This article by Andrew Aikman was first published in the One Earth Magazine, Volume 15, Autumn 1994.

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EarthShare is our local experiment in CSA – Community Supported Agriculture, or subscription farm­ing, a way of producing food which creates a new, non-exploitive and mutually supportive relationship between produc­er and consumer. Our particular pro­ject, which is based on a mixture of organic and biodynamic growing meth­ods, ‘arrived’ organically through the rapid coalescing of several individuals. In the summer of 1993, Manfred Hafner bought a house at Whiteinch, in the fields close to Findhorn Bay; five months later, my wife and I bought a live acre small holding almost adjacent, with no clear idea of what to do with it; enter Christopher Raymont, an experi­enced organic farmer currently running the gardens at Cullerne, and Fabien Barouche, who poured in enthusiasm for an organic CSA scheme, closely fol­lowed by Mathis Rosenbusch, a biody­namic farmer from Germany. Finally, in January 1994, Dawn Rolfe who, togeth­er with Johnstone Macpherson-Stewart and Zoë Yull, had just bought an old farmhouse with a few acres close to Forres, joined the project, further enriching the group with an abundance of exactly those skills so far lacking – accounting and other business skills. Thus on 17 February 1994, the compa­ny was formally launched, lo be guided by its six directors known now as the Apple Core Group.

We are currently working nine acres including two small glass houses and dividing the weekly harvest into 85 ‘shares’ (each is intended to provide for two adults and two children or three adults). Though the very dry, cold spring we experienced here in North East Scotland has delayed the crops by about five weeks, we expect by the end of our first season to be producing enough for an adequate week’s supply of vegetables. During the second season we will add soft fruit from the bushes and plants already planted.

Mathis Rosenbusch on his tractor

Currently subscribers pay £150 for 10 months, ending 31 December 1994, either as a lump sum or through month­ly standing 0rder payments. Our sub­scribers are encouraged to regard the holdings as their garden and to participate in tending the crops. To this end, two half day work sessions are open to volunteers every week. In the first few weeks the flush of initial enthusiasm brought forth a number of keen garden­ers but as the season has progressed, the voluntary work has dwindled to the faithful few. Some paid casual labour has been brought in for weeding but the question of how much labour should be paid for or how our voluntary labour could be increased is still under review.

We have had two ‘gatherings’ for a Spring and Summer festival, both of which have helped to form a ‘community’ of EarthShare people. It is our hope that this emerging community will strengthen as the Autumn/Winter harvest is gath­ered in, so the ideals of mutual support will become further consolidated.

However, at this stage it is premature to say more than that this is an experi­ment, supported and encouraged by our subscribers, to be worked with and mod­ified as we go along, in the light of experience.

Andrew Aikman is an open community mem­ber and joiner who fives with his family 0n some of the land used for cultivation.

Guest Author

Guest Authors are contributors who are not COIF members (for various reasons).