Monday, May 10, 2010
CSA How to Help Amish Farmers Who Lost Everything
Posted by Carrington Fox on Mon, May 10, 2010 at 11:03 AM
A recent column about the growing landscape of community supported agriculture in Middle Tennessee featured Fresh Harvest, a joint venture of Turnbull Creek and Drury Family Farms. Every Sunday night, Tallahassee "Tally" May at Fresh Harvest sends out an email about the week's crops. In the wake of last week's flood, Tally's email this weekend had a plea to help a farming family that suffered heartbreaking damage:
This week we are collecting donations for the Hershberger family, who lost everything in the flood. Many of you are familiar with this Amish family who have been providing us with their wonderful produce — field peas, winter squash, watermelon, and more — for years. They are amazing farmers and have been a joy to work with and learn from. They lost everything in the flood — their house, greenhouse, two of their draft horses, and all of their belongings. They are thankful to have survived and that their four children are safe. It looks like they will not be able to farm this summer, and we want to help them sustain themselves while they find a new place to live and get back on their feet.You will find on the Market page a place where you can choose to make a donation to be deducted from your account. In the quantity box, you can fill in how many increments of $5.00 you would like to donate. If you prefer, you can also send in or bring us a check — just mark that it is for a donation to the Hershberger Family. We will keep you updated on how they are doing and how much money we are able to raise for them.
If you are not familiar with the Hickman Co.-based Hershbergers, here's a glimpse of their farming operation, included on Fresh Harvest's web site:
The Hershberger Family has been growing produce using only natural methods for 13 years.
We till the soil with horses and horse-drawn machinery.
We try to control soil erosion.
We use no synthetic or chemical fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides or herbicides. We do not plant GMO produce. We do not plant hybrids
We do the Biodynamic method of spraying or watering the plants with a sprout juice blend, which is claimed to greatly increase the nutritional value of the food.
We save most of our own seed, therefore most of the seeds we plant are untreated.
We want to be of service to you in providing the best, healthiest food, and we hope you enjoy it.
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