Back Where LFFC Began

           “Didja grow up in a barn?” In our case, well, the answer is yes. We, the Coop, did grow up in a barn, and we are still growing up in, now, more than 80 barns. I sat down with our General Manager and Farmer, Casey Spacht, in order to best fulfill this blog tab—the about/history/who we are phenomenon, but hopefully less dry than most! I’m hoping this is fertile ground to sow understanding and reap the benefits of participating in our coop’s CSA. We are not strangers!

            The Coop sprouted as a non-profit in 2006. The first meeting, which included the very informative folks from Farm to City and Fair Food Philly, was indeed in a barn. Casey had recently moved back to Lancaster to take care of his grandmother after working with several non-profits, including managing a farm animal rescue.

The founding farmers asked him to sit in on the first few formative meetings in one of David’s barns at Scarecrow Hill Organics to oversee and advise them as fellow produce growers; he obliged. Not long thereafter, he was promoted from farmer consultant to (official—note the capital letters) General Manager. Almost seven years later, Casey is still consulting farmers at meetings in various member-farmer barns as our General Manager.

A notable and unique attribute of the Coop is just that—the cooperation of the member farmers. “In order to make this thing work, everybody, all farmers, had to pool resources together—wholesale and CSA,” said Casey. The cool part about cooperating as a group of organic farmers working to grow high quality food for our community and neighbors is that, together, we can share resources as well as costs of boxes, labels, rubber bands, and clam shells for microgreens and raspberries.

“A lot —almost half—of our farmers wouldn’t be farming if it weren’t for our coop giving them access to our pooled resources. Or, they at least wouldn’t be farming organically,” said Casey. That’s about 40 or so farmers—a lot of acreage—that may not be the certified organic goodness producing ground that it is now.  Another, less concrete advantage but no less important is the “web of knowledge” the farmers can share, participate in, and benefit from. For example, if a new member farmer wants to start growing heirloom tomatoes, rather than embarking on a research mission, he could simply speak with Aaron, from Riverview Organics, who has grown incredible, amazing, awesome heirlooms for about five years.

            Our CSA program was around from the Coop’s very beginning, with only one season of shares which was, of course, Spring-Summer. Since our 200-shareholder beginnings, we’ve experienced nearly exponential growth, which is beyond exciting and gratifying! Thank you so much for your interest in our CSA, and please, if you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to us at csa@lancasterfarmfresh.com.