Community Supported Agriculture
It's the next best thing to having your own vegetable garden
Mimsbrook Farm produces a wide variety of Demeter certified Grade A
biodynamic fruit and vegetables |
Mimsbrook Farm in Perth, Western Australia, is certified by Demeter as a biodynamic farm which produces organic food.
This is your assurance of outstanding nutrition, taste and chemical-free organic food.
The availability of freshly picked, fully ripe fruit and vegetables may change if the innovative marketing concept called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) takes hold.
Community Supported Agriculture links the public with growers, connecting consumers to the source of their organic food.
While there are many variations of Community Supported Agriculture, the general concept is that the grower contracts with a group of consumers to provide them with an agreed quantity and variety of freshly picked organic food for the entire season.
The consumers agree to pay in advance for the season's output of organic food. Each week over the season they receive a share of whatever organic food is ready for harvest. This arrangement benefits both grower and consumer.
Supporters of Community Supported Agriculture hail this concept as a way to revitalize the vanishing family farm, to promote local agriculture and to help consumers receive fresh, nutritious organic food in an increasingly impersonal and detached world of agribusiness and supermarkets.
How does the consumer benefit?
- All organic food is garden fresh and fully ripe, in most cases picked just before delivery.
- Adults and especially children benefit from seeing where and how their organic food is grown.
- The operation is convenient for everybody - the shopping bags are waiting for each member to pick up.
- Unlike most produce which is shipped and transported many of thousands of kilometres in trucks before it reaches the consumer, organic food from local growers is fresh and not depleted of nutrients, vitality and flavour.
How does the grower benefit?
Early cash flow at planting time rather than at harvest, streamlining the purchase of seeds, materials and labour.
Many farmers need to take out a loan at planting time and repay the loan at harvest. Crops are sold and paid for before being planted.
Crop planning is easier because the market is assured. The grower can concentrate on the horticultural aspects of growing organic food because the marketing is completed at the beginning of the season.
Perhaps the most important thing is that the nature of the relationship between the grower and the consumer is changed, shifting from adversarial to cooperative.
The greatest long-term benefit goes to the land itself. Community Supported Agriculture encourages sustainable farming practices which do not degrade soil or water.
Community Supported Agriculture can provide healthier organic food to more people for less money while at the same time sustaining the earth on which we live.
Community Supported Agriculture at Mimsbrook Farm
in 1994, Carmel Bainbridge took ownership of Mimsbrook Farm, a picturesque 12 acre farm located on the southern outskirts of Perth, Western Australia (35 minutes from the CBD).
Biodynamic farming practices commenced on the farm in 1996 and Demeter certification was awarded in 2001.
Mimsbrook Farm held a public forum in late 2003 to gauge levels of interest in establishing a Community Supported Agriculture project and the first CSA project in Western Australia was launched in response to overwhelming community support.
The CSA at Mimsbrook Farm has grown and evolved, and in early 2006 we opened Mimsbrook Food Store and Mims Kitchen in East Victoria Park.
As well as being a source of local, environmentally sustainable produce, Mimsbrook Farm Community Supported Agriculture also holds regular training workshops and public lectures.
For just $300 you can become a subscriber to Community Supported Agriculture and enjoy automatic deductions from your deposit each time you purchase items from this site.
Click here to become a subscriber or to update your current subscription deposit.
We have also formed a Biodynamic Home Gardener's group. For more information contact us by phone or email.
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Community Supported Agriculture scheme?
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