Eating Well and Feeling Good About It

ELLENWOOD, Ga. -- With gas prices a daily top story and for many, a daily top worry, most people have read about how much gas is used to transport food from farms around the world to supermarkets across the country.

That's why you can eat oranges in January and Asparagus in August. But now the cost of that long distance transportation from South America is showing up in food prices.

That still wasn't the main reason Cindy Mullennix wanted to join a CSA program. Community Supported Agriculture. It basically means residents pay a certain amount per week to a local farmer to invest in the farmer's farm. In return, they're given a box of fresh produce, fruits and vegetables on a weekly basis. Just a few years ago this was a very new concept, but it has taken a strong hold in Metro Atlanta for several different reasons.

For Mullennix it was the desire to eat food that tasted good.

"I was tired of cruising the aisles at the supermarket looking for something to buy I could feel good about," she said.

She joined a CSA for a farm in Ellenwood, Ga., run by Neil Taylor. From the very beginning she was sold.

"It exceeded all my expectations," she said.

Cindy says the food tasted incredible and she was saving money being a CSA member. She said she paid $25 a week for a box filled with fruits and vegetables that lasted her and her husband until the following week. She told her friends and neighbors about it, and now her house is one of Taylor's half-dozen or so drop-off points in Metro Atlanta.

Every Tuesday night around 7 p.m., you'll likely find a group milling about on her front porch, oohing and aahing over the latest offerings.

One has to give up a certain amount of control to join a CSA. Not only are you at the mercy of the farmer who is at the mercy of Mother Nature and all her various insects and varmints, you must eat with the seasons. Sounds easy, but many people are spoiled by the fact they can buy oranges whenever they please.

Taylor's farm is organic and the food is picked right before it's packed for delivery. He says people are healthier by eating food grown without pesticides and transported from the field to their table within a day's time.

There are several conventional CSA farms and organic farms around Metro Atlanta. Members normally buy a half or a full share per week. A full share feeds at least a family of four for a week. A half share, two or three people. It's not uncommon for neighbors and friends to split shares with one another. For Taylor, it's helped keep him in business.

After spending years at the Morningside Farmer's Market, he jumped on the CSA bandwagon with only 17 families. That was three years ago. Today, Taylor delivers boxes of produce to over 150 families around Metro Atlanta. His business continues to grow.

Mullennix said she found that her desire for better food transformed into pride and concern for the hardworking farmer and his carefully cultivated crops. And it's a small way she can reduce her carbon footprint.

Half of her week's food comes just miles from where it was grown, to her kitchen table.

While many supermarkets are carrying a lot more locally grown food, CSA members often get attached to their farmer, knowing they're contributing to his financial success. And when crops fail, the members must accept the loss along with the farmer. Boxes still arrive with food, but sometimes Taylor will substitute with an organic juice from the farm, some of his heirloom tomato relish or other canned delicacies.

Taylorganic, as it's called, is a very busy 14 acre farm these days. Taylor knows he won't get rich as a farmer, but he feels he's contributing to the well being of his members.

His motto is, "leave in good health, return in better health."

He believes his food has the power to do that for his customers. And his customers are helping to keep him in business.