Barbara L. Salisbury/The Gazette Drew Jones of Accokeek carries a container of freshly picked carrots out of a greenhouse at Ecosystem Farm in Accokeek. The community-supported agriculture farm has about 40 shareholders who pay for a share of the season's produce.

Farms that run on the community-supported agriculture, or CSA, model have a fairly straightforward premise that is similar to investing in the stock market: Buy a share in the farm and reap the dividends. But while stock market dividends might sometimes be as fleeting as the first spring strawberries, they will never be as tasty or as soul-satisfying as a weekly share from any of the county's CSA farms.

"People who stay with it for the long haul really get their money out of it," said Erin Kauffman, co-coordinator of Ecosystem Farm, the CSA operation of the Accokeek Foundation. "But you have to work with the farmers and work with the seasons. It's a hard concept for some people to deal with."

This means accepting the risk that the watermelons might not be ripe in time for your mid-summer cookout, or that uncontrollable environmental conditions can wipe out certain crops altogether.

Despite the risks, Kauffman said, "the demand is definitely growing as more people know what a CSA is."

For an up-front fee of about $20 a week, CSA shareholders get to eat like they live on a farm without the backbreaking work. It's also a practical economic model for small farmers.

"The CSA provides us with a captive market of people who are really interested in our organic produce, and it provides financial support throughout the year," said Michael Klein, who operates Good Fortune Farm with his wife, Michelle.

Before you rush to pick up the phone and sign up for a CSA, you need to know that CSAs are also about planning--way in advance. This year's shares in all of the county's CSA farms have been sold out since early May. But now is a good time to investigate, maybe stop by one of the farms' weekly pickups and get on the notification list for share openings next year.

Working the land

If you're game for some heavy-duty gardening, one latecomer option is the work-share program at Clagett Farm's From the Ground Up CSA. Help out for four hours on harvest days--Tuesdays and Saturdays--and take home a week's worth of produce.

"It's nice for people who don't want to buy the whole season at one time," said vegetable manager Carrie Vaughn.

At the first weekly pickup two weeks ago, members were gathering their shares from bushel baskets of tender baby spinach, Swiss chard, kale and lettuce, freshly picked broccoli that looked almost juicy, radiant radishes and tall, spicy garlic onions. Seedlings for home gardens, seeds of all types and pick-your-own herbs from the nearby herb patch were also there for the taking.

From the Ground Up operates on 20 acres of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's 285-acre Clagett Farm in Upper Marlboro, in partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank. It strives to be a model of economically and environmentally sustainable agriculture in harmony with the Chesapeake Bay watershed ecosystem.

Unique among the area's CSAs, it also has a mission of making fresh, healthful food available to people of all income levels. A little more than half of the 400 shares it grows are sold at full price, while the others are distributed for free or at a reduced price to low-income consumers through agencies that work with the Capital Area Food Bank.

In southern Prince George's County, the Accokeek Foundation's Ecosystem Farm is also an experiment in sustainable agriculture, an attempt to reclaim land that is prone to flooding due to a high water table and proximity to the river.

"We have pretty marginal land, and it's hard to get a lot of vegetables out of it," said Will Allen, co-coordinator with Kauffman. "But we're improving the land, as well."

Kauffman said the prospects for the year's crops are very good. All of Ecosystem Farm's shareholders pick up their shares on the farm.

"Most of members live in Accokeek or Fort Washington," said Allen. "In the southern part of the county, there are really no good farmer's markets," which created a niche for the CSA when it began 11 years ago. When everyone comes to pick up their produce from the farm, said Allen, it builds community and adds another layer of meaning to the word "share."

All in the family

Allegra Foley was managing a CSA farm in California last year after completing the agroecology program at the University of California Santa Cruz. To her surprise, she discovered that her father, Catholic University professor Michael Foley, had a lifelong dream of farming. They joined forces, made a deal with a family friend who wanted a parcel of land in Davidsonville changed from conventional to organic farming, and launched Green Uprising CSA.

"His interest is really in having his family and friends in this area have access to organic farm-raised food," Allegra said of her father.

The elder Foley has taken a sabbatical from teaching while he and Allegra farm more than an acre for 30 shareholders, who will pick up their weekly shares on his front porch in Mount Rainier.

"Broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, spinach, beets, tomatoes, eggplants--we're growing just about everything except corn," said Allegra. "We're pretty enthusiastic about the project."

They grow enough to sell at the Riverdale Farmer's Market on Thursdays, where they recently displayed pristinely clean and vibrant salad greens, baby collards and spring onions.

Green Uprising is not yet certified organic.

"We're so small, and it's really expensive and time-consuming to do the certification," Allegra said after a morning of squashing cabbage caterpillars by hand. "But we do grow in accordance with the standards for certification. We hope that people get to know us and trust that we are farming organically."

Michael and Michelle Klein obtained organic certification for Good Fortune Farm five years ago, right about the time they started their CSA. After four years of selling just to restaurants and at farmer's markets, they started the CSA with 10 families and have reached 60 this year.

"We have about 6 acres in production. We grow everything we can grow," said Klein, adding that he will plant about 400 varieties of seeds this year.

Klein said some people don't understand the difference between the vegetables offered through farmer's markets and CSAs and what they get in the grocery store.

"We grow for flavor, not for shelf life, not for shipping or for appearance. Everything is very perishable," Klein explained.

Good Fortune is the only CSA with doorstep delivery available along several routes in the region for a fee.

Another husband-and-wife team, Scott Hertzberg and Tanya Tolchin, farm 9 acres in Croom for both organic vegetable and organic flower shares. This is the fourth year for their Jug Bay Market Garden, which drops shares on Capitol Hill and offers additional pickups on the farm. Tolchin said the Capitol Hill drop is convenient for a lot of people, but she truly believes "the ones that come to the farm are the happiest subscribers."

Supply and demand

CSAs don't do a lot of advertising, mainly because they don't need to.

"We have a lot of people who find us through the Web," Klein said. "But it's mostly by word of mouth."

And growth often comes in clusters.

"This year, we were approached by a synagogue, and now we have about 15 members there," he said.

That's also how Good Fortune began delivering to Kristi Bahrenburg Janzen's University Park neighborhood.

"When I started looking for a CSA three years ago, there weren't any that would deliver to this area," Janzen said. "Mike said if I could get a critical mass of people, he would come up to our area."

Janzen said motherhood stoked her desire to pass on values to her children through food. Food-safety scares, concerns about obesity and the over-processing of food have raised the general consciousness about food, and when she pitched the idea of joining a CSA to her friends and neighbors, they were ready.

"Sometimes the produce never even makes it into the house," said University Park resident Lisa Tuit of her deliveries from Good Fortune. "The kids run down to the curb to get into the box as soon as it's delivered. There was a beautiful moment last summer when we got this small, round watermelon. We took it into the house with much fanfare, cut it open, and it was yellow!"

The kids were shocked and delighted at the surprise; and, Tuit said, the watermelon was delicious, to boot.

From the Ground Up shareholder John Vosmek grew up in Portland, Ore., and had lived in Seattle and Lancaster, Pa., before moving to this area a couple of years ago. The Hyattsville Hills resident had long considered a CSA and finally made the commitment.

"I decided I really wanted to do it this year, so I searched the Web to find out what was available in the area," Vosmek said. "From the Ground Up had several things I liked: a good price, a long season, a relatively convenient location, good you-pick items and some social/political work that impressed me."

He has found another subscriber with whom to share pickup duties, so he only drives out to the farm every other week.

Still, he said, "I think it is both fun and educational to go to the farm and really see where to food comes from. Joining a CSA or shopping at a farmer's market can be a great way for citizens to support their local economies, which benefits all of us."

Complete information on all the CSAs in this article can be found

at www.localharvest.org/csa.

More information

Ecosystem Farm

3400 Bryan Point Road, Accokeek

301-283-2113, ext. 27;

www.accokeek.org

From the Ground Up CSA at Clagett Farm

11904 Old Marlboro Pike,

Upper Marlboro

301-627-4662; www.clagettfarm.org

Good Fortune Farm

18001 Horsehead Road,

Brandywine

301-579-2105

Green Uprising Farm

4118 30th St., Mount Rainier

301-864-1009

Jug Bay Market Garden

10508 Croom Road,

Upper Marlboro

301 627-6211; home.earthlink.net/~jugbaymg