BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Organic farmer David Burlew, of Roosevelt, checks his drip irrigation system while getting ready for the upcoming growing season on the Goldstein farm in Roosevelt on March 20. What’s cropping up around Roosevelt this year won’t just be Jersey fresh, it will be organic.
Farmer David Burlew, 33, of Roosevelt, has taken over the Community Shares Agriculture (CSA) project on the Goldstein farm in the borough of Roosevelt.
Burlew will tend to five acres and a greenhouse this growing season to produce herbs, flowers and vegetables. Starting in May, he expects to feed between 20 and 30 CSA shareholders with fresh organic vegetables every week for approximately 26 weeks.
By participating in the CSA, Burlew said, locals “actually get to see the face of their food.”
“The CSA also helps keep local agriculture alive and part of the community green,” Burlew said.
According to Carol Watchler, CSA coordinator, this is the fifth year Roosevelt has had CSA.
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Organic farmer David Burlew talks about the community supported agriculture in Roosevelt in the greenhouse on the Goldstein farm March 20. “This will be the first year Dave is doing it,” Watchler said, “but we are delighted because he has experience with organic farming and you can just tell that he loves the land.”
Organic farming relies on developing biological diversity in the field to disrupt habitat for pest organisms, and the purposeful maintenance and replenishment of soil fertility. Organic farmers are not allowed to use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, according to the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF). Based out of California, OFRF is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to organic research.
Burlew got his hands-on farming experience by working for several years as an apprentice under farmer Ed Lidzbarski in Jamesburg.
“He’s [Lidzbarski] a prominent farmer in the New Jersey farming community,” Burlew said. “He received a letter from Ed and Jackie Goldstein, who were looking for a farmer to continue with the CSA in Roosevelt.”
Burlew said it is commendable that the Goldsteins, who purchased the property after it was placed in the Farmland Preservation Program, want to continue to have the land farmed.
“It’s important to keep the traditional use of the property going,” Burlew said. “They saw this as a community-backed farm, and they kept the CSA going.”
Burlew said CSA is extremely important for a start-up farmer. He said start-up farmers can sink all their finances into a farming endeavor and lose everything.
Burlew, who tried to make it on his own as an organic farmer in Vermont, said he sees CSA as a reason for farmers to stay in lesser farmed states such as New Jersey.
In CSA projects, community members buy shares that allow the farmer to purchase supplies to grow a crop. The farmer works the land to produce the crop, and the shareholders reap the produce from the crop for the entire growing season.
“The problem with starting a farm is coming up with the money,” Burlew said. “In CSA, farmers get the money to farm up front.”
Burlew said he perceives CSA as the “life force” behind keeping farming in New Jersey.
“Farming is a lifestyle, but in this urban state the cost of living is making it harder for that lifestyle to exist,” Burlew said. “The cost of getting into the business is getting too much to bear in New Jersey.
“Farmers are often in debt themselves far beyond what they can handle,” he said. “If they have one bad season and a developer comes along, selling may be the only thing they have left to do.”
Burlew said he initially went into farming because of his love for the environment.
“I grew up around Asbury Park and quickly developed a concern for the environment because it was a time when you would see lots of garbage washing up along the shore,” Burlew said.
Although he was not involved in agriculture in his younger days, Burlew said, his family has a long tradition of farming. It traces back to ancestors who initially received the property his grandfather farmed in the Englishtown area through a land grant from the King of England.
“My grandfather, Howard Woodward, farmed in this area for a long time,” Burlew said. “There’s a street near Englishtown named after him.”
Woodward ultimately retired from the farming industry, but sought to keep the family farm going, according to Burlew.
“The land is a farmer’s investment, and that’s why many sell it to developers when they retire,” Burlew said. “My grandfather, believing in supporting agriculture, sold his farm to a farmer for a lot less than what a developer would have given him.”
When Burlew got older, he developed the same appreciation for land that his grandfather had.
After studying at Long Island University’s Southampton College in New York and at the University of Hawaii, Burlew studied agriculture at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
His studies and experience working for Lidzbarski and the Whole Earth Center on Nassau Street in Princeton helped him develop an appreciation for organic farming.
When asked what he considers to be the benefits of eating organic, Burlew said, “There’s no pesticides on your plate.
“Now,” Burlew added, “we can also make the claim that organic fruits and vegetables are higher in nutritional value. There’s solid research.”
He called eating organic foods “a cheaper insurance policy.”
Watchler said the locally grown organic vegetables make her more happy now than when she first organized the CSA in 2002.
“After I had a cancer experience, I became more conscious of eating things that are good for me,” Watchler said. “Organic vegetables are one of the blessings of this earth.”
Watchler said that people should take note of how most supermarket produce is grown.
“It is genetically modified to produce harder skins for shipping, and it contains chemicals that are bad for us,” Watchler said.
“People should also think about the economy and why it’s so strange to rely on other parts of the world to get the food we want here,” she said.
Watchler said the CSA helps locals “make a good living close to home.”
For the price that the community members pay for a share, Burlew said they get fresh organic vegetables, a cleaner environment and better health.
Other benefits, according to Burlew, include getting more of a variety of produce than what’s offered at the local supermarket.
Burlew said CSA shareholders will have access to many varieties of tomatoes, including cherry and heirloom tomatoes. He said that among other produce the farm will offer will be vine ripe melons, beans and hot peppers.
Watchler and Bobbi Teich will continue coordinating the CSA project this year, and will be joined by Maria Del Piano, who has a love for vegetarian cooking. Del Piano looks forward to publicizing recipes for the group along with news of the weekly harvest. She is also eager to coordinate group potlucks and other efforts to strengthen the “community” in community shares agriculture, according to Watchler.
Watchler said the CSA could also not have been possible without the help of Rodham Tulloss, who sparked the Fund for Roosevelt, a nonprofit land trust that helped preserve most of the land around the tiny borough.
Shareholders will get fresh produce once a week beginning in May and ending around Thanksgiving, according to Burlew.
As a means of backup for the CSA program, Burlew said he will network with Lidzbarski.
“Just so we can make sure people get something each week, Ed said he’ll help back me in the event of difficulties,” Burlew said.
In the future, Burlew hopes to expand the number of acres he farms on the Goldstein property.
“With the support of the community, we have the potential to grow to 20 acres,” Burlew said.
Roosevelt Community Shares Agriculture will continue to sign up members for the 2006 growing season until March 30. Interested persons from the nearby area are invited to become members.
The CSA is now accepting memberships at $200 for a small share, which is good for one or two persons, and $350 for a large share, which is good for a family.
Those who are interested should call Bobbi Teich before 9 p.m. at (609) 448-5036 or e-mail her at [email protected].