Good to the Last Stalk

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Farming is something that Hank Delvin has always done and in the early 2000’s he attended a conference in Alabama and heard of a couple that had just started a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture.  He was the first to have CSA’s in Tennessee beginning in 2002.

Lee Maddox
Good to the last talk. Hello and welcome everyone for Tennessee Home and Farm Radio. I’m Lee Maddox.

Hank Delvin
It’s all retail now. CSA, farmers market, and the farm store.

Lee Maddox
Farming is something that Hank Delvin has always done. And in the early 2000s, he attended a conference in Alabama and heard of a couple that had just started a CSA or community supported agriculture. That’s where customers pay a farmer to deliver a weekly box of produce. And Hank and his family filled their first CSA box in 2002.

Hank Delvin
I had to first CSA in Tennessee in 2002. And people sign up early in the spring and they sign up, give money up front or you know, we have payment programs or whatever. And we tell them that we are going to deliver a weekly basket of fresh organic produce off our farm every week for you know, for six months out of the year.

Lee Maddox
Hank Delvin. Now 75 delivers the CSA boxes. They sell their produce at the Franklin farmers market. And they have a retail store that’s been open on the farm in Williamson County for the past seven years. And they’re still taking on new customers.

Hank Delvin
Last year, we had a little over 900. This year, we’re hitting a little under 700 and I think this economy more than anything else, our CSA was down pre COVID down to around 400. And it’s it had gone down a little bit. But when COVID hit, we jumped up to 950 it within like a month. And we had to cut it off because I didn’t have enough stuff planted. And so the COVID and now people are really more in tune with where their food is coming from.

Lee Maddox
And Hank Delvin says he hopes his family can continue the operation that he has grown to love

Hank Delvin
When we first started farming right after I came back from service. Everybody said, you know you’re crazy. You can make money. Well, you know, you can, but you got to be doing the right thing.

Lee Maddox
And for Tennessee, Home and Farm Radio I’m Lee Maddox