I think one of the scariest days of my life was when we launched Monforte Renaissance 2010 back in February 2009. We didn’t know how it would work out. We didn’t know if anybody would sign up for a CSA. We didn’t know if we’d ever be making cheese again.

Truth be told, there’ve been lots of scary days since. But through it all we’ve tried to do the right thing – be as open as possible to, well, possibilities. A friend of ours calls it “water logic” and it means flowing with what life presents you. That’s a good analogy when your work is milk.

We’ve had to do it this way because no one has built a dairy with CSA’s, sort of like Maggie from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof who “depended on the kindness of strangers”.

And what kindness we’ve received! The support from you has been tremendous. We’re so grateful to each and every one of you, not only for each subscription, but also for how you’ve supported us by blogging, posting pictures and videos, spreading the word, your patience and your words of encouragement.

Here we are with over $400,000 from our CSA subscribers, a dairy that’s built, cheesemaking and market staff hired, a storefront right at the dairy.

I feel like I’ve landed in butter. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Ruth Klahsen, owner/lead cheesemaker Monforte Dairy Company

CSAs AND MONFORTE RENAISSANCE

COMMUNITY SHARED AGRICULTURE (CSA) is an alternative local food funding/marketing model that debuted in Canada in 1989. CSAs create a direct link between a specific group of consumers and one or more farmers to address two main problems:
1. Diminishing the risk farmers bear in leading the food production and distribution process
2. Raising consumers’ limited awareness of the provenance of their food supply

Members pay a lump sum in advance for a designated share of the season’s harvest, helping defray farmers’ upfront costs of production and distribution. In return, the member receives a weekly basket filled with foodstuffs harvestable at that time.

COMMUNITY SHARED AGRICULTURE (CSA) is an approach to growing and purchasing food products in which the farmer and consumer work cooperatively. The farmer wins a guaranteed market; the consumer gains high quality, fresh food, as it becomes available.

THE MONFORTE MODEL

In our new home, we are crafting our cheese with care and a commitment to excellence. The support provided to us by our subscribers has been instrumental in ensuring that we have a home here in Stratford. We want to continue this momentum by opening up a new round of CSA Subscriptions.

Here’s our goal: everybody who funds us has the opportunity to share, to be part of what the new dairy means – a secure home not only for Monforte but for the 20-some farms from which we buy our milk; for the local producers who will supply us with the ingredients for new complementary products such as charcuterie, flatbreads and crackers; for the artisans yet to be; the next generation of cheesemakers who want to craft cheeses with an eye to both the future of the cheesemaking art and the deep traditions of the art, all to the highest professional standard. Cheesemaking the way it was meant to be.

Most of all, we want to give everyone and anyone the opportunity to be an agent of change; to have a voice in changing the politics of how quality food is produced, distributed, marketed and sold in Ontario.