Cutting out the middleman

Berndt Family Produce’s CSA program helps create farm-to-table meals

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BROOKINGS – Summer is the time to eat fresh produce, especially if you can get it locally. Community Supported Agriculture can make that easy.

A CSA is a program “where people buy into a share of the farm,” said Dawnna Berndt, who operates Berndt Family Produce with her husband, David, and their six kids, south of White. They’re one of several CSAs in the Brookings area.

“It doesn’t get more local than this,” she said.

The Berndts have operated their produce farm since 2000, but David’s been selling potatoes and eggs at the Farmers Market since he was a kid.

“We decided it was something we wanted to do with our kids, so we left the city job and went back to the farm,” Dawnna said.

They’ve done the CSA program for a few years and are offering season subscriptions until the end of the month. To sign up, call Dawnna at 605-629-4521 or 605-690-4522 or contact them on their Facebook page.

Paying for a subscription up front may sound strange to people, and there are risks and benefits, Dawnna admits.

“If I’m hailed out, that’s the risk,” she said. But subscribers will always get first dibs on the produce that they have.

“When you’re looking at a CSA, decide if it’s something that you can afford” and consider more than the money, she said.

“People need to think about their health. How much is their health worth? Do you really want to spend it at the doctor, or do you want to spend a little bit more on your vegetables?” she asked.

Produce that has to travel to the consumer goes through about five steps, according to a graphic at supafreshyouthfarm.org/csa online. Even a farmers market has three steps, but a local CSA has just two: from the farm to the consumer.

“This was huge to me: Cutting out the middlemen, just to get it to your table,” Dawnna said of the chart. “My prices have stayed the same for the last five years, but I don’t have all those middlemen to pay.”

She knows all her middlemen.

“The people who handled (the food) were me and my kids,” Dawnna said, with some local high-schoolers for extra help.

The Berndts bring their produce to the Econo Lodge in Brookings four days a week, Wednesdays through Saturdays, for pick-up. The hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.

They plant 40 acres with a variety of vegetables.

“We’re picking in the morning (of the day it’s brought to town). We dig potatoes one day a week, on Mondays,” Dawnna said.

There are no chemicals to make it ripen or make it look pretty.

“We pick it and we get it to you. It might not be the most perfect, but you didn’t have to wait for it to ripen in your fridge because it’s ripe now. You didn’t have to worry about it sitting in a warehouse for a few days,” she said.

“I try to be natural because there’s a lot of people out there with health issues,” Dawnna said. “We’re on our hands and knees weeding.” She does use a spray to keep rabbits and deer away from the plants.

The Berndts offer a few packages so folks can customize their share.

A small package is about seven pounds and can feed two to three people. A large package runs about 10-12 pounds and feeds four to six people. A canning package is three bushels of vegetables. A baby food package is for those who want to make their own baby food. There’s also a hunger share and the June special.

People can pick what they want in a package, but availability depends on the time of season, since some produce will be ready in early summer and continue through the season, which ends with October.

“We’re changing it up this year. You get to choose what you want because I want you to be happy with what you get. I want you to use what you want,” Dawnna said.

“Waste is waste. That’s what we’re trying to avoid,” she said.

“If you’re not gonna use beets, why take them? If you want to try kohlrabi, go ahead,” Dawnna said.

If you’re curious about that kohlrabi or anything else but just don’t know how to use it, the Berndts include recipes which use all the items in the package. And Dawnna has a secret weapon.

“My savior is my Crock-Pot in the summer. I do a lot of Crock-Pots. I throw a lot of vegetables on the grill. To me, that’s kind of a healthy way to eat,” she said.

Dawnna knows her family isn’t the only one growing produce, but she thinks there’s room for everyone because each one offers different items, including flowers, meat and eggs. The message she wants to get out is eat more locally grown produce and everyone will benefit.

“That’s what our goal is, is to get everybody to eat vegetables,” she said.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.