ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 25, 1996 TAG: 9603270082
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FLOYD
SOURCE: TOM MOATES SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
On a dead-end road near Check, a simple sign among trees marks the gravel driveway to Seven Springs Farm.
Across a creek and up a hill, the driveway meets acres of open land, a pond, a farmhouse, a greenhouse and gardens.
Seven Springs Farm began in 1991 as an experiment by Polly Heiser and Ron Juftes.
The result is something called Community Supported Agriculture, which allows the public to buy shares of produce and help grow the vegetables they'll eat through the summer and winter.
"It's more than just a community garden," Juftes explained. "It's more than just vegetables. ... It's buying into community."
Heiser says the concept of community agriculture, popular among those with environmental concerns about mass-market agricultural processes, began in 1965 and took hold in Europe and Japan. The first project in this country began on Indian Line Farm in South Egremont, Mass., in 1986. Today, there are more than 400 such farms in the United States.
As the name implies, Community Supported Agriculture is a way for people to support small-scale agriculture in their own town or county. That means providing everything from monetary support, where participants purchase "shares" of the crops, to labor support, where participants work on the farm or deliver vegetables to lessen the cost of their shares.
Working share labor may include weeding, harvesting, weighing, bagging, writing for the newsletter or various other tasks.
"We provide the opportunity - that is the land and some essential guidelines," Juftes says. "And the members really create what they want. People love coming out and bringing their kids."
Needless to say, it's different from a trip to the grocery store.
"I would never buy a potato at the grocery store," said Lucy Ann Price, a shareholder since 1992. "But a fresh potato out of the ground? They are so good, it's like eating a different kind of food."
Price, who lives in Franklin County, used to have a greenhouse and still spends a lot of time in the garden. But she's devoting her space to day lilies and irises instead of peas and beans. That's why she joined Seven Springs.
"It's such a delight, meeting people from Blacksburg and Roanoke and all around the area. You get acquainted and you work in the soil, knowing you're not going to be sprayed with a bunch of things."
Becky Barlow of Christiansburg doesn't have much free time on her hands - she works full time in Virginia Tech's entomology lab - but she's always been interested in organic gardening.
"I thought this was a great way to support the people doing it and benefit from it myself," she said. This is her first year as a member.
Juftes says eating fresh, in-season vegetables and locally grown organic foods is healthier than the food at a supermarket - even though a supermarket usually maintains a larger variety of produce throughout the year.
Seven Springs grows 26 different vegetables throughout the harvesting season, which runs from June through January.
The farm offers shares and half-shares for sale. In return, participants receive 8 to 12 pounds of vegetables each week.
Prices are $627 for a full, nonworking share and $547 (plus 16 hours of labor) for a working share. Herb shares also may be purchased and different payment plans are available.
"We don't want to be exclusive," Heiser said. "We aren't doing this simply for the rich; we want anyone interested to be able to participate."
With this in mind, a low-income share fund is open to families with limited resources.
"Growing vegetables in our economy is a tricky thing," Heiser said. "Subsidies and massive irrigation projects out West make vegetables at the store cheaper than it costs to produce them." She figures her produce prices are more expensive than a supermarket but cheaper than a health-food store."
From the beginning of June until November, the produce - one to two grocery bags full of five to eight varieties of vegetables - is distributed weekly. From November to mid-January, it's delivered once every two weeks.
"I just finished eating a beet from CSA," Price said last week. "It must've weighed a pound and a half. The winter share was over at the end of January, but I'm still eating carrots and beets."
Price says she always has enough vegetables to share - with her children and with her four miniature poodles. "They love vegetables," she said. "Tonight they'll eat beets along with their dog food."
If you don't like a certain vegetable that's grown at the farm, you can always swap.
Tables are sometimes set up at the drop points for people to leave behind what they dislike and collect what they favor. Information boards at some drop sites allow for the same type of exchange to take place, but with more forethought.
There are drop points in Roanoke, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford, Floyd and at the farm itself.
Seven Springs sells a maximum of 50 shares and has sold most of them. A few remain. If you're interested, call the farm at (540) 651-3228.
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. & 2. GENE DALTON/Staff A sign out by the roadby CNB(above) near Check invites visitors down a lane to Seven Springs
Farm. Ron Juftes and Polly Heiser (left) collect some winter
spinach from one of the farm's plots. color
3. Ron Juftes and Polly Heiser, who founded the farm's Community
Supported Agriculture in 1991, tend some germinating plants in the
greenhouse. colro
4. Plots on the Seven Springs Farm in Floyd County are nearly ready
for sp planting. color