The appeal of CSA - locally known produce

Visiting Nashville recently, I heard about Avalon Acres Farms from the family we stayed with. Our host family subscribes to the community supported agriculture group that draws on 40 family farms in Tennessee. The family receives about a half a bushel of produce and some meat every week for about $35. The produce is delivered and distributed at their church every Sunday morning. They mentioned the Web site for Avalon Acres. For the uninformed - I count myself in that group - the number of CSA groups has grown from about 50 in 1990 to about 1,000 today.

I talked with Tim Bodmar of Avalon Acres Farms about his adventure into farming from the corporate life and might develop that conversation for this week's Packer column. The idea of locally grown and "known" produce is appealing, especially for people in a certain demographic. From what Tim told me, the concept really resonates with community, churches and corporations. Though he started out with the idea of selling to restaurants, Avalon Acres now concentrates on CSA and has about 700 customers in the Nashville area.