Deirdre Brownback stands inside one of the many greenhouses at Spiral Path Farm.
This food doesn’t come from the grocery store — CSA shares grow out of midstate soil Story and Photos By Deborah Lynch dlynch@harrisburgmagazine.com
“The more available local foods and regenerative farms, the better for the health of our entire region and ag industry.” — Lucas Brownback
Johanna Carolus is part of the Spiral Path Farm greenhouse team. 14 HARRISBURG MAGAZINE APRIL 2021
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magine not having to fight crowds in the most popular activity of the pandemic — grocery shopping. Imagine opening a box of surprises every week, then biting into a big juicy strawberry that was grown on a farm just down the road. This is more than a dream — it’s reality delivered in the form of a box of fresh produce from a local farm through a Community Supported Agriculture share. While many businesses have suffered because of Covid-19, Community Supported Agriculture enjoyed a resurgence. CSAs started more than 30 years ago with the boom years coming between 2006-2008, but after years of decline, the pandemic brought consumers back to the CSA concept, which allows smaller local farmers to sell shares of their products to people in nearby communities. One of the larger CSA farms serving the Harrisburg area, Spiral Path Farms of Loysville in Perry County, gained 500 new members in 2020, bringing the number of members they served to 1,800. Following national trends, Spiral Path membership peaked in 2007 at more than 2,500 members. Since then, except for last year’s pandemic boost, membership averages around 1,200.
“Covid has been a huge boost,” said Guillermo Payet, founder of LocalHarvest, a website dedicated to the nation’s local farms, “and I hope the consumer habits will ‘stick’ this time.” CSAs offer boxes of fresh produce — and sometimes meats, dairy, eggs, breads, and flowers, too, but primarily produce — to members with different farms offering different plans. Some offer weekly boxes of varying sizes, while others offer shortterm memberships or biweekly shares, or opportunities to pick your own share. Just as types of memberships differ, so do prices and delivery or pickup policies. Many offer delivery to various pickup points around the Harrisburg area. Others require members to come to the farm, or for a fee, make home deliveries. Many also offer their produce at local farmers’ markets and local produce venues. For long-time members and those new to CSAs, the benefits can be many including locally grown food — from some farms, it is organic, too — newsletters with recipes and eating tips, market discounts, farm days for members, and the ease of pickup or delivery. Some even accept EBT/SNAP cards and have community funds to help make their goods
