Doalnara filling last slots for vegetables

Area organic cooperative offers freshness weekly

By STACY SMITH SEGOVIA • The Leaf-Chronicle • May 17, 2008

Taking vitamins is great, but an even better way to ensure you're getting the nutrition you need is to eat healthy, vitamin-rich foods.

Organic vegetables, grown without pesticides or chemicals, are a good choice. Locally, people have the chance to buy organic vegetables that are grown in neighboring Dover at Doalnara Organic Farm.

In spring 2006, a Community Supported Agriculture cooperative was born out of one church's desire to see people eat nourishing foods.

Patrick Smith, pastor of St. John's HomeChurch, along with other interested volunteers formed a partnership with Doalnara Organic Farm. The farm is part of Doalnara Restoration Society, a Christian community committed to hard work, a simple life, and cultivating pure minds and bodies.

Now — spring through fall — locals can sign up to receive weekly deliveries of fresh, organic vegetables from Doalnara, through the CSA. Vegetables are picked up at 5:30 p.m. Thursdays for 24 weeks starting Thursday at Christ Presbyterian Church, 1230 Rossview Road.

Details of CSA membership, provided by Smith, are:

A full box share is $25 per week. The season is 24 weeks long, so the total is $600 for the season. A full box share is one full box of vegetables delivered to the pick-up location every week. One full box is designed to feed a family of four for the week, but honestly, that's really only if you eat a good amount of vegetables. Some find it to be too much.

A half-box share is $15 per week. With a 24-week-long season, that amounts to $360 for the season. A half-box share is also one full box of vegetables; however, this full box is delivered to the pick-up location every other week rather than every week.

Payment needs to be made before the season begins, either for half the season or the full season. People interested in joining may call Smith at 217-6190. At press time, nine slots remained available before the CSA reached its capacity for 2008.

Andy Yoo, general manager of Doalnara Organic Farm, says eating organic foods and growing them in a way that is respectful of the earth is about more than good farming practices.

"It's healthy, spiritually and physically," Yoo said by telephone from Korea, where he is taking courses for the summer. "It's about well-being. We should partake of things that are only wholesome. We all know without healthy bodies, it is impossible to have healthy minds."

Stacy Smith Segovia is a features writer for The Leaf-Chronicle. She can be reached at 245-0720, or by e-mail at stacysegovia@theleafchronicle.com.