November 2007 - We are excited to announce the launch of our long awaited Community Farm Program. It was a year ago that the Trustees engaged five MBA students from the Temple University Fox School of Business to study the feasibility of developing a sustainable farming venture under the Trust umbrella. Led by Temple professor Jim Hutchin (a friend, neighbor and easement donor) the students first made the case that a sustainable farming program would align well with and advance the mission of the Trust, and then spent the next several months developing a business plan to provide a road map for moving forward with the project. A Core Advisory Group of eighteen community members was formed to work with the MBA team throughout the study. We are grateful to this wonderful team for their invaluable input and will be depending on their continued participation as the farm venture evolves.

The Community Farm Program will support the Trust mission by modeling sustainable agricultural practices and promoting the values of open space and natural resource protection to a broad community. By bringing together community members, farmers, and land in a mutually supportive relationship, the farm program will contribute to the growth of local, sustainable food networks and will connect people more closely with the rural landscape and agricultural heritage of the Willistown
countryside.

After the study was completed, we had the good fortune to hire Fred de Long to be our staff Farm Coordinator. Fred brings a wealth of expertise to the task, having worked on and managed farms in Southeastern Pennsylvania for much of the past 15 years. He has a deep understanding of sustainable farming practices, a desire to educate and engage the community in the program, and a passion for the natural world. Fred hit the ground running in September and is busy refining the plan for the pilot program for the 2008 growing season.

The pilot program will take place on a local property which has been farmed without the use of pesticides and herbicides. The 2008 season will center on a “Community Supported Agriculture” (CSA) venture. The concept of a CSA is simple but powerful; it is about promoting a relationship between local farmers and the surrounding community, where consumers agree to buy what the farmer produces during the course of the growing season and the farmer provides a reliable source of fresh, locally grown, healthy food. The farmer typically grows a wide variety of food, from arugula to zucchini. Members purchase a “share” in advance, which entitles them to a portion of the harvest each week during the season.

Community Supported Agriculture is an idea whose time has come. Considering that most of the food we eat has traveled more than a thousand miles before reaching us, the food we buy at the local supermarket hardly can be described as farmfresh. Taste and freshness are certainly compromised, and many of us are increasingly concerned about agricultural chemical usage, genetic modifications to crops, loss of farmland to development, and agricultural run-off, not to mention the thousands of gallons of oil required to deliver the groceries to market.

The pilot farm will not only grow fruits and vegetables for the CSA, but will be the centerpiece for community education and hands-on activities that celebrate local food and sustainable farming. We hope to engage many community members, including area residents and their families, area farmers and local chefs. Plans are also in place to share the bounty by partnering with local food banks.

We will be sharing updates about the Community Farm Program with you in the coming months. Meanwhile, we welcome your thoughts and suggestions. Please feel free to visit our web site at www. wctrust.org, contact Fred de Long at cfd@wctrust.org or 610.353.2562 ext. 22, or stop by the office to meet Fred and share your ideas.