Brookfield CSA Offers
Local, Organic Meat

Brotherly Farm Organic in Brookfield is the latest local food producer to adopt the Community Supported Agriculture format to market its product. In CSAs, customers buy a "share" in the farm’s product, and collect their share of the food, as it is produced, later in the year.

Most CSAs in the area specialize in vegetables. Brotherly Farm is offering a program dedicated to certified organic local meat, plus a new "Create Your Own CSA" option.

After dabbling in meat sales for a few months, owners Craig and Angela Russell, have decided to move full steam ahead, adding pork and poultry to the already available beef. The certified organic beef has already been available at the Randolph Farm Stand and The Uncommon Market of Montpelier.

"With the absence of the Randolph Co-op and numerous meat recalls, making local meat available just seemed to make sense," Angela Russell said this week.

Russell noted that Brotherly Farm Organic is already an established dairy farm, shipping milk to Horizon Organic. The farm is certified organic by Vermont Organic Farmers, LLC (NOFA-VT). Certified organic means that there are no added hormones, no antibiotics, no chemical fertilizers or genetically-modified feed used, Russell explained.

The new "Create Your Own CSA" option will allow families to select which items—from whole chickens to ground beef to eggs—they want each month, and then select which months they will receive their items. Pick up can then be made will be at the Russell farm, or the Randolph Farmers Market during the summer.

The Russells are choosing to make some items available to CSA consumers first, before offering them to the wholesale market. Another added bonus of this CSA approach is year-round availability.

"Buying local," commented Russell, "really is more convenient than you think."

See www.brotherlyfarm.com for more information.