Almost anyone who’s tasted a vegetable right off the vine describes a mouth-watering treat more akin to candy than cabbage, which is one of the reasons Minter’s Farm in Fayetteville believes people are hungry for a crop-sharing deal that will put fresh food on their tables.
“Everything tastes better when it comes fresh,” said fifth generation farmer Stephanie Minter Adamek. “You eat better. Even if it’s not grown organically, there’s not the same toxins you get with a large-scale grower” that supplies large grocery stores.
Right, above, Rick Minter is at the Peachtree City Farmers Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., weekly. Participants in Minter’s Farms new crop sharing plan will be able to pick up produce at the market on Saturdays or at the Farm on Fridays. Photo/Submitted.
The Minter’s crop sharing plan allows customers to buy either a box or a half box of vegetables every week during the growing season. They can pay the full price up front, pay in two installments, or pay by the month, but the idea is to have a seasonal contract with the farm.
The 27-week program begins May 1 and continues until October 31.
“Everybody kind of benefits from it,” Adamek said. “We benefit as far as having seed paid up front and then everybody gets the produce.”
Crop sharing, which is formally known in the United States as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), has been around in some form for at least 25 years.
Adamek hasn’t been trying to talk her father, Rick Minter, into trying it for quite that long, though. “I’ve been asking dad to do this for about five years now,” she said. “It helps get the farm name out more.”
Minter’s Farm is known locally for its vegetable, fruits, jams and jellies, fresh eggs and Christmas trees. It is only six miles from downtown Fayetteville, 12 miles from Senoia and 16 miles from Peachtree City. But the farm goods are also sold at the Peachtree City Farmers Market’s on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot by Partners Pizza.
“A CSA is almost like buying your way into the farm, but you don’t have to come out and farm,” Adamek said. Some programs require participants to periodically volunteer to work, but the Minters believe mandatory work is not really a volunteer program and have no such requirements.
Adamek is quick to laugh and add that anyone who wants to come out and work is surely welcome, however.
The CSA program incorporates one concept which makes it slightly different from the average commercial exchange and that’s the idea of shared risk. “If, Heaven forbid, if Mother Nature comes through and annihilates the strawberries,” the customer won’t get the strawberries he purchased up front, Adamek said.
The customer will receive either a substitute for the vegetable or fruit he had hoped to get or more of another vegetable he is already getting so there is no chance of paying for nothing, she added. With Minter’s Farm, there is also the possibility of getting fresh eggs, or jelly or jams as a supplement to the box of vegetables “if we have a crop failure or one doesn’t work out to our satisfaction,” Adamek said.
Currently, everything being offered is produced at Minter’s, but Adamek is in negotiations with a nearby maker of goat cheese and other milk products, she is nearing a deal with a pork supplier from Meriwether County, and also plans to add beef from Monroe County, which is the nearest producer of beef to Fayette County.
“We don’t do anything outside of our local area,” she said. “We try to stay in the county.”
To join the Minter’s Farm CSA program, visit mintersfarm.com and click on the CSA link. The farm is currently accepting deposits for the upcoming season.
Minter’s Farm can also be found on Facebook and Twitter @mintersfarm.
Below, getting ready for market — It’s a multigenerational operation at Minter’s Farm in Inman, where a new crop sharing plan will begin this spring. The fifth generation family farm, 6 miles southeast of downtown Fayetteville, specializes in locally grown vegetables, fruits, Christmas trees, farm fresh eggs, and james and jellies. Above, grandmother and granddaughter, Joanne (Nanny) Minter and Abigail Adamek, wash produce so Rick (Pop) Minter can take it to the Peachtree City Farmer’s Market. Photo/Submitted.
