Thanks to our Sandy Spring coordinator, Gene Klinger, who spent from 1-7pm at the site this week. We think the previous shortage of shares is due to partners not communicating with each other and both picking up a full share. Again, please do not take a share unless you know for sure that your partner has not/will not. Be sure to check the list to see if your share partner has already been by or, alternately, be sure to check off your name if you pick-up. Please be responsible about this.

Did you sign up yet for Fall? Applications are coming in fast. The Fall CSA runs October 6 through November 24. The price for returning members is $195.00. The deadline is August 1. Send your money with an application to Meg Pease-Fye. You can get the application here.

Food for Thought

“…eating from sources close to home that you know and trust is one way to avoid exposure to widespread food borne illnesses” according to Edible Nation’s blog.

Some of you may recall the film The Real Dirt on Farmer John, about John Peterson of Angelic Organics. The film is fabulous, John is a character and his site offers a wonderful CSA recipe service.

Farmers selling direct to consumers, like our CSA, is a wonderful thing, but is a tiny part of the local food market. To save energy, resources and preserve the Earth for future generations, we should work hard at developing a truly local food system. If you want to understand this subject, you can read more about what Wendell Berry, the renowned author and farmer, has to say in the July issue of Local Mix, the email newsletter of Edible Chesapeake magazine.

During a recent meeting of the Hudson Institute in D.C., Wendell Berry spoke about the importance of processing food locally. Or you can go to the Hudson Institute website in about a week to read more of what Berry and other visionary farmers have to say. You might also enjoy reading Wendell Berry’s books of essays including: The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural, A Continuous Harmony: Essays Cultural and Agricultural, and The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry…to name just a few.

More on the local food movement in the NY Times this past week.

Lots of worthwhile news in the July 7 edition of the Organic Consumers Association newsletter, Organic Bytes.

What to make of the recent FDA tomato warning? It’s a reminder that “eating from sources close to home that you know and trust is one way to avoid exposure to widespread food borne illnesses” according to Edible Nation’s blog.

Enjoy,

Erin