Natural Perspectives:

Good eating to you this holiday

What better time to talk about food than this national day of thanksgiving? Today is the day that people all over America feast on turkey, dressing, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Vegetables like yams, green beans and corn often accompany the feast. If the veggies are organic and locally grown, all the better. And that leads us into our topic of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

Basically, CSAs are programs of subscription farming. Customers sign up and pay in advance for a share of the produce. CSAs sprouted up in the 1960s in Japan when consumers there became concerned about the declining number of farmers and rising food imports, and local farmers became concerned about the economics of operating small farms in an era of giant agribusinesses. They joined together to ensure safe, healthy, locally grown food for consumers and to give farmers a stable economic base for their harvests.

The concept of CSAs quickly spread to Switzerland and then the rest of Europe, reaching the U.S. in the 1980s. When I looked into becoming involved in a local CSA by searching at LocalHarvest.org several years ago, the closest one I found was in Costa Mesa.

I would have had to drive to Costa Mesa to pick up my produce, so I passed on the opportunity. But three years ago, Tanaka Farms in Irvine began a CSA program that delivers to local schools, churches and other nonprofits. Now we have an opportunity to participate right here in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley.

A few weeks ago, I spied a sign for Tanaka Farms as I was driving along Slater Avenue between Goldenwest and Edwards streets near our home. Knowing that Tanaka Farms is in Irvine, I wondered if this signified a new CSA pickup point near me. It was. I quickly signed up at Golden View Elementary School for December, the next month available.

Many of our local parent-teacher organizations are now offering organic produce from Tanaka Farms as a fundraiser. Starting in January, a monthly subscription will be $60. This gets you two boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables, all organic and locally grown. You just drive to your closest participating school and pick up your box twice a month.

To help plan your meals, Tanaka Farms posts what is likely to be in the boxes at www.tanakafarms.com. And that’s part of the excitement. You never know quite for sure what the box will contain, as vagaries of weather, insects and crop failures or surpluses can affect what is harvested. You are sharing in the risk of farming as well as the joy, but you will always get your money’s worth, with about a dozen different types of produce in each box.

I took a look at the contents in one of their boxes last week and was very impressed. Patty Nagatoshi, the Tanaka Farms CSA coordinator at Golden View Elementary, helped me lay out the items so I could take a photograph.

The produce items included lettuces, carrots, yellow wax beans, baby Maui onions, cabbage, potatoes, persimmons, apples and baby bok choy. It all looked fresh and vibrant. I can hardly wait to get my own box. Even though we have a small vegetable garden at home, I can’t possibly grow all of our produce. I don’t imagine any local homeowner could.

There are many reasons why it is beneficial to become involved in the program. First of all, $5 of each box goes to support the school hosting the program. You end up paying about what the food would cost at the grocery store, but you have the advantage of knowing that you are supporting your local school as well as a local farm family.

The food is farm fresh and organic, as well as locally grown. In fact, the produce is often picked the morning the boxes are packed. You should be able to taste the difference in freshness. Subscribing to a CSA can help promote healthy eating habits as well.

A CSA helps children (and adults) understand where their food comes from. They can connect with a local farmer, Glenn Tanaka. And it exposes families to foods that they may not have tried before. If there is something in your box that you find no one in your family enjoys, you can make friends and help form a sense of community by giving it away to your neighbors. Or two families can go in on a subscription and share.

Finally, using a CSA puts people in touch with the seasons and the annual cycle of growing things in our climate. It helps educate children about seasons. It’s also more exciting to get a whole box of fresh produce directly from the farm than to pick among the mass-marketed produce at the grocery stores. It’s almost like Christmas. We are so lucky to live someplace where food is harvested all year long, with different fruits and vegetables for each season. Take advantage of it!

According to the Tanaka Farms website, participating schools in Huntington Beach include Circle View Elementary, Golden View Elementary, Hope View Elementary, North Huntington Beach Preschool, the Ocean View School District, Patti’s Preschool, Pegasus School, Peterson Elementary, St. Bonaventure Catholic School and Village View Elementary. Participating schools in Fountain Valley include Rolling Hills Elementary and Emmanuel Preschool.

Find the closest school to you and sign up soon, because shares are limited. You don’t need to have a child enrolled at the school to participate.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].