CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. And it is happening right here in Aspinwall! CSA is a mutual relationship between a farmer and a consumer. The consumer buys a “share” of the harvest and gets 8 different fruits and vegetables delivered right to their neighborhood, straight from the farm, each week for 23 weeks. The “drop site” is usually someone’s home who cooperates with the farm in exchange for a portion of their share.    Harvest Valley Farms has a drop site for their CSA in Aspinwall at the home of Carol Balintine at 5 Center Avenue.

     Harvest Valley Farms has a long history in Aspinwall. Operated by my brother Larry, my son, David, and myself, we have been selling fruits and vegetables in Aspinwall for four generations! I will never forget the stories that my father (Norman King) used to tell of him and my grandmother coming down from their farm near Dorseyville with baskets of tomatoes to sell in Aspinwall when there were only a dozen homes there. I personally started selling in Aspinwall with my father when I was eight years old. We always had a green van and delivered eggs and vegetables weekly to regular customers. In the winter we sold our own chickens and pork in addition to the eggs. Eventually we had to stop the “door to door “deliveries because the costs were too high. But instead we started selling at the Fireman’s Flea Market on Sundays. By this time the chickens were a thing of the past so we only needed a summer market. We stopped selling there once we started CSA a few years ago.  

     When I meet someone who lives in Aspinwall I always tell them that I grew up there because I spent so much of my younger life there. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. Learning to talk to people and sell at such an early age really helped to shape my life. And thankfully it happened in Aspinwall where everyone is so nice.