It's called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). One of the main problems farmers face is financing because they have to invest in so many things up front - not just the land, but every year they have to pay up front for seed, fertilizer, equipment, labor, etc - and then they have to hope for a good harvest in order to repay their loans. And the harvest has to be "just right" -- too much of a crop means everyone has too much of it and prices drop; too little of a crop and there's still a limit to how much you can charge so you lose money. A CSA avoids all that uncertainty.

The farmer figures out how much money they need to make that year, for all their farm expenses, plus an emergency fund, plus money for retirement, etc. Then he figures out how many roughly-3/4-bushel shares his farm can produce on a weekly basis. Money-needed divided by number-of-shares is the price for which he sells the shares to the general public. Shares usually go on sale in January, so the farmer has money up-front for the entire growing season, and can focus exclusively on growing crops.

In return, the share-buyer is guaranteed a box of produce every week during the growing season. If it's a great year for crops, you'll get extra; if it's a poor year, you'll get less - but prices at the supermarker would have increased anyway. There are lots of variations - some places also have 10-week shares, or offer smaller shares, or offer a small number of shares where you can work on the farm for like 4 hours a week in exchange for a share, that kind of thing. Some places also have fruit or nut trees, or team up with other local producers to also carry their items -- eggs, milk, cheese, honey, mushrooms, whatever.

One of the nice things about this model is that it strongly favors small, local farms over big conglomerates; another nice thing is that both the farmer and the share-buyer are guaranteed that the farm will still be in business next year. And it helps build and maintain communities, and the share-buyer is much more in-tune with the natural growing season.

I pick up my share and do the PYO on Thursday, and figure out what to make. Friday after work I pick up any extra needed ingredients from the grocery store. Friday night, I watch tv and clean, peel, slice, dice, etc. Then I cook for about 2 hours on Saturday morning - this week took longer because it's peak harvest season right now, but I was still only there for about 3 hours (it really helps when everything is already prepped beforehand!) I eat about half of what I make each week and store the other half for the winter.

This week's farm share included onions; regular and a mixture of hot peppers; cherry, canning, and heirloom tomatoes (for some reason slicing tomatoes aren't doing well this year); eggplant; zucchini (I forgot to mention the zucchini boats!); cabbage; carrots; 3-4 types of green leafy things; a watermelon; a canteloupe; a large bunch of lemon basil; and early garlic. There were also a few early potatoes (I haven't done anything with them yet, I'll probably use them next week in a larger dish) and the last of the beets for the year (which I don't like and gave to my beet-loving neighbor).

This week's pick-your-own included many more tomatoes, ground cherries (I'll make a tart with them later today once the dishes are done and I have energy again), the last of the blackberries, various herbs, and flowers - I grabbed some sunflowers and also made a mixed bouquet for a friend who's ill. The peaches and mushrooms came in from a couple of other local producers: I had to pay for the mushrooms, but the peaches were "free" as I'd also bought a fruit add-on for my share: I got blueberries last month, next month I'll get apples, and then a couple extra pumpkins in October (I make pumpkin pie filling, then freeze it flat in ziplocs. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, I buy empty pie shells and make homemade pumpkin pies.)

Oh! something else I forgot to mention is that the produce you get in stores goes from the farm to a middle-man who processes it and sells it to supermarket chains, which send it to a distribution center, which ships it to the store, which eventually puts it out on the floor. All that takes time and cuts down on the shelf-life of the produce you eventually get. With a farm share, the produce was picked within the last 24 hours, so everything stays fresh longer - my heads of lettuce last like 3 weeks.

[continued, sorry, just two more paragraphs, I swear!]