Sandy Spring CSA provides weekly organic vegetable shares to sites in Montgomery and Howard Counties in Maryland and several locations in Northern Virginia.
What is CSA?
CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a simple way to support local farmers, while providing your family with healthy, fresh, locally grown vegetables. CSA members pay an annual fee and in return receive a weekly share of produce harvested at the peak of ripeness, flavor, and nutritional content. This arrangement guarantees the financial support of local farmers.
CSA enables your family to:
- eat fresh, locally grown, organic food
- support and preserve small and family farms and farming practices
- meet like-minded people in your community
In the U.S., Robyn Van En is credited with launching the CSA movement in 1985 at her Indian Line Farm in western Massachusetts. Today there are more than 4,000 CSAs all over the country. For more information about CSA, go to CSA Center or Local Harvest.
Who is Sandy Spring CSA?
Many CSAs are started by farmers. Sandy Spring CSA was started by its members, who were attracted to the concept, organized themselves, and then found their first farmer/partner. This continues to be our model — join us as we “eat Local, eat Healthy.”
We get our produce from Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative (LFFC). It is a non-profit cooperative of 80 organic farmers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. LFFC focuses on creating healthy, high-quality foods from well maintained and enriched soils on small-scale family farms. The produce sold through LFFC is certified organic unless otherwise noted. They also support local farms that use Integrated Pest Management (I.P.M.) techniques.
Benefits
- Each week you get fresh, local, organic produce from a nearby farm.
- Eat certified organic vegetables and naturally grown fruits, full of nutrients, safe from genetic manipulation and chemicals.
- You help to sustain healthy, organic farming practices and support local, independent farmers.
- You support a form of agriculture that doesn’t harm the environment, i.e. doesn’t pollute waterways, diminish the soil nor reduce biodiversity.
- Participating in CSA reconnects you and your family with the true source of our food, not the grocery store, but Mother Nature. It teaches us about eating seasonally and about the unpredictability of farming.