We are inaugurating a new blog on the Stearns Farm website. The purpose of the blog is to inform our members about books that might interest them and help them learn more about farming, food, and healthy eating. Appearing occasionally, the blog will recommend books that we hope you will enjoy and that will serve to enhance the experience of your Stearns Farm CSA membership. Topics will include farming, gardening, cooking, eating, and anything else that seems to fit. All the books that are recommended will be available in the local library system, so if you are interested, you will be able to ‘check them out’ literally.
Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture, 2nd Edition, by Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En
For the first book in our new series of book reviews and recommendations, we cannot help but start with the new edition of what has come to be a classic in the world of Community Supported Agriculture: Sharing the Harvest, by Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En.
The authors of this classic guide have extensive experience in the CSA field. Robyn Van En established one of the first two CSA farms in the United States in 1986. She is widely acknowledged as having been the foremost pioneer of the CSA movement in North America. Elizabeth Henderson is a founding member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), farmed for years at Peacework Farm CSA, and has been an organic farmer for more than 30 years.
Sharing the Harvest includes a wealth of information about the history, purpose, and function of CSA farms. Some sections will appeal to those with an interest in the ‘hows and whys’ of being a part of a CSA, and other sections delve into the nitty-gritty details of owning and operating a CSA farm. The first edition was published in 1997 and served as a guide for many of the farms that were a part of the rapid expansion of the CSA movement in the early 2000s, and the second edition (2007) continues as a guide for new and established CSA farms across the country.