Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Did you know that there's an 11-acre organic community farm located in the heart of Sunnyvale?! Neither did I until yesterday morning at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am. I was at Full Circle Farm to lead a 35 person volunteer project for Be The Change Day, the Bay Area-wide community service day run by Hands On Bay Area (HOBA), the non-profit of which I am the Vice Chair of the Board.

HOBA is a fabulous organization - I've been volunteering for them on and off for the past 14 years, and joined their board 2 years ago. They recognize that most people would love to volunteer but are put off by the time commitment and the difficulty of finding out where they can make the most contribution. HOBA provides a great registration system that lists over 120 projects every month in all regions of the Bay Area, making easy for anyone who has a free Saturday morning to find a list of available projects and sign up. Check it out!

So back to my bleary-eyed Saturday morning... I drive past my favorite dim sum place (Joy Luck Place) in the mega-Asian mall in Cupertino, and 2 minutes later, I'm standing between 6 foot high rows of corn and almost equally high stalks of sunflowers. It's quite the difference!

I spent the next 3 hours mulching a new tractor path and double digging trenches in preparation for some 6th graders who were arriving on Monday to prep the beds for new plantings. In between I sampled raw corn on the cob, freshly picked from the aforementioned stalks, complete with happy little worm in each one. That's how you tell the corn is pesticide-free - each ear comes with it's own worm! And the sweetest little cherry tomatoes, which I had to fight off 2 little kids for, as they were ploughing down through the rows, faces smeared with tomato juice. Hey, I'd been double-digging all morning! (for those of you who don't know what that is, trust me - it's quite the workout)

Full Circle Farm was established about a year ago, on a 10 year lease with the Santa Clara school district. They haven't quite fully planted out their space yet, and were building a greenhouse yesterday. They have 3 full time employees, and do most of their work through volunteers. It's amazing to see what they've done with relatively few resources and not much time! They are producing wonderful vegetables - about 50% is destined for the school district to be part of the lunch program, and much is sold through the farm stand. They also have a CSA program but shares are currently sold out - CSA is a way for the farm to get folks to pay upfront for a quarter's worth of produce (this helps them pay their upfront expenses). And best of all, the farm is being integrated into the middle school curriculum - 6th graders will be working on the farm on a regular basis.

So check out CSAs in your area to see if there's a hidden gem like Full Circle Farm. I left with armfuls of heirloom tomatoes, 3 ears of corn, 2 of the sweetest melons I've ever had and what smelled like a carload of basil. I forsee a caprese salad for dinner tonight...