Saturday – Woodhaven Country Club in Bethany, Connecticut
$550 Foursome / $150 Single – Harvest Cookout Only, $100
Start 10:30 a.m. – Fabulous Cookout starts 2 p.m.
Contact Whitney by phone or email 203-244-4340 or [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Score Fresh Food, Fun and Freedom
BETHANY, Conn. (September 19, 2012) – Golf has been used to raise funds for all sorts of business and nonprofit activities, but a tournament to support a farm’s legal defense against its town is a bit unusual.
Nevertheless, Bodhichitta Farms in Prospect, Connecticut, hopes to raise enough money to continue fighting for the right to distribute produce shares to its consumer-supported agriculture (CSA) members at the farm or another site in the town.
The Benefit Golf Tournament is set for Saturday, October 13, at Woodhaven Country Club, 275 Miller Road, Bethany, with a 11:00 a.m. start time. The fee of $150 per golfer or $550 for a foursome includes 9 holes of golf with a cart, a seafood and steak cookout, farm-fresh produce, ice cream and beer or other beverages. Nongolfers can purchase a ticket to the cookout for $100. Call Whitney Caporaso (203) 244-4340 to register.
“We created our farm in 2008 based on our strong belief in the power of locally produced food to bring people together,” said Whitney Miller Caporaso, co-owner with her husband, Chris. “We are not litigious people, but Prospect’s odd rule barring ‘roadside sale of agricultural products’ and its expansion of that practice to include consumer shares leaves us no choice. We must defend our farm and our CSA.”
So far, the Caporasos have spent countless hours and some $8,000 in legal and application fees trying to convince the town that a member-only farm share does not constitute direct retail sales to the general public, but its appeals have fallen on deaf ears. They may have to spend an additional $10,000 to appeal those decisions to the state Superior Court.
Hence the Bodhichitta Farms Golf Benefit.
“We want to keep growing healthy, organic food for the community, and this is the only way we can do that,” Whitney said.
Meanwhile, the couple travels to farmers markets in other towns to distribute their produce, and must rely on retail sales to make up for most of the CSA-member revenue lost from their inability to distribute at their own site. “This travel adds 30 additional hours of work each week to the schedule; it’s just not sustainable.”
For information about joining the CSA contact Whitney Caporaso at (203) 244-4340 or [email protected].
Bodhichitta Farms is a CSA, a limited partnership in which individuals purchase “shares” of the harvest in advance and sometimes provide labor, depending on the particular CSA model. This enables the farmer to buy seeds, equipment and pay other production costs. In exchange, members receive a periodic “share-out” of fresh produce, with specific items and quantities determined by the extent of the harvest.
CSA members develop an understanding of how food is grown and an appreciation for the effects of temperature, rainfall, insects and diseases on agricultural products. When the bounty is good, share-outs are larger; conversely, a difficult growing season will mean less food to share.