{‘C’ is for Community at Ladybug Farms}
By Kristina Lefever
Photo by Anthony-Masterson Photography
Sure, Ladybug Farms grows the usual ‘c’ veggies—carrots, cabbages, and collards. But this story is about another ‘c’: Community, as in CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture.
It’s not unusual that Ladybug Farms has a CSA—most small farms do these days. (A CSA is an arrangement between farmer and customer/member, with the customer paying in advance to receive a specified amount of produce and/or meat during the season.) But how many CSA members actually hang out together for a grill night?
Every Tuesday afternoon during the season, Terri Jagger Blincoe brings in the harvest for her CSA customers at the Cabbagetown pickup site, ready for some community time. And most every week, fires up the grill. People begin arriving around 6:30 p.m., many of them walking or biking, bringing real meaning to the word ‘local.’
And they might bring a salad, or contribute something out of their share to put on the grill, to go along with an item from the farm that Terri puts out for tasting. Terri isn’t exactly sure how this random potluck got started, but “about a third of the folks might stay—and now people have started bringing friends!”
In addition to the Cabbagetown CSA, Terri also serves a smaller CSA in Clayton, which is where Ladybug Farms is located. The pickup site is at the Clayton farmers market, so ‘community’ there has a different flavor, involving other growers, producers, and customers.
Perhaps Terri says it best in her last blog for the 2010 season: “I believe the CSA concept of Community Supported Agriculture has importance beyond the weekly delivery of fresh, organic veggies supplied by a local farmer. It is a way for non-farming folks to reconnect with the land and support a farmer that grows the food that supports them. It is an opportunity to slow down and experience the change in seasons as weekly deliveries gradually shift from greens to squash to tomatoes to sweet potatoes. And it is a way for each of us to reclaim our participation in a local food economy that does not rely on ‘big oil and the mega-industrial agricultural complex’. Participation in a CSA is a way for each of us to say ‘another way is possible’ and I am proud of each of us for the commitment we’ve made these last several months and for the sense of community we’ve built.”
INFO BOX: To learn more about Ladybug Farms, visit www.ladybugfarms.net.