Local Harvest offers organic produce locally

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:48:00 GMT

BY CAROLE KLEMENT HUXEL

Middle Branch Farm in New Boston is not a picturesque field of waving corn, suitable for a postcard.

This is a working farm with hard-working individuals who are putting their backs into providing the community with 100 percent certified organic produce. Owner Roger Noonan employs 10 students, refugees and locals to help him tend the four different fields he farms as part of the Local Harvest Program.

Local Harvest encourages people to shop directly from their local farms for produce, eggs, meat, maple syrup, and a variety of unusual items such as soaps, flowers, herbs and pet care products. Because locally grown products are fresher, they often taste better and are more nutritious.

And contrary to the astronomical prices of organic foods in supermarkets, Local Harvest farms offer affordable Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs.

CSAs allow consumers to pre-pay for shares of each year’s yield, with prices as low as $465, which will provide a family of four with baskets of fresh produce weekly for 16 weeks.

Middle Branch Farm offers its own CSA, as well as producing for Local Harvest. Besides the traditional zucchini and squash, a family will receive tomatoes, corn, potatoes, kale, bok choy, eggplant, watermelon, cantaloupe, beets, turnips, broccoli, sweet peppers and whatever else might find its way into Noonans yearly plan. This year they planted six different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and seven different potatoes.

“There’s a balance with a CSA,” said Noonan. “You get what you get.”

In 2006, there were nearly no tomatoes due to the Mother’s Day flood. This year will be light on the corn, but the salad turnips are spectacular.

One of the many benefits of a CSA is the convenience. A member can have a basket delivered to a central location or they can pick up a basket at the farm once a week at a scheduled time, which is slightly cheaper. Middle Branch Farm delivers in Manchester, Bedford and Derry.

Members can consider themselves investors, and Noonan points out that “if a person doesn’t like to cook and eats out three times a week, CSA probably isn’t for them, because it’s a lot of food.” Produce is perishable, and a family should expect to use what they receive within the week that it’s delivered.

The Middle Branch Farm CSA is serving 300 full shares, and there’s a 75 percent return rate each year. Even though the 2008 season is well under way, there’s still time to purchase a pro-rated share for the rest of the summer.

Some other area farms that participate in the Local Harvest program are The Good Earth Farm in Weare and Twist of Fate Farm in Dunbarton. There are dozens of Local Harvest members in New Hampshire, including bakeries, beekeepers and fiber producers. If you would like a list, visit the Local Harvest Web site at localharvest.org.

Being able to meet the people who grow your food is one of the major benefits when you belong to a local CSA. Noonan summed up his program this way: “We grow the food and get the food to families in the local area. That’s our goal. People care where their food comes from.”

New Boston News : farm

Local Harvest offers organic produce locally