Participate in the On-the-Fly Farms CSA!

[In the Spring of 2004, the Chicory Center rented a farm in Southwest Michigan, beginning to till the soil on April 30 of that year. By July 1, we were delivering produce to a dozen subscribers in Chicago . . . ]

By the seat of its pants, a small group of activists is starting the On-the-Fly Farm CSA. CSA stands for Community-Supported Agriculture, and means city people get to take a more active role in the production of their food, while supporting organic, sustainable practices. This could mean a thousand different things, and as On-the-Fly Farm is happening on the fly, we’ve only come up with a couple so far. New ideas are welcome, send them on!

One current option is this: On-the-Fly Farm is growing organic vegetables and fruits at its farm in Bridgeman Michigan. As those crops mature, we will get them to the city one way or another, and either deliver them to your door by bicycle, or you can pick them up. Pricing is subject to barter, trade, or some kind of work exchange. This informality is due to the farm’s on-the-fly nature, and to a desire to contribute to the overthrow of capitalism to the highest degree possible.

As planting is just now taking place, it will be at least several weeks before greens are available, and as the season progresses, many other crops will become available: carrots, tomatoes, blackberries, pumpkins, peppers, squash, melons, watermelons, beans, a hundred other veggies, some herbs, and even flowers!

What will be a unique addition to On-the-Fly’s offerings, will be fairly-traded, organic things, particularly those created principally through processes of mutual aid, co-operation, and liberation-seeking.

One of the fairly traded items, available now, is home-roasted coffee, roasted at On-the-Fly today, tomorrow, or whatever day you want it, the freshest coffee imaginable. Currently, green coffee beans are coming from the Mut Vitz Coop, a Zapatista project within the Autonomous Indigenous Communities in Chiapas, Mexico. The cost is $6 for a half-pound, $10 for a pound.

Also from Mut Vitz, available now, are 23 oz. jars of honey, made by bees feasting on the coffee flowers on the Zapatista coffee plants! Tasty. These are $7.

The other item, available now, is fairly-traded, organic olive oil from Palestine. This oil is a project of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), which prioritizes purchasing oil from those farmers most affected by the construction of the apartheid wall, and those most affected by Israeli closure practices. This olive oil costs $15 for a 750 ml bottle, and is the tastiest olive oil! Part of the proceeds go to PARC’s Rural Women’s Development Project, and part to the Chicago chapter of the International Solidarity Movement, to help send a volunteer to Palestine.

In solidarity.