With the Farmers' Market opening on the square and the fruit stand back on State Street, student produce options have expanded beyond Capitol Foods.
While the Farmers' Market and the fruit stand continue to be popular among students, many students, along with area residents, also choose to support local farmers by joining a Community Supported Agriculture program.
CSA is a program in which people pay local farms an annual fee in the beginning of the growing season in return for a share of the farm's produce.
""It's a pretty unique program,"" Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition coordinator Laura Brown said. ""There are very few cities in the country that have so many farms involved.""
Brown said 23 farms are part of the coalition this year.
""CSA is an important part of keeping these farms in business,"" she said. ""It provides them with much needed income in the beginning of the season.""
""The consumer can feel really good about CSA because they're supporting the environment, the community and a local farm,"" she said. ""It's really a win-win situation.""
According to Brown, MACSAC requires that all the farms grow their food using organic techniques.
Juli McGuire, owner of Two Onion Farm in Belmont, Wis., said their Madison members receive food that only has to travel 60 miles, as opposed to conventional grocery store produce that often travels thousands of miles from California or other countries.
In addition to saving energy from less transportation, UW-Madison sophomore Tamara Drossart, a rural sociology major, added that on CSA farms ""all of the planting, weeding and harvesting is done by hand, with minimal tillage and disturbance of the soil.""
Drossart said she has several friends who joined CSA for the environmental reasons.
""Deep tilling from machines releases carbon dioxide stored in the soil, contributing to global warming,"" she said.
Brown also added that a major advantage of a CSA program is the fresh food.
""People often get the food the day it's harvested,"" she said.
By purchasing a share at a farm, members can expect to receive 40 to 50 varieties of fruits and vegetables throughout the growing season. Members can also choose the size of their shares, what kind of foods they wish to receive each week and their payment plan.
Some of the foods included in the food deliveries are brussel sprouts, tomatoes, strawberries and even celeriac, a root vegetable related to celery.
""I encourage students to join,"" Brown said. ""A lot of the time students don't have healthy food opportunities. It's a great way for them to learn how to cook.""
MACSAC provides members with a cookbook that gives recipes for many of the foods they will receive from the farms.
UW-Madison junior Libby Rens said all the different choices allowed CSA to fit her needs as a student.
""It was a big commitment because you pay all of your money ahead of time,"" said Rens, who joined a CSA last fall with Primrose Farm, located in Middleton. ""But it's an amazing commitment because it forces you to eat better and enjoy it, too.""
Rens added that she feels good about supporting a small farm, ""I know who's growing my food. I shook his hand.""
Brown said farmers enjoy having CSA members coming out to their farms to see how the food is being grown.
Jennifer Kerr, who owns Greenspirit Farm with her husband, said they hold at least two events for their customers during the growing season.
""We're not just isolated,"" Kerr said. ""We can interact with the people we're growing for.""
Kerr added that 75 families have participated in her farm's CSA in the past, and this year their goal is 100 families.
Kerr said that she and her husband got their start in CSA after they read an article about it while living in Chicago. In 2000, the family moved to Wisconsin to start their own farm just north of Dodgeville.
""We wanted to live an environmentally ethical life,"" she said. ""We're participants in something greater than what we eat.""
Besides CSA, foods from Greenspirit Farm go to smaller markets, farmers markets and local restaurants.
It's important to know that CSA programs involve a risk-and-reward agreement. While members eat what the farmers grow, they still risk the possibility of a bad growing season.
However, Kerr said that her farm diversifies their crops because certain foods do well in some conditions while other crops do well in other conditions.
She adds that her farm has ""a large enough variety of fruits and vegetables so that something always does well.""
Rens said the risk is worth it.
""My only complaint is that there's too much food,"" Rens said. ""The boxes are humongous.""
For more information on Madison CSA programs, visit www.macsac.org or call 608-226-0300 for information.
