Welcome to

CSA. It doesn’t stand for Creative Solutions Ahead, but it could. This acronym
stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it’s how two young, enterprising
farmers from the Hudson Valley are marketing their produce. We don’t mean to
imply that there is only one kind of CSA. Many different farm products are sold
this way, but our story focuses on produce.

Miriam Latzer and Benjamin Shute are the aforementioned farmers based in Tivoli,
in upstate New York. Their operation goes by the name of Hearty Roots Community
Farm and they are building a legion of fans with their fresh vegetables from June
until November. (They must be doing something right if sold-out shares, year after
year, are any indication).

These two are all about sustainability. They farm with minimally invasive methods
and although they fire up the Massey-Ferguson when it’s time to plow, they have
a smaller, oddly quiet, battery-powered tractor for other tasks. They care very much
about how they grow their produce and their loyal customers know it.

(By the way, you can get eggs from their farm-mates, Awesome Farm, but that’s
another story.)

Having a big article written about them (and Awesome Farm) in the New York
Times hasn’t fazed them — there’s too much to do. It’s almost time to haul out the
seed catalogs and start all over again.

From the Times article: “I never thought I wanted to farm,” Mr. Shute said. “But it
feels like an honest living.”

Hats off to Miriam and Benjamin for a job (and season) well done.