CSAs: Fresh And Local

DAYTON - While the wind and early spring rains still descend on the Touchet Valley more than the rays of the sun, Erin Horan is already busy planting this year's garden at the Monteillet dairy farm.

The heartier items - peas, radishes, Lima beans, fava beans, spinach and potatoes - are in the ground, with beats and carrots soon to follow.

It's one of the lessons the manager of the Monteillet farm's CSA (communitysupported agriculture) has learned from last year, when she first planted the garden from which 10 households ate for more than an entire summer: start the planting earlier and grow more popular staple items.

With the price of produce and other foods going up, it makes more sense than ever to buy natura,l locally grown food, not to mention the health benefits from eating fresh vegetables, said Horan.

"Even fresh vegetables bought in supermarkets have been picked prematurely (before they have ripened)," she said. "This process, designed to get the veggies to you "fresher," actually gives the veggie less time to develop its full spectrum of vitamins and minerals."

The Monteillets' CSA is among several in the greater Walla Walla area. The others include the United League of Vegetation at West End Farm and Welcome Table Farm, both in Walla Walla.

Horan said she hopes to run her CSA for the same number of households as last year but offer more items for the 16 weeks from June through about mid October. The past few weeks, she has been busy expanding last year's 6,000-square-foot plot by an additional 1,500 square feet to generate 25 percent more vegetables.

She plans to plant more of everything but particu- larly lettuce, brazing greens, roots, potatoes, onions, winter squash and herbs, including basil, cumin and amaranth.

Three families have already signed up for this year's harvest, which will be brought in with the help of interns from Philadelphia, California, Whitman College and possibly France.

The cost of the 16- week CSA is $400, which translates into about $25 a week and buys members a case full of vegetables with recipes and, often, cut flowers. When they pick up their weekly items, members can also buy cheese, eggs and meat (lamb and goat) from the Monteillet Fromagerie.

All seeds Horan uses for planting are heritage and/or heirloom varieties, sustainably produced and bought locally wherever possible. The garden's compost comes from the sheep and goat farm. Horan said she uses no fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.

Local CSAs

Monteillet Fromagerie Erin Horan 206-419-9640

United League of Vegetation West End Farm Alice Bagley 509-540-2769

Welcome Table Farm Emily Dietzman Asmus 509-529-0772