Community Corner

Cream of the Crop: Scott's Small Farm

Microfarmer Scott Caneday offers fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to Lemon Grove.

Every other week Scott Caneday provides a box of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to several local customers.

The Lemon Grove microfarmer launched his Summertime Community Supported Agriculture so he could continue to offer locally grown produce after the school year and Golden Delicious Farm Stand at Golden Avenue Elementary School came to a close.

Scott's Small Farm—a garden about 1/3 of an acre—accepted six summer subscriptions, one more than he originally planned. About 30 people expressed interest in the Summertime CSA and provided Caneday with contact information at the last farm stand sale.

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“The response was pretty quick,” Caneday said. “I filled up my subscriptions. A lot of people are really interested in not only having it organic, but also having it very local.”

The bi-weekly box costs $12 per week. Caneday’s customers receive about a dozen kinds of fruits and vegetables in their boxes, which vary depending what is in season and ready to be harvested. The first harvest and delivery/pick-up was July 22.

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“It’s clear that it’s kind of a successful model and there is a lot of demand for it,” Caneday said.

Originally, Caneday and others in conjunction with at the Lemon Grove Recreational Center, but the Friday jogging/walking club was cancelled due to lack of participation.

“That wasn’t very successful,” Caneday said. “The jogging club didn’t have very good participation, so they decided to cancel that. When they canceled that, I didn’t really have a venue.”

Therefore, Caneday decided to create the Summertime CSA so that the farm stand customers could continue to purchase local and organic fruits and vegetables throughout the summer.

Caneday began selling his homegrown produce soon after Golden Avenue Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Student Association launched the farm stand in December.

Caneday, whose two sons attend the school, quickly became the major supplier. The farm stand, which was held every Friday, also offered produce from San Diego County farmers a part of the San Diego Growers Collaborative.

“The idea was not to make a profit. The idea was to try to get real fine-quality fruits and vegetables into the diets of the kids that go there, the families and the community at large,” Caneday said. “They could have access to inexpensive and really, really good produce. I think we were pretty successful at that.”

Caneday learned the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables when he was just a child. He remembered planting radishes in his mother’s garden when he was still in kindergarten.

“Radishes grow really quickly, and within three or four weeks, they were ready to harvest,” Caneday said. “I picked them all and put them in my wagon and went door-to-door trying to sell them.”

Although he said he has grown his own fruits and vegetables all his life, Caneday didn’t sell them again until the farm stand opened.

“It’s just been this last year that I started selling it to other people instead of just eating it myself,” he said.

Now, Scott’s Small Farm is a certified producer with the San Diego County Department of Food and Agriculture and registered organic with the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

“I would imagine that if I was able to increase my production, I could probably do more, but it’s just a nights and weekends kind of thing for me,” Caneday said.

While Caneday’s summer subscriptions are filled, interested customers will soon be able to buy his fresh, organic fruits and vegetables when the Golden Delicious Farm Stand opens again next school year.

For more information about Scott’s Small Farm, contact Scott Caneday at scottssmallfarm@cox.net.


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