With Spring, comes the Spring growing season -- and a program to deliver fresh produce to consumers while supporting local family farms.

People looking for a different -- and fresh -- approach to picking produce packed an open house at Olbrich Gardens.
"I've belonged to the CSA for three years. This will be my 3rd summer," Sam Miller says.
Miller is a shareholder in a harvest at a local farm through the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition.

Farmer Tricia Bross with Luna Circle farm also is a member.
"We start the first week of June. We'll bring in a box of vegetables for you -- a box about this big -- of produce. You'll take it home, you get a newsletter that tells you what's in the box, some recipes, how to use it and some general news from the farm," Bross says.

Consumers who buy into the program can decide which farm to support based on what it offers.

"The next week you bring back the empty box, exchange it for another full box and that's the process all summer long. You get really nice fresh vegetables, every week. They change from week to week depending on what's in season," Bross says.

Miller says she has tried things she never knew existed but she knows are healthy.
"It makes me more adventurous in trying things. Some weird vegetable will come in my box and I won't know how to use it or what to do with it, so it'll make me look up recipes," Miller says.

"Food that isn't traveling thousands of miles is gonna be that much fresher. It's gonna have more vitamins, more nutrients ... just gonna be better for you," Bross says.
And, she adds, the program delivers a healthy dose of support to local family farms.
"The farmers who run my CSA are a husband and wife ... know them personally. It's great that my money is going to help support them," Miller says.
You can find more information about the CSA farms, the cost and how they participate by logging onto to www.macsac.org.