New Hampshire's growing season is coming, and farmers are getting ready .
And across the state, more consumers are signing up for weekly produce deliveries from their community farms.
The farms are part of a growing movement called Community Supported Agriculture.
For a fee, consumers become members of CSA farms.
Those farms, in exchange, provide members with fresh produce.
But in Hollis, a group of residents is organizing a new kind of community farm.
New Hampshire Public Radio Correspondent Shannon Mullen reports.
Bring up but keep low - 11:54 crunching
Track 9 - 9:12 ? Richard
I come over here and I look at the green grass and how lush it is and wouldn?t my horses just love to come over here and have a nibble? (laughs)?
Richard Kalin and his wife Toby Tarnow live across the street from the old Peacock Apple Orchard in Hollis.
When the orchard went up for sale last year, they thought it would be a good place to start a farm based on the ideas of Community Supported Agriculture
Tarnow says they?ve been involved in a traditional CSA farm for 15 years, and they want this one to be different.
2:13 TOBY - There are other community farms (CFs) where you pay a certain amount in and you get a certain amount out, and that is the way they work. [cut to 3:18} We looked at this property and there were different things we could do with it. We could bring farmers in, we?d have to build them a place to live, and they?d farm it the way they wanted. We also looked at it and said, wouldn?t it be a nice thing if we had perennial crops, which would mean we wouldn?t need a full-time farmer, perhaps WE could do it.
Most CSAs are organized and run by farmers.
Typically they grow annual crops that need alot of tending to
The Hollis Community Farm would be run by a committee, the produce would be organic, and members would do the harvesting.
Track 1 4:15ish Toby ? We can provide strawberries, grapes, and perennial crops, asparagus, things the other CSAs will not be growing. Working together, preserving the land, enhancing the soils, and creating organic food that is local.
4:54 RICHARD ? The CSAs around here don?t produce sweet corn, one of the reasons is you need very good soil to make that happen. By and large, the CSAs we know about don?t happen to be on good soil, they happen to be on land they were able to get.
A lot of CSAs operate on land the farmers rent.
That?s another way the Hollis farm would be different.
Tarnow and Kalin have started a non-profit organization that?s raised almost all the money it needs to buy the land ?
The 22 acres is going for 645 thousand dollars.
They?ve raised 330 thousand in donations so far, from neighbors and other Hollis residents.
And because the property is next to conservation land, they the town?s Conservation Commission for help with the purchase.
The town held a public hearing to discuss the idea and there was some disagreement over whether this was the right use of taxpayer dollars.
Hollis Selectman Vahrij Manoukian says it's not.
Track 10 - 0:33 ? Manoukian
I?m not against community farming. I think it?s a wonderful idea, [cut to] But anytime when there is taxpayers money involved in a farm, or in any business where there is a private gains for any citizen in town, I don?t think that?s right, b/c taxpayers? money should not be involved for one person or a group of people?s interest.
Manoukian is worried that the Hollis Community farm will benefit only the members of the CSA, not the town as a whole.
He also argues that the land to be protected is so far off the town's main roads that few people will be able to appreciate it.
Tom Defresne chairs the Conservation Commission
He says that argument was outweighed by the one for saving so much land.
The Commission came through with 160 thousand dollars for the project.
Track 9 - 0:45 ? Dufresne
0:45 We looked at it as an opportunity to save a sizeable chunk of land for a relatively small amount of dollars. It was a good bargain for us for the purchase we were making.
And for that bargain, Tarnow and Kalin say there are lots of ways their idea of collective farming will help Hollis.
They?ll be preserving some land, and farming it themselves will leave time to team up with local schools for educational outreach.
And, they?ll be working directly with members of the community to grow healthy, organic food in their town?s backyard.
They believe everyone in the community will benefit, in some way.
If it sounds like a farming co-op, Kalin says that?s not how he sees it.
3:17 A co-op venture to me would be one where a group of people say ?well if we get together and buy this land then we can all be farmers and go over there and work side by side like they do in Russia.? That sounds to me like a co-op, which is not what anybody has time to do around here.
3:39 RICHARD - We?d love to have people help out, come and bale hay but they have jobs during the day, they have families, they have busy lives, that?s really not what we?re looking for here or what we can reasonably expect. You can?t expect people to work.
In fact, Tarnow and Kalin aren't sure what to expect.
They don't know what they will charge for membership, and they don't how many members they'll be able to feed.
They also don't know what they will do if someone picks more than they should.
They'll deal with those problems if they arise.
But Tarnow and Kalin do predict people will pick their own produce.
And they say their farm would be the first organic CSA operation in New Hampshire.
The state has 20 CSAs, and the Hollis Community Farm needs another 160 thousand dollars to join the list.
Tarnow and Kalin have applied for a grant in that amount from the federal Food and Farm Preservation project.
They?ll find out in early June if the grant comes through.
They?d like to start planting next spring, but without the Federal Money , they may have to go back to asking the town or local residents for donations.
For NHPR News, I?m SM.
