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Local Food Journey

Local Food Video: Plowshare Produce offers access to produce with a small environmental impact

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 07/22 at 10:56 AM

Video by WPSU intern Kelly Tunney

Micah and Bethany Spicher Schonberg like to know who their vegetables are going home with. As the founders of Plowshare Produce, a CSA (for community-supported agriculture) near Huntingdon, Micah and Bethany know their members. The farmers greet their members by name; one of them is even the doula who delivered their son Ben.

A CSA is a subscription model for produce. Members pay in advance to have a weekly or biweekly delivery of fresh, organic vegetables. On their appointed day–Tuesday in State College, Friday in Huntingdon–they pick up their share of whatever ripened that week. At a recent distribution in State College, that included kohlrabi, garlic scapes, strawberries, beets, carrots, chard, and sugar peas.

Micah and Bethany are dedicated to low-impact farming. They do as much farmwork as they can with a horse instead of a tractor, their harvest is organic, and they pick their vegetables the same morning they deliver to their CSA members. They have a full-time apprentice, Gabrielle Bedeian, who helps plant, weed, and pick.

Micah believes small-scale farming is the best way for people to have access to good produce with a small environmental impact. But until everyone has a backyard garden, CSAs like Plowshare Produce let consumers buy food they can easily track from farm to table.