Every Saturday we drive down to Lambertville, NJ, to pick up a box of fresh, organic, locally-grown fruits and vegetables. The produce in the box travels a grand total of about 20 miles from a CSA farm in Hopewell, NJ to our dinner table. (Did you know that food now travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to table?)

I heard about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) a couple of years ago, did a little research and found Honey Brook Organic Farm, a CSA farm in Hopewell, NJ. At Honey Brook, the fields are certified organic, the staff are paid livable wages and the food is grown in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.

In 2001, Honey Brook implemented the "Boxed Share" Program. Here's how it works. In January, familes like us become members by purchasing either an individual share ($322) or a family share ($518). Each week during the 25-week growing season from June to November, members receive a box (or a half box) of seasonal, fresh, organic vegetables. Some members go to the farm and fill their box with the allotted produce (listed on the chalk board) and some, like us, pick up their box from a nearby host site.

In addition to the box of produce members receive, our farm has a weekly list of crops that are available on a pick-your-own basis. For example, this week the website says:

The pick-your-own crops are hot peppers, international eggplant, okra, flowers, sunflowers, heirloom sauce tomatoes, plum dandy sauce tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, specalty basils, chamomile, sage, anise hyssop, marjoram, summer savory, catnip, oregano, thyme, lemon balm and lavender (herbs). Herbs are 1 small bunch each - Individual; 1 large bunch each - Family/Boxed Share, with the exception of catnip, thyme, lavender and lemon balm, which are unlimited. Flower quantities: 100 stems - Family/Boxed; 50 stems - Individual, sunflowers are 2 stems - Family/Boxed; 1 stem - Individual. Hot peppers are 6 pieces - Family/Boxed; 3 pieces - Individual. String beans are 1 quart - Family/Boxed; 1 pint - Individual. Okra is 1 quart - Family/Boxed; Individual - 1 pint (pick at less than 4”) and international eggplant is 6 pieces - Family/Boxed; 3 pieces - Individual. Blackberries are 1 pint - Family/Boxed; 1/2 pint - Individual. Heirloom and plum dandy sauce tomatoes are 2 quarts per variety - Family/Boxed; 1 quart per variety - Individual. Cherry tomatoes are 1 quart - Family/Boxed; 1 pint - Individual. (Please allow yourself at least 1 hour for PYO picking.)

My kids love to go to the farm to pick veggies and fruit. My son eats the green beans right off the vine and my daughter loves the cherry tomatoes. And they both can't get enough of the raspberries and blackberries!

Finding a CSA is easy with the web. Go to the Center for CSA resources, choose your state, then click Go. New Jersey has 16 CSAs, Pennsylvania has 70, California has 81, New York has 106...