It was a flash of inspiration. Kind of a thirty-year flash. Charles Eames

A CSA membership took many of the loose ends in my life and planted them in rich soil. The full harvest was not instantaneous, though a few rewards were immediate, like the rush that follows participation in an ideal.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is a subscription system for food lovers, devised decades ago, by the small farmer who wanted to stay in the game and believed there was a way to do it.

This concept stands apart from the precepts of agribusiness, farming on a large scale, which has its immense place. Certainly, there is room for both approaches in this world.

I once purchased food without thought of its origin, just like my mother did, packaged and blemish free. The faded memory of grandparent garden produce, beef and lamb delivery hovered around the fringes of the new convenience based system which quickly became the only option.

But then about twelve years ago, synchronicity presented me with the results of a home cooked meal which tasted hollow. What I mean to say is that one evening, after I spent quite a while preparing a meal for my family; we sat down to plates of food that were completely void of flavor. We had not been fed.

About the same time, I was introduced to John Drury. Though he understood that CSA farming was a new proposition to these parts, he was in possession of a pioneering spirit and thus, a tiny yet vibrant community portal began to open. Its final destination results in an availability of real food.

“Real” in food is akin to the description of “real” in the children's book The Velveteen Rabbit. It occurs when plenty of heart is involved - after the soil has been nourished and rare seeds have been employed.

It occurs when weeds have been humored and subscribers have been educated. It occurs when grasses have been carefully cultivated and a delivery process has employed the minimum of fossil fuel.

And it occurs when people have the opportunity to engage in the give and take of old time commerce by exchanging information.

You may say that such a life style change sounds complex. Still I'd recommend that you give this ideal a whirl. Someone said, “One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure that it was worth watching.”

Besides, all you have to lose is weight.