FLY CREEK VALLEY - The Susquehanna Community Supported Agricultural Project offers people a chance to build a relationship with local farmers that provides them with a season-long supply of fresh, organically-grown produce.

At the same time, that relationship can help to enhance the viability of agriculture by guaranteeing growers a market for their crops.

Community Support Agriculture, or CSA, is an idea that has been around for decades, but is still relatively new to this area. In its simplest form, a CSA is an informal partnership between farmer and consumer in which the consumer pays in advance for a weekly share of the season's harvest. The farmers agrees to meet production goals to the extent possible while he, or she, is being paid for production costs. Many of the economic burdens, such as production related debt and crop losses due to weather or pests are shared by farmer and consumer alike.

The Susquehanna Community Supported Agriculture project is now is its second year and is signing up members for the coming season.

Eric Forster, the driving force behind the project grows organic vegetables on his family's farm at the northern end of the Fly Creek valley.

Last week, Forster was in the field tending 700 tiny lettuce seedlings which had been set out on a part of his seven and a half tillable acres. Those 700 will be followed close behind by another 700 to help insure a steady supply of the green, leafy salad fixings and there's not a single head of the familiar, but bland, iceberg lettuce among the five varieties he's growing.

Forster said he's two weeks behind because of the late spring and that only a short time ago his hilltop Shadbush Farm was still buried in snow. "I'd just come out here and look at it and shake my head," he said.

The CSA brings together Forster and two other farms, Dancing Veggie, a little further up the valley, and Big Sky Farm in Elk Creek. The three farms will provide members with a long list of organically grown produce, chickens, eggs and herbs.

Each farm specializes in certain crops and together they will have an array for fresh produce none of the three could handle individually. "I'm doing the bulk of the vegetables. That's the way it's working out," he said.

Members will pick up the produce each Wednesday during the season at Clare's Cornucopia, south of Cooperstown on Route 28.

Community Supported Agriculture allows consumers to lock in a supply at a preset price and lets them be more directly involved with the source of their food.

"You can go to the grocery store and find what you want, but you have no idea where it came from," he said. "With the CSA you're taking responsibility for your food and where it came from."

Forster has sold at farmers markets in the past and will continue to do so, but a CSA makes it much easier on the farmer. "You are essentially receiving a retail price, but the system is a wholesale one," he explained.

Last year ten people joined the CSA and this year Forster hopes that number will grow to around 35. "Just about everybody repeated from last year," he said.

Ellen White-Weir is one of those people who have joined up for a second year.

"I feel good about supporting local endeavors large and small, particularly when it involves producing quality food," she said, adding that if people want to see open spaces preserved, they must share in the responsibility for supporting efforts like the CSA.

Members realize a five to ten percent savings over regular retail prices, but that's not what Forster sees as the incentive to join.

"Cheap food is not what this is all about. There's a commitment to help keep farms going. The idea here is great local food and supporting local agriculture," he said.

People interested in learning more details about becoming a member of the Susquehanna Community Supported Agriculture Project may contact Forster at 547-1353. Membership forms are also available from Clare's Cornucopia.