• By Mary Jac Brennan
• Posted Thursday, January 26, 2017

Meet Your Farmer and CSA Sign Up Day

The event will be held on Thursday February 23, 2017 from 11 am until 2 pm at the Old Salem Visitor’s Center and is organized by Forsyth Cooperative Extension and the Forsyth Community Food Consortium. Old Salem Horticulture is hosting this community event.

Are your New Year’s resolutions already in the rearview mirror? If so, you’re not alone, but you still have time to make good on those resolutions. February 23 marks the second annual Meet Your Farmer and CSA Sign Up Day when you can join other like-minded people around the area who are committed to:

• eating healthful foods and preparing them for their families;
• supporting their local farmer;
• being kind to our planet;
• learning something new; and
• being adventurous in the kitchen.

Come meet the farmers who work hard to grow your local food. The Meet Your Farmer and CSA Sign Up Day is an information fair and will provide an opportunity for you to talk to farmers who are your neighbors, learn where they sell their goods, how they produce them, and how you can support them. Buying local farm goods help to keep dollars circulating in our community while helping our farmers stay on the land and provides you with the freshest ingredients for a healthy diet. Click here for the flyer.

Some farms will be offering CSA plans. CSA (community-supported agriculture) is a subscription to a season’s worth of sustainable, locally grown produce that is distributed to members throughout the harvesting season. It is a form of investment that allows small farmers to continue growing on a scale that may not be sustainable without the CSA model. CSA members enjoy the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables for their family, while supporting their local farmer.

According to Small Farm Central’s CSA Farming Annual Report, the most popular time to join a CSA each year is at the end of February. To promote this important time for farmers, CSA Day was coined, and each year it falls around the last Friday in February.

As a CSA member, you make a seasonal commitment to a small farmer in your area, and the produce is either delivered to your door or you pick it up at a local distribution center. CSA members take pleasure in knowing where and how their food is grown, and typically have an open line of communication with their farmer.

“Community-supported agriculture is all about relationships and feeding families,” said Simon Huntley, CEO of Small Farm Central, a company that provides marketing support for small farms and started CSA Day. “CSA farmers typically teach members what’s in season throughout the year, and help them appreciate and cook food to which they may not otherwise be exposed.” For more information about this year’s Meet Your Farmer and CSA Sign up Day, please contact Mary Jac Brennan, Forsyth Cooperative Extension, maryjac_brennan@ncsu.edu or 336-703-2869.