Veggie customers partner with farm

The investors in Bluestem Farms in Madison, Neb., take their dividends in vegetables.

Both have day jobs in Norfolk, which is about 15 miles north of Madison. She teaches English and speech at the junior high school, and he teaches chemistry and physics at Northeastern Community College.

When they are not teaching, the couple work to develop Bluestem Farms, which they bought from Kim's father, Lyle, in 2000. They raise chemical-free vegetables and hormone- and antibiotic-free beef and chickens.

But there's a twist in their marketing.

The Timperleys have set up a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It's a fancy way of saying they get customers for their produce ahead of time.

Customers, or shareholders, buy a subscription to have fresh vegetables delivered to their homes weekly throughout the growing season.

Timperley said customers typically place their orders in March.

"This way we know how much seed to get and plant," he said, adding that the couple usually plant extra in case they get customers later in the season.

On a Web site called LocalHarvest, the couple breaks down subscriptions this way: $475 for a full family subscription; $400 for a two-thirds family subscription; and $22 for a half-dozen eggs a week.

Members receive weekly deliveries of an assortment of lettuces, greens, peas, radishes and asparagus. Because of their greenhouse, the Timperleys also can supply early tomatoes and cucumbers.

In the middle of the summer come green beans, broccoli and sweet corn. By fall, the deliveries include squash, watermelon, carrots, potatoes and other long-season vegetables.

Customers who subscribe to the winter season have their pick of the stored vegetables from the Timperleys' root cellars as well as fall lettuces and salad mixes from the greenhouse.

People sign up and then wait for the growing season.

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