Moore Eats

If you’re looking for a way to get farm fresh food to your table every week, you might want to consider signing up to participate in your area Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Consumers buy shares of a farm’s harvest in advance and are given a portion of the harvest on a regular basis after the growing season starts.

CSA members are able to eat healthy, sustainably-produced food and know exactly where it came from and how it was grown. Many CSAs also offer social and educational activities for members, which help strengthen the connection to local farmers and their land.

The CSA fees help provide the farmer with an immediate income to buy supplies and begin the season. Having funding up front allows the farmer to concentrate on growing high-quality food instead of having to worry about how they will be able to fund their farm for the entire season.

One popular CSA in Moore County is the Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative — a growing community of more than 2,000 neighbors who have come together around fresh, local food. Their goal is to bring fresh, locally grown food produced by Sandhills farmers and artisans to members of the community.

This particular CSA covers the entire Sandhills area of North Carolina, which encompasses Moore, Chatham, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Montgomery, Lee, Randolph, Richmond, and Scotland counties. The spring/summer season runs from mid-April to mid-August (18 weeks). The 2016 subscription can either be prepaid or pay-as-you-go, but if you prepay you get to enjoy discounted prices. A complete price list can be found here.

From their website, they’ve listed the following as desired outcomes of the cooperative:

• Farmers have a long-term, secure market for their crops, at a price that ensures them a comfortable living for themselves and their family.
• Consumers have convenient access to the highest quality local food that they want, at a price comparable to current quality food price.
• Every member of the community has secure access to enough healthy food.
• Farmers and consumers know each other, and have come to appreciate and respect the others’ contributions to, and needs from, the community.
• Consumers are healthier and engaged, using the food/health teaching resources available: recipes, cook school, nutrition assessment, preserving, growing, etc.

Supporting local farmers is a great way to get delicious fresh food and to help boost your local economy.  For more information or to sign up for the Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative, visit http://sandhills.deliverybizpro.com/home.php.