Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen's Guide to Community Supported Agriculture

To an increasing number of American families the CSA (community supported agriculture) is the answer to the globalization of our food supply. The premise is simple: create a partnership between local farmers and nearby consumers, who become members or subscribers in support of the farm. In exchange for paying in advance--at the beginning of the growing season, when the farm needs financing--CSA members receive the freshest, healthiest produce throughout the season and keep money, jobs, and farms in their own community.

In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition of a Chelsea Green classic, authors Henderson and Van En provide new insight into making CSA not only a viable economic model, but the right choice for food lovers and farmers alike. Thinking and buying local is quickly moving from a novel idea to a mainstream activity. The groundbreaking first edition helped spark a movement and, with this revised edition, Sharing the Harvest is poised to lead the way toward a revitalized agriculture.

Elizabeth Henderson co-authored The Real Dirt and Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen's Guide to Community Supported Agriculture. She farms in Newark, New York, and has been involved in CSA farming for more than 15 years.

Robyn Van En (1949-1997) was the founder of Indian Line Farm, the first CSA in the United States, and author of the path-breaking handbook Basic Formula to Create Community Supported Agriculture (1988, 1996).

Joan Gussow is a highly acclaimed nutrition educator who has demonstrated that year-round eating from 1,000 square feet in a suburban riverfront village is possible, life-sustaining, and delicious. She is the author of This Organic Life, The Feeding Web, and Growing, Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life, and Vegetables, and is Mary Swartz Rose Professor Emerita and former chair of the Columbia University Teachers College Nutrition Department. She lives on the Hudson River in Piermont, New York.