Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit with a friend the "Solidarische Landwirtschaft Gut Wegscheid" in Aachen, Germany. In English you would call such a kind of cooporation Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The "Solawi" at Gut Wegscheid has around 120 shares of the harvest. Members can purchase half a share or a full share for a monthly installment - the harvest is devided acording to the share between the members. On top of it they can collect herbs or fruits themselves as available. The farmer has a "secure" income and the members of the Solawi can collect each weekend the fresh veggies, eggs and bread. All is organic in Demeter quality and locally grown. For more information please see also their website http://gut-wegscheid.de/
one harvest share for a week ... and a lot of apples to cook and other B-quality vegetables to take as well
Gut Wegscheid is a modern farm, using tractors and machines ... but specially for gardening veggies and fruits sometimes human work is needed. Once in a while the members of the Solawi organize a day on which everybody invited to come and help - a lot of helpers can be expected seen the amount of tools at the wall
also grassland belongs to the farm, since they are not holding any animals except chickens this land is partly rented to horse owners adding a visual extra to the environment
It was really a pleasure and an inspiration to visit the Solawi Gut Wegscheid. This way of bringing the food to the people is much more sustainable than industrial farming and I like that you can get involved, I hope to find this concept more and more in future.