New idea: Local-In-A-Box

In the move toward making local food a regular part of life for shoppers, Lowes Food added a new fold earlier this summer: The Locally Grown Club, a sort of supermarket-based CSA.

Farm-based CSAs are well-established, of course, as subscription services that let a shopper pay in advance and receive a regular share in a farm's harvest.

Lowes' new version is a little different: The Winston-Salem-based chain with locations in Charlotte is letting shoppers sign up to receive a weekly package of produce from N.C. farms. The club runs until Sept. 17 and varies in price, from $30 for a one-week trial subscription to $75 for three weeks or $175 for a 7-week subscription. Shoppers pick up their produce every Saturday at the stores. Each box has six to 10 items, weighs at least 12 pounds, and is designed to be enough produce for a family of four for a week. Sign up and get details here: lowesclub.

So how does the company define local? Most of the farms used are in North Carolina, although the chain also works with farms in South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Viriginia, based on availability and seasonality. For instance, this week's boxes would include Roma tomatoes and Athena melons from Patterson Farms in China Grove, Sprite melons from Southeastern Growers Association of Kinston, lettuce from Shelton Farms in Whittier, mini sweet pepppers from Bailey Farms in Oxford, and white peaches from Lindsay Deal in Taylorsville, along with N.C. eggplant, S.C. corn and Virginia potatoes.

Looking around the country yesterday, the only program like it that I found is at the Dorothy Lane markets in and around Dayton, Ohio, which started a similar subscription service about a year ago. But it's something we may see more often as stores look for ways to harness the desire for local with what their region can provide.

Lorna Christy, a marketing expert with the Produce Marketing Association, says she sees CSAs going off in all kinds of directions we couldn't have predicted five or 10 years ago. "It's a really interesting example of how the lines are blurring between the locally grown CSA and retail outlets," she says. She's seen examples in many cities of CSAs opening retail operations in stores that are vacant and cheaply rented thanks to the economic downturn.

She also points to things like stores that allow farmers markets to operate in their parking lots. Even though it looks like the stores wouldn't want competition right outside their doors, it actually works: The stores get good will from the community and shoppers who start outside usually also go inside to buy things to go with the fresh produce they picked up.

Regional chains like Lowes can be more innovative than large national chains, she says, so they're good incubators for new ideas. Finding ways to harness local food is part of that. "It's a great example of really good marketing people looking outward and finding new ways to connect."

So have any of you signed up for the Lowes food club? I'd love to hear how the experience works and whether you got your money's worth in the boxes.

Snow Chickens and CSAs

Dean Mullis of Laughing Owl Farm gave me permission to use this picture of his chickens up in Stanly County. It's also a good excuse to think about spring and CSAs.

If you missed my story in The Observer's Local section, here's what you need to know: It's time to sign up for a CSA if you're interested. CSA, Community-Supported Agriculture, is sort of a subscription to a farm's harvest. You pay for a share, usually $400 to $750. In exchange, for 20 to 26 weeks (it varies by farm, just like the price), you get a percentage of what the farm harvests that week. You usually pay up front, in the early spring, so the farm has money to plant all the stuff they'll harvest in the summer.

If you're interested in a CSA, now is the time. Many popular farms have waiting lists, but there are new farms joining the list every year. The best ways to find them are to either ask around at farmer's markets (giving you another reason to discover the markets that are open in winter), or go to a Web site like www.localharvest.org and search their database.

You can also keep an eye out on social media: A number of farms now have either e-mail newsletters, blogs or even Facebook pages. Following real farms beats the heck out of Farmville. I've even heard Dean Mullis is trying to learn Twitter. (No, Dean, you don't get on by scattering feed in the hard drive.)

CSAs have always been the ultimate grassroots business model, and people are finding all kinds of variations on them. Originally, some farms offered a work-pay plan, where you reduced the cost of your share if you spent a little time working for the farm. Those have gotten more rare. Many farms don't offer that option; some offer only a few slots for it. Sweat equity sounds great, but for farmers, it's not all that efficient to have untrained workers pawing around in the fields.

But a lot of other models have sprung up. Some farms offer half-shares. Some families go in together to split a share. I've even heard of churches where members pitch in to buy a share, then use the food for their emergency pantries and feeding programs.

Maria Fisher of Fisher Farms is trying a new model. In the past, she guaranteed her members seven items in their bags. But she found she could harvest five things and bag them with no problem. It was items No. 6 and 7 that were killing her. So she's offering what she's calling a Supportive Buying Club: You pay $150 for $200 worth of food, as long as you pick it up at the Charlotte Tailgate Market in SouthEnd on Tuesdays. With the money you have left over, she hopes you'll buy more from other farmers at the market.

I'll confess: Even after reading Maria's newsletter and talking to her about, I don't quite understand it. But she swears it will work, it will make her life easier and it will bring in more business when the Tailgate reopens this spring. Contact her here if you want to sign up. Or just explain it.