged box.” Heller continues, “They accomplished this by pricing the produce and then debiting against their yearly payment. They discovered their members wanted this arrangement based on a survey they used.” Michelle Ferrarese adds that one of the big surprises they found was how many farms were, ‘off the grid’, in other words not using, or rarely using electricity from the power companies. “Three farms were completely off the grid using solar and wind power, one farm only rarely used the power company as backup and quite a few had some form of alternate energy,” claims Ferrarese. “It wasn’t widespread, but what surprised us is they were doing it so well.” According to Ferrarese, many farms use the Eliot Coleman books, “The New Organic Grower” and “Four Season Harvest” as their main reference for basic organic gardening techniques. “I didn’t see anything new as far as growing techniques, just good basic organic farming methods,” claims Ferrarese. She mentioned that investigating ways to extend the growing season has become very popular. Heller and Ferrarese documented their tour by video and hope to have it ready for some type of distribution soon. “I hope somebody decides to finish the tour. We will be farming during touring months, so we won’t be able to complete the tour. It would be nice to document all the many different CSA farms in Michigan,” states Ferrarese. Other CSA Articles by
Sandie Parrott: |
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copyright of Sandra (Sandie) K. Parrott
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