West Chester Dish

A few days ago I was having a bad day, so I decided to go berry picking with my six-year-old friend, Willow. She was helping me, holding out the bucket to catch the fresh fruit while I maniacally untangled myself from a particularly thorny branch. After discussing the pros and cons of jumping into prickly foliage, I found myself falling into adult-mode, and decided to draw a moral out of our adventure.

“Willow, do you know why berry picking is important?” I asked.

“Um, nope”, she replied.

“Because food you help to grow tastes way better than food you buy at the grocery store! Here, eat one!” I chose two perfectly plump berries and handed her one.

The blackberry I popped into my mouth? Delicious! I immediately had the urge to harvest fields of fruits and veggies and fill truck bed after truck bed with fresh pickings. There was something about it – sinking into the ground, grass stuck everywhere, miniscule scratches on my hands from unruly thorns and the smell of the dirt. My bad day turned great, and I felt happily connected to my outdoor surroundings.

My generation grew up thinking food was cheap, easy and fast. For us, food has become mindless, and our nation makes that acceptable. But how mindless are we willing to be? In the past year alone, there have been several well-publicized US food contaminations. Remember the Taco Bell E. coli shocker? Or the contaminated pet food? Bad lettuce shipped by Yum! Brands, a Fortune 500 fast-food company that owns 34,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, was to blame for the Taco Bell fiasco. The pet food shipped from China contained toxins killed one too many pets. These details should lead many consumers to wonder if the cheap, easy and fast option is worth it in the end. What kind of quality products are we receiving from companies that handle more than 30,000 restaurants or are oceans away?

A few weeks ago I spent an afternoon with Sam Cantrell, a conservationist and executive director of Maysie’s Farm Conservation Center, in Glenmoore, PA. “Think Globally, Eat Locally!” he proclaims. As we meandered through his fields, he explained the current food situation to me. “It’s about food quality, food value and food security. If you get your food from down the road, you have control over it. You’re a ‘part’ of it.”

For most folks, their relationship with food starts at the grocery store and ends with the dishes, and Sam is trying to change that – by taking the relationship straight back to the ground. “Consumers have the responsibility to vote with their money,” he stated. “We can change this social disarray we’ve allowed to happen.”

And how! Ever heard of CSA? It’s Community Supported Agriculture, and it’s a great option for consumers. It’s the most basic, trusting partnership between a farm and the people who eat from it. With no middle man, the consumers pay the best price for the best organic and locally grown food, a huge benefit. It also helps the farms by guaranteeing a market for their earthly wares. Maysie’s Farm meets many of their supporters through their CSA, and tailors the farm to their needs.

It works like this – you commit to a season and put your money down (usually in the spring, when funding is still slow from the winter). You buy shares, and visit the farm weekly to pick up what’s been harvested. Every week is different, depending on what is being harvested. Sometimes you can even come pick your food yourself – a great way to get both kids and adults connected to the land and their community.

But that’s not the only way to help. As Sam walked me around the property, throwing an old tennis ball with his two energetic dogs, he talked about the need for new farmers. He thinks it’s great that the public is becoming educated about where their food comes from, but at the end of the day we need people to take that extra step and devote more than their consumer dollar to the cause. “It’s hard being up against huge corporations… cheap and abundant food is a big problem for everyone,” he said.

One way that Sam has tried to overcome this farmer shortage is to institute an internship program. The Sustainable Agriculture Internship Training Alliance helps the intrigued learn farming, conservation and resource management in an educated, hands-on environment. Walking through Sam’s stunning farm made me want to sign up on the spot…and follow in my boyfriend’s footsteps! He participated in Sam’s internship program a few years previously and loved it. He still explains to me the how-to’s of farming that he picked up at his days at Maysie’s.

With all this on his plate, Sam manages to run an effective farm that Chester County should look out for. The Eagleview Farmers’ Market that he helped establish meets every Wednesday from 2pm-6pm, rain or shine, and offers the best produce around. I checked it out this past Wednesday and things were looking impressive, as always.

So, Mr. and Ms. Consumer, hop in/on your car/bike and drive/pedal to Maysie’s Farm. Offer your money, your time, your CSA application or your firstborn and be rewarded with an abundance of healthy, hearty food to last you a season! See how much happier you’ll be with a belly full of fresh food and the knowledge that your meal supported not only you, but your community as well. Just don’t expect Sam to come do your dishes, too.

Maysie’s Farm Conservation Center

15 St. Andrew’s Lane
Glenmoore, PA 19343
www.maysiesfarm.org

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

www.localharvest.org

Eagleview Farmers’ Market

www.eagleviewfarmersmarket.com