There's no place like home when it comes to family, food - and farming. On a dusky summer evening, long tables in the drawing room of Inverbrook Farm are laden with a succulent four - course dinner. Charcoal - grilled chicken marinated in dried chilies and orange juice tops the menu - chickens raised just up the hill by Claire Murray and her uncle on her grandmother's farm, served in the room her grandmother was married in years ago. Bowls of fresh pesto with goat cheese, corn bread, collard greens and home - made gelato come rolling out of the kitchen over a period of three hours simmered in conversation and relaxation.

It gets better: All ingredients are locally grown and prepared, without hormones, antibiotics, pesticides or genetically modified organisms. The dinner is a benefit for the Philadelphia Fair Foods Project, a nonprofit connecting local growers to restaurants, wholesalers and consumers in the Southeastern Pennsylvania region. On this summer day, people drawn by a love of good food gather to rejuvenate an old tradition - the family farm - as a whole new scene. "There is an amazing personal connection between the farmer and the chef, which forces you to be a better cook," says Chef Sean Wineberg, who prepared most of the dinner with employees of Rose Tattoo Café, the Wineberg family restaurant. As one of many area chefs committed to buying local, Wineberg is passionate about supporting the growers. "There is nothing personal about the supermarket," he says.

For Murray, things couldn't be more personal. For the last eight years she has cultivated as many as eight of Inverbrook's 100 acres. She sells her vegetables, along with free - range chickens and the eggs they lay, at area farmers' markets. For the past four years, she also has fostered a concept introduced to her by a nutrition professor at Penn State: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

Of the many ways people support family farms - from buying at farmers' markets to eating at benefit dinners such as this one or in restaurants like the Rose Tattoo Café - the CSA can be one of the most direct and rewarding.

Spreading the seeds

The root of CSA is Tekkei, the name for a partnership between farmers and community members that was developed in 1965 by a group of Japanese women. The concept originated from a concern about the growing use of pesticides, increases in the amount of processed and manufactured foods, and the slow loss of family farms.

According to the CSA Center in Pennsylvania, where the concept was brought to America by Jan Vander Tuin and Robyn Van En in 1984, CSA is a cooperative relationship. Members buy shares from a farmer at the beginning of the growing season and, in turn, are provided with weekly parcels of fresh, seasonal food for a family of four - usually vegetables, but often varied with herbs, fruits and dairy products. The philosophical translation of Tekkei is "food with the farmer's face on it."

Cost of an average share, covering one growing season from May to October, ranges from $300 to $600. The price depends on a farmer's cost of operation, the variety of crops available, distribution networks, and the number of and extent to which people are involved. CSA's also create networks between farmers who swap products for wider variety or buy supplies together.

For Sharon Carson, who grows from her garden in Delmar, the success of the CSA is dependent on active community. "I'm not a farmer - I don't have a tractor," Carson admits. "My passion is gardening."

Carson's CSA subscription offers two variations: A non - working member pays $500 for a weekly variety of vegetables, fruit, culinary herbs and flowers from the garden. A working member pays $300 for the same, and visits Carson's five - acre plot once in the spring, for an eight - hour planting day, and at various times in the summer to join in the harvest. Volunteers help distribute produce, organize subscriptions and publicize the CSA.

"People want to connect with their food. They want fresh, local food they can't find in stores," says Carson, who has been cultivating her land since 1978. She has been involved with the CSA movement since its infancy in this country, and has watched it expand from 15 farms in 1989 to well over 3,000 currently.

Carson grew up on a chicken farm, coming into agriculture "from the earth up, not the head down," as she puts it. It was a culture of diversified farming that she sees rapidly disappearing in the U.S. In addition to vegetables, herbs and flowers, Carson sells eggs from her preservation flock of Delaware chickens. She raises rabbits, too, but only for family consumption. It's all part of her philosophy of being close to the food you consume. "If someone is going to eat meat, they should know the whole process - know the farmer, visit the cow," she says. For Carson, the only way to get unadulterated food is to grow it or raise it yourself.

For Murray, the family farm is a political statement as well as a personal belief. "Possible agricultural problems are rooted in farms," she says. "Slowly, I got sick of standing in front of McDonalds in the protest line and wanted to be part of the solution."

She returned home to the family farm after earning a degree in Environmental Resource Management from Penn State in 1996. Although Murray's philosophy converges with Carson's, their approaches are different. Murray's academic background led to a growing interest in the American food system and land sustainability.

The market garden - peppers, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, greens and beyond - is what Murray grows. She has four varieties of cucumbers - lemon, white, Asian and round - and eight kinds of potatoes. Some customers don't always know what to do with so many varieties of uncommon Asian greens or edamame, but what Murray grows is what you get, a bounty that also is influenced by the time of year. "Eating seasonally is so foreign to what the typical American is used to," Murray notes. She's also working on putting together recipes for distribution among CSA members. It's an added element, along with unusual variety, that can't be found in grocery stores. Murray's organic farming practices are another benefit.

How does your garden grow?

Organic, like sustainable, is a catch word in the agricultural vernacular that carries mixed connotations. For consumers, the cost associated with organic can be a turn - off, and for farmers, the paperwork involved can be onerous. Murray considers her growing practices to be organic, that is, without the use of pesticides, fertilizers or GM products. But having to certify the dozens of varieties of vegetables she grows for such a small yield would be an inefficient use of her time. The guidelines, written with larger farm production in mind, have been a source of contention for some growers. "Values aren't written into standards," says Murray. The growing process, just as important as the final product, is unique to the individual farmer, which the standards can't always take into account.

With a direct market of CSA's and farmers' markets, though, she can tell the customer exactly how the food was grown without having to deal with labeling standards. She can even provide information that doesn't fit on the typical product label, such as how she rotates her vegetables with cover crops that restore nitrogen to the soil, how she makes her compost and what she feeds her chickens. Bio - dynamic growing is what's important here - farming that takes the whole ecological system into account.

A farmer's approach to the land is embodied in a lifestyle, one that is rapidly changing. Large, mono - crop agri - businesses rely on pesticides and fertilizers to rejuvenate tired soil and produce a consistent yield of a single crop. A bad season can cripple a small farm, especially one that has to compete with government subsidies that support big agriculture. As suburban sprawl imposes higher taxes on farms and leads to rising land values, farmers have had to look to new crops and new markets.

"Farmers were captive, restricted to auctions in Lancaster County and roadside stands with arbitrary prices," says Bob Pierson, who founded Farm to City in 1996 with a small farmer's market in Philadelphia. At the time, many farmers who were growing single "cash crops" - corn, tobacco and soybeans - needed to get higher value out of their acres. Pierson's organization provides consistent local outlets for farmers who have turned their farms back to growing a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Farm to City promotes CSA's, farmers' markets and a winter harvest program.

The group has organized seven markets in the Philadelphia area and has grown from four farmers in 1996 to more than 50 today. The goal is threefold: to save farmland by making sure farmers have a good income, to support humane treatment of workers and farm animals, and to provide healthy food. "The average vegetable travels 1,700 miles, and the average fruit 2,400 miles to your door. Is that fresh?" Pierson asks. "Family farmers are typically all good stewards of the land," he adds, "because they know they're going to pass it on."

Fresh from the Farm

Surprisingly, health is not the number one issue driving rising numbers of people to farmers' markets and CSA's. The Philadelphia Fair Food Project (PFFP), in addition to connecting local growers to area markets, also surveys Philadelphiaarea consumer tastes. Bridget Croke, the Project director, notes that freshness of local produce was the biggest draw for people interviewed. Keeping the local economy strong, preserving area farmland and the variety of vegetables are other main reasons people buy local.

"Diversity is key, for growing potential and direct markets. It's also more sustainable and healthier for the land," says Croke. In the project's three and a half years, the "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" campaign they run has seen the demand grow to the point where supply is at its maximum. Apparently, farmers can't grow enough.

Though food scares such as mad cow disease and avian fl u also drive people to try organic or free - range meats and dairy products, most are drawn to the positive effects of buying farm fresh. In addition to publishing a directory of area markets, CSA's and restaurants where people can find local foods, PFFP is expanding their focus by organizing food system alliance groups and campaigning for state and city support of local agriculture. Most of PFFP's funding comes from the White Dog Cafe foundation and grants. With these resources, they are working to create farmer - chef networking events, local organic trade shows and regranting to small farmers, specifically to promote pastured pork production.

"The more we can get people out to farms, the more they connect," says Croke. "We're building a relationship - based economy, rather than one based on government approval, by bringing community back to food."

Buying local may appeal mostly to people already concerned with health and food issues, but both Murray and Croke have noticed that it's a movement that's catching on. "It's a big commitment - a lifestyle change, like joining a gym," says Murray. "I tell people to give it some time, and that it works well with new diets."

The simple pleasure of visiting a farm may have the most appeal of all. "People from the city and development moms like to bring their kids to the farm," says Murray, who marvels at how visiting kids make a beeline for mud puddles and loose - gravel roads. "Reconnecting people to the earth is very rewarding."