A community approach to local food in Alberta BY LEXIE ANGELO
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f you’ve ever trekked through a busy farmer’s market on a Sunday afternoon, you know how popular local fruit and vegetables are in Alberta. But you may not know about CSA’s, or Community Supported Agriculture programs. John Mills, owner of Eagle Creek Farms near Bowden, AB says, “When I heard of the CSA idea, it was a really good way for me … to get into farming and to overcome some of the challenges of starting a farm.” The model of the CSA is simple. You purchase a share of the crop in advance, and in return, get 12–16 weeks of fresh vegetables typically between late-June and early-September. But there is an added advantage for the local farmer as well. “The cool thing with the CSA model is that by partnering with shared families, you have that capital up front to foot the cost of the overhead … so the farming can get going,” says Mills. Each CSA farm is different. Eagle Creek Farms originally started as a cattle farm,
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whereas Tam Andersen, owner of Prairie Gardens and Adventure Farms, near Edmonton, explains that her operation was originally a tree nursery. “It has evolved over time from growing trees to growing all sorts of vegetables,” she says. “We have over 25 acres of gardens that we grow 150 different types of vegetables in.” Andersen, who has run a CSA program for over eight years, says that CSA’s are more than just shares in a harvest, they are “a wonderful way to get reacquainted and connected back to the land and where your food is grown.” A surprise in every harvest box When you join a CSA, you may recognize familiar items in your harvest box such as lettuce, carrots and radishes, but you may be surprised with local vegetables you’ve never considered cooking with before such as kohlrabi, Swiss chard or mustard greens. “The kohlrabi is more of an odd vegetable that people don’t normally eat,” says Mills. The cartoonish-looking bulbs taste like a cross-between a turnip and a radish and grow particularly well in southern Alberta. When deciding what to grow each year, John Mills says he aims to offer a wide variety of vegetables, but also considers how much of the selection in the seed catalogues he thinks he can successfully grow. “We have some challenges here in Alberta with weather that really cuts down our short growing season for peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes,” Mills explains. “The fun part of the CSA is trying to help educate people, whether it’s through our emails, or the one-on-one interactions
with me, or my staff at the CSA deliveries,” Mills says. One of the highlights of running a CSA is to “help educate people on how to use those odd and unusual crops and try to introduce different stuff into everyone’s diets and daily eating.” Tam Anderson started experimenting and growing “all sort of unusual vegetables” after working with Chef Blair Lebsack from RGE RD in Edmonton ten years ago. Lebsack shared his expertise on what looks great and colourful on a plate, and Andersen says, “We really learned a lot from the chef as to the harvesting times and windows of things, and what works most beautifully on a plate rather than in a bag.” Through their collaboration, Andersen discovered that Edmonton-area gardens “can grow all kinds of Asian vegetables.” Now, she grows herbs and greens that aren’t found in mainstream grocery stores or restaurants, such as scarlet frills mustard, red mizuna, and komatsuna, which is a Japanese mustard spinach. Operators know that some items may not appeal to everyone, so often you will see trade boxes where you can swap those unusual garlic scapes for zucchini, or unwanted brussels sprouts for cabbage. Some CSA’s also offer add-on packages, such as eggs, flowers, or a selection of BC fruit. Winter harvest boxes are also popular, and typically contain root vegetables like turnips and potatoes, as well as hardy greens like spinach, arugula and kale. Sustainable farming and support Although you don’t get to pick the
