BY ANN S. KIM

Portland Press Herald

Juniper Edge Farm in Brunswick is a one-woman operation. Jeannie Johnson grows a variety of vegetables, without the benefit of farming equipment, on less than an acre of land.

In terms of selling her vegetables, farmers' markets aren't a good fit for Johnson, because they would take her away from farming. And while she sells to restaurants, she also wants to bring people to the farm.

"I would much rather be here, connecting with people one-on-one, with them experiencing the farm, meeting the farmer," she said.

So Johnson joined the growing number of Maine farmers who are using the community supported agriculture model.

In a typical CSA, shareholders pay in advance for a certain percentage of a farm's crop, an arrangement that helps farms by creating a customer base and providing cash for supplies such as seeds and fertilizer at a time when income isn't coming in.

The popularity of CSAs is expanding in both number and varieties beyond the familiar vegetable model.

The number of CSAs in Maine has roughly doubled to 140 in the past three years, according to Melissa White Pillsbury, the organic marketing coordinator for the Maine Organic Gardeners and Farmers Association.

The public's increased familiarity with CSAs and the growing number of farms in Maine are some of the reasons cited for the trend.

"I think, over the past few years, the concept of CSA kind of reached a critical mass so it wasn't a foreign, brand-new concept," White Pillsbury said. "Farmers felt more comfortable introducing it to customers."

CUSTOMER IN HAND

The CSA model can be a good choice for a new farm that doesn't have capital or established relationships with a banker or suppliers, said John Harker, an agriculture development specialist with the state Agriculture Department's division of market and production development.

A CSA can also help establish a customer base early, Harker said, "so you don't overgrow."

"Also, when you have a customer in hand, then you have the opportunity to build a relationship, and through word of mouth -- which is what the majority of farms use -- friends, they can tell their friends, and they tell their friends," he said.

Variations of the typical CSA model are also evolving. While the traditional CSA provides seasonal vegetables to shareholders on a regular basis, some farmers are tweaking the model to provide more choices to shareholders.

Others involved in food production are also adopting the concept and tailoring it to meet their needs. In Maine, apple orchards, sheep farms, fishermen and bakeries are among those using the CSA model.

John Bunker of Palermo decided that a CSA would be a good way to expose the public to lesser-known apple varieties while connecting those growers to the public. Co-owner of Super Chilly Farm in Palermo, Bunker is organizing the Out on a Limb CSA, which he expects will have the participation of several other orchards from Central Maine.

He hopes the experiment will show commercial orchards in Maine, which usually have a smattering of rarer varieties, that they do not have to rely entirely on the commodity wholesale market.

"The price you are paid as a farmer is not based on your cost," Bunker said. "It's based on someone else -- a middleman who controls the price and really is not basing that on your costs, but basing it on market forces that really have nothing to do with the grower in Maine. They may be dealing more with the price of apples coming from New England."

With the CSA, Bunker said, the growers will set the price and make some extra money with fruit that sometimes would be left to rot on the ground for lack of a market.

FIBER OF BENEFIT

Hatchtown Farm in Bristol is winding up the first season of its new fiber CSA. The fleece from 30 of the farm's 40 sheep went to its CSA.

A large part of the farm's income comes in the spring, after the clip, when the fleeces are removed from the animals. Shareholders receive their fiber -- yarn and roving, the form ready for spinning or felting projects -- around this time of year after processing by the mill.

The income from the shareholders helps with expenses such as feed, fence repair and fertilizing the pasture. It also helps the farm avoid selling breeding stock or going into debt.

Pam Child, who owns the farm with her husband, Jim, said the shareholders benefit too. She puts together a newsletter and projects for them, including a giveaway of a half pound of roving dyed blue to commemorate a blue ribbon awarded to Hatchtown. The farm, which is also home to Child's studio and a shop, is open to shareholders for visits and to learn as much as they like.

"I feel like we've gotten to know our CSA people in just a short time," she said.

Kendra Michaud of Fire Flour Bakery in Montville is using its modified CSA operation to avoid losing a cut to stores and to save customers a trip to her home on an out-of-the-way mile-long dirt road. Since January, Michaud's customers prepay for bread and e-mail their orders, and she delivers the loaves to pre-arranged dropoff sites.

Michaud, who does all the baking herself, also sells baked goods at farmers markets, but finds that direct sales provide more consistency with the potential of increasing in size.

"I feel lucky to be in an area where people are interested in local food and people are interested in making a connection to the people who make the food," she said. "It's not just a feeling of getting fresh food, fresh vegetables and your food hasn't had to travel. I think people also like making the connection with the farmer, or in my case, the baker."

Johnson is also looking to the CSA model to help reintroduce her farm to the public. Previously a pick-your-own strawberry farm, it evolved into a vegetable in the mid-1990s. People forgot about the farm during the transition, she said.

"I had to get really creative, she said, "and find ways to market."