Okanagan farmers need to make a living. Consumers want safe, healthy food. See how some Valley growers are teaming up with their customers to achieve both goals.

By Linda Coffey

In a world suddenly focused on climate change, environmental protection and increasing concerned for healthy eating, the choice to be a careful consumer can have a meaningful impact. As renowned conservationist, academic and organic farmer Wendell Berry says, “I stand for what I stand on.”

If we pay attention to what we are buying, where it was grown and how it was grown, then we’re engaged in more than just an informed choice about our diets — we’re also exercising a larger social choice. One organic food advocate recently underscored the point to me at a farmers’ market, saying, “This is literally how I put my money where my mouth is.”

In a region where agricultural land is at a premium and soaring prices are making it all but impossible for a new crop of farmers to purchase property from a generation that’s ready to retire, buying from local growers is a way to ensure agricultural viability and secure an environmentally friendly food source right where we need it.

Farmers and consumers are exploring innovative approaches like Community Shared Agriculture (CSA), a system where consumers receive top quality produce and support area farmers in the process. CSA programs began in Europe in the early 1980s and moved swiftly to North America. The concept is simple.

You buy shares of the harvest in advance, usually $300 to $500 per specified share at the start of the growing season. This allows the farmer to purchase seeds, plants and other supplies without having to rely on bank loans. With the upfront capital, farmers don’t have to resort to chemicals and genetically modified seeds to improve the odds of reaping an adequate harvest and thereby reduce their financial risk. They can also experiment with growing alternative crops and non-traditional produce each season.

Shareholders receive a weekly box of fresh produce containing around six to nine items. The shares can be single size, suitable for a couple, or family size for slightly more money. Whatever’s in season and plentiful is placed in the box and delivered to a central pickup site.

CSA Takes Flight
Hermann Bruns of Wild Flight Farms in Mara was one of the first in our region to try CSA. “We heard about the program at a conference of organic farmers in 1993 and it sounded good. We started that same year,” says Hermann. “This is a great way for a new farm to get started. New farmers should really consider this option. It’s how we started, and it works.”

Wild Flight Farms offers two programs each year. The summer session starts in mid-May and runs for about 22 weeks depending on the weather. The winter program runs from mid-November through mid-April, but here the determining factor is storage facilities.

“We have 20 acres of land and fortunately, lots of storage space, so we keep what we harvest. And we purchase organic crops from other small farmers as well who maybe don’t have the storage.” In this way Wild Flight can offer subscribers a variety of both fruits and vegetables throughout the winter.

Not only do shareholders receive a variety of produce, but they often find items in their hampers that you won’t see in a grocery store. “We have things like lemon cucumbers, salad turnips, golden beets, claytonia, pea shoots and several different kinds of salad greens,” says Hermann. The farm grows over 50 different varieties of vegetables and herbs every year.

The Certified Organic Associations of BC honoured the operation as best farm-based organic home delivery business (CSA/box program) at its 2006 Harvest Awards show in Vancouver. The award credits both the quality of the program and the extent to which Wild Flight has become community-oriented.

Hermann and his wife Louise quickly realized that some of their customers didn’t recognize all of their food items … or know how to use them. So Louise began to write a newsletter with recipes and descriptions of the produce, as well as offering some reprints of interesting articles and food facts. The shareholders looked forward to the newsletter just as much as the produce. “It was a lot of extra work for her,” says Hermann. “After a full day of farming she would sit on the computer for hours writing up the weekly newsletter. But everybody loved it.”

Try it, You’ll Like it
Rob and Kathryn Hettler of Pilgrim’s Produce in Armstrong began their CSA program 13 years ago. They too decided to offer a newsletter after fielding calls from some confused shareholders. Rob says one customer phoned and said, “I have this round green thing rolling around in my fridge. What is it?”

“It’s a kohlrabi,” Rob replied. “Peel it before you eat it.”

Pilgrim’s Produce, which grows over 30 different kinds of vegetables, fruits and herbs, offers a summer program. “We used to do a winter CSA, but we have limited storage, so that was always an issue for us,” says Rob. “We can easily handle the summer program, but the winter brings different demands. You can’t store some produce with others (for example the gas released from apples makes carrots taste bitter) and we simply didn’t have the storage spaces we felt we needed.”

For the summer season, they have from 40 to 50 shareholders, a number they determine each year by the crops on hand. “We want to provide a good variety of items in every box. As soon as we run out of an item, we have our numbers and stop offering new shares,” Rob explains, adding, “We sell all the extras at the farmers’ market.” While Pilgrim’s is a smaller venture than Wild Flight (with a customer base of 170 shareholders), its clients are steady and long term.

One of Rob’s favourite stories “is the family who started with a large share — a working couple and their two teenage sons. At first, the kids ate most of the produce and the family could barely finish it all. Then, as they learned more about the food and tried new things, they ate it all. One day the woman realized the kids had left home and the couple was still eating it all — themselves.”

To Market
Wild Flight Farms and Pilgrim’s Produce currently offer the only CSA programs in the Okanagan, covering a wide client base from Salmon Arm to Vernon and Revelstoke to Sicamous. If you don’t live in these areas, one great option is to shop at your local farmers’ market.

Most operate weekly from April through mid-October. A full list of markets, locations and hours of operation is available at www.bcfarmersmarket.org/directory. “These markets offer a consumer-driven economy of supply and demand,” Rob says. “Local farmers can’t sell their produce to a big box grocery store chain, but in a farmers’ market they can sell directly to the customer.” You can also buy direct from the farm, with over 100 certified organic farms in the Okanagan to choose from.

Front Door Service
And what about those shut-ins or workaholics who can’t regularly get to the market or farm? David Nelson and Lisa McIntosh, who have owned and operated Kelowna-based Urban Harvest Organic Delivery since 2000, purchase produce from a variety of local farmers and deliver the bounty directly to you. Not only is this box system hugely convenient, but the environment benefits from having only one delivery truck on the road rather than dozens of meandering shoppers.

Whatever the delivery system, a direct relationship between consumers and farmers let’s growers focus on land stewardship while providing an exceptional variety of fresh, seasonal produce at a price and quality your big-box grocer would be hard-pressed to beat. Sounds like a healthy choice all around.

Read more about safe food and land use in the Valley in the June issue of Okanagan Life - on newstands now!