Not sure if a Community Supported Agriculture is for you?

CSA is about more than the food. Even though the food you get from local farmers is fresher, better tasting, more nutritious and better for the environment than that which you find in a grocery store, there are many other benefits to participating in a CSA.

The Local Environment
The Growing Whatcom CSA connects people who live in the Bellingham area with an environmentally and socially responsible means for obtaining their food.

Local farmers are paid a living wage to produce food in a manner that protects the land and waterways in our community. When you purchase food from a local grower, you not only greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses produced via transportation of food to your table (Did you know the average meal travels 1200-1500 miles to reach your belly?), but you protect the remaining open space surrounding Bellingham from development. Without support from the community in the form of participation in CSA's and shopping at farmer's markets, preservation of healthy farm land would not be possible.

Alm Hill Gardens , managed by Growing Washington, along with many of our farming partners, is certified Salmon Safe. And because we all utilizing sustainable practices including growing food organically, using cover crops to enhance the health of the soil and prevent runoff, and utilizing only natural fertilizers, the land we farm continues to provide healthy habitat for wildlife. Deer, coyotes, eagles, herons, Canadian geese, and many other kinds of wildlife frequently visit the land where we work and continue to live in the healthy ecosystem we strive to maintain.

The Growing Whatcom CSA provides your family with local, sustainably grown food. Local food is better for the environment because it significantly reduces the amounts of fuel used and greenhouse gases produced in its trip from farm to table. Think of the difference buying strawberries from Everson or Lynden versus strawberries from California or even Central America makes in the health of our environment.

Buying fresh, local food also dramatically reduces solid wastes in the form of packaging for processed food or even shipped fresh foods. Our CSA members return their cardboard boxes each week to the pick-up sites. Growing Washington re-uses and recycles these boxes allowing our members to feel great about their overall reduction in consumption of cardboard packaging and grocery bags.

Your Health
Local food is healthier for your family, too. Freshly harvested food that has not been stored has been shown to contain significantly higher levels of vitamins, minerals and natural sugars making local food better tasting and better for your body. Members also find they eat healthier when they are participating in a CSA. There are always fresh, healthy, natural foods on hand for both meals and snacks, so you are less tempted to pick up processed foods at the grocery store. Because our food is grown with natural fertilizers and our foods contain no chemicals such as pesticides, they are better for you and the people you love.

Community
Growing Whatcom CSA members also have the opportunity to get connected to local farms. Our farms are really your farms. Most of our participating farmers are welcoming to visitors and encourage you to come and walk around whenever you like. Call ahead to make sure someone is around then bring the kids out to see the chickens, pick some delicious berries and take some of our healthy soil home under their fingernails. Or come by yourself and enjoy the refreshing tranquility of our quiet natural landscapes.

Farmers also love to have volunteers come out to help with the work that goes into producing your food. Spend an hour or spend a day. Meet the folks that are growing their food and get a piece of the enjoyment that is farming. If you really enjoy it the work, our Food Bank Farm just outside of Bellingham is always in need of extra hands for maintaining and harvesting healthy crops.

Give the Growing Whatcom CSA a try. There is so much to gain—an exciting variety of fresh, locally grown food; increased nutrition from a healthier diet; a role in actively protecting the environment from development, waste production and greenhouse gas emission and the preservation of open space. Is there any one thing you can think of that can do more for you, your family and your community?