And we're off!

Farmer Paul, Tasha, Erynn and Sarah load CSA boxes

Today, we launched our CSA* program! Our first week will be a free test run to our drop-off sites in Fillmore, Camarillo, Ventura, CSU Channel Islands, and here at the farm. Our boxes included: Bok choy, ruby red lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, green beans, spinach, zucchini, other summer squash, cilantro and basil. Yum! Did someone say it's SALAD time? After jubilantly filling the first 5 boxes for today's drop-off, we all sort dilly-dallied near the bins, not wanting to break from the excitement and from the inaugural box-filling activities. There was a lull in our energetic conversation, and someone suggested that we pray. So Julie, our priest and kind delivery-woman today, offered a spontaneous prayer for the inauguration of our CSA. It was one of those beautiful occasions in which a special but still "ordinary" activity is transformed and really feels blessed by God.

I'll end with a simple prayer I wrote after the occasion.

A prayer for the beginning of our CSA:

God, we are about to deliver these boxes
full of beans, lettuce, and squash.
We pray that You would fill them with less tangible goods, like:
Delight in a cucumber still warm from the sun,
fresh memories of meals enjoyed long ago, and
excitement to try a new vegetable, like an 8-ball squash
or some bok choy, and a load of creativity to cook it all up.

We pray that cooking this produce will bring together friends,
family and neighbors, and that the basic act of sharing food
will nourish growing relationships
as well as active bodies.

We ask that You will make it hard to waste
this food You provided, which we worked hard to harvest.
That people would treat their food with care,
because they in some way know the hands
that touched and picked their veggies, our hands.

Thank You that we get to be part of this miraculous production!
Please use this CSA and all our future boxes
in Your just distribution of daily needs,
increase the boxes and sustain us,
not for our profit, but that all who hunger may be fed.

Amen.




*Definition: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) consists in a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Members pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer's salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm's bounty throughout the growing season.

Official Source: National Agricultural Library, NAL Thesaurus Staff