Cohousing-L Mailing List: CSAs in cohousing

[Sheila Braun (nvc]

Hello.

I thought I'd share this link with anyone who wants to find out more about 
community-supported agriculture. Some of you are, I'm sure, totally 
familiar with this already; for those who aren't, this web site provides 
some useful definitions.

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/csa.html

Perhaps the cohousers and the CSAers should get together for lunch. There 
are great possibilities in working together, don't you think?

Also, numerous people have asked me to say more about what we are thinking 
of doing with a CSA. The basic idea is to provide a farmer with a regular 
income, and to take on some of the risk, by making CSA payments a part of 
life in the community, just like the regular community fees are. Maybe 
$600/year? The farmer would be a resident; we might perhaps pay her 
partially by providing her with a home, or completely in cash and she can 
have her own mortgage. At any rate, the farmer would be a resident leasing 
from us the barns, greenhouse, farm stand, fields, and equipment. Her 
income would be stable, and she could augment it by selling surplus food at 
the farm stand.

So that's the basic idea, and it still needs to be fleshed out. I believe 
that this might be a good way to preserve "the family farm," to provide us 
with really top quality food (everything from vegetables to meat), and to 
tap into some possible funding sources so we can build fewer homes.

Thanks to all of you who've responded to my original post.

Sheila

Sheila Braun
Project Coordinator
Shelburne Falls Cohousing
www.shelburnefallscohousing.org
(802) 862-8657
fax (802) 862-8697