A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Vegetables from Rising Phoenix Community Farm in Barnum are packed up and delivered to households in the region through community supported agriculture, or CSAs. Households pay in advance to receive weekly boxes of produce from a local farm.
Farms in northern Minnesota like the Food Farm in Wrenshall can get a head start on the growing season using greenhouses and high tunnels, which allow them to deliver seasonal produce to their customers well before they are available to at-home gardeners.
Across Carlton County, northern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, farmers are firing up the heaters in their greenhouses, ordering seeds and preparing for another season of feeding families across the region.
For one unique type of farm, this is also the season when they begin to take orders from households that will receive weekly deliveries of farm fresh produce and other products throughout the summer and fall.
It's called community supported agriculture, or just CSA, and it is an approach to farming that connects consumers directly with the farms where their food is produced. It may seem like summer is far away, but signups for these weekly deliveries are happening now, and many farms fill up quickly.
The week of February 20-26 has been designated CSA Week by the CSA Innovation Network. The goal of the week is to call attention to local farms and spread awareness about the unique business model that has become quite familiar in the county.
Carlton County is home to four farms that are part of the Lake Superior CSA Guild: Food Farm, Northern Harvest Farm, Stone's Throw Farm and Rising Phoenix Community Farm. Combined, these farms have pickup locations in Wrenshall, Barnum, Cloquet, Esko and Duluth. Some of their produce can also be found on store shelves in the region
The CSA model is simple. Customers pay farmers at the beginning of the season. The farmer then agrees to deliver weekly boxes, called shares over the course of the growing season.
While this approach to farming has been in this region since the 1990s, the CSA model has grown in popularity in recent years as consumers seek out food that is produced locally by farmers they know and trust.
The Lake Superior CSA Guild has a collection of farms that deliver produce, meat, eggs and other items to hundreds of families across the region. The farms share a commitment to using sustainable farming practices to produce organically grown food.
"It's been inspiring to see the growth of the local food movement as consumers look for food grown close to home by people they know," said Heather-Marie Bloom from Rising Phoenix in Barnum. She started as an intern at Northern Harvest 12 years ago and then branched off on her own, farming around the county until finding a permanent home last summer.
During the 2021 season, the Lake Superior CSA Guild formed a partnership with CHUM, Churches United in Ministry, a Duluth-based nonprofit that operates a food shelf for those in need. CSA Guild farms delivered a total of 5,947 pounds of fresh produce to families facing food insecurity issues through CHUM.
The project underscored the mission of the Lake Superior CSA Guild that all families, no matter their income or situation, deserve access to locally, sustainably produced food.
