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“Until a few years ago, markets were the hot, sexy thing,” remarked Cheryl Rogowski, owner of W. Rogowski Farm in Pine Island, NY, the black dirt region of upstate New York and onion producing capitol of the world. “Now it’s CSAs [Community Supported Agriculture]-everyone wants one-everyone wants to be connected to a farm now.”

It’s tough to argue with a win-win situation-a community of city dwellers partner with a farm to receive a share of produce once a week in exchange for paying their farmer a modest lump sum at the beginning of the season. While you get your local produce, the farmer is able to cover his annual start-of-the-season costs, making it possible to grow his business and get to market once the vegetables really get going later in the summer. But, as one might imagine, there are plenty of logistics involved. Enter Just Food, a venerable organization based in Manhattan that has been facilitating farm/community matches to make successful CSAs for over a decade.

This year marked their 9th annual CSA in NYC conference, which was held on Sunday, March 8th at Teachers College. Speaking to a packed room of farmers and CSA supporters, Jacquie Berger, Just Food’s executive director, reported that last year there were 62 CSAs across the city-this year there will be 80. In fact, the desire to get local produce in our communities is so pronounced it’s hard to keep up with the demand.

An early pioneer of the CSA model, W. Rogowski Farm partnered with Just Food back in 1999 to form a CSA that began humbly with twelve shares. “Taking this bold step outward was crucial for our farm,” recalled Cheryl Rogoski, the keynote speaker. “My community is Polish, my church is Polish-we’re used to doing things the old-fashioned way,” said the one-time Princess of the Onion Harvest turned McArthur Fellow. “I was scared to death-I didn’t know what I was getting us into. But I was willing to think weird. My father said it would never work. ‘We’re still collecting on produce we delivered six months ago-no one is ever going to pay you for vegetables you haven’t grown yet!’” And yet, the proof is in the produce, so to speak. This year W. Rogowski Farms will be supported by a CSA with six hundred shares. “It’s never been a more exciting time to be a farmer,” she noted.

For city dwellers, forming a connection to the soil where our food is grown may be the foremost reason one thinks to join a CSA, but the underlying principal is that the money you pay at the beginning of the season buys you a share of the farm. While you may not get much dirt under your nails when picking up your allotment of weekly greens, your payment inherently involves you in the business of farming.

In order to facilitate the give-and-take relationship between farmers and their supporters, the CSA in NYC Conference offered a plethora of morning and afternoon workshops that fleshed out the myriad of food-related topics participation in a CSA addresses. Beyond Just Food’s Community Chefs offering tips on creative use of CSA produce or how to make baby food with a weekly share, panels touched on topics ranging from volunteer involvement, offering meat and egg shares to members, worker’s rights, and the farm bill, to what food justice will mean in the Obama administration.

The speakers were farmers, food historians, and community organizers, and when the panels turned into group discussions, the audience of CSA members representing all five boroughs of New York City were able to draw on their personal experiences and share stories that touched on solutions to organizational quandaries, how to incorporate flexible spending plans for low-income members, and how to start a CSA from scratch.

The workshop “Good to Eat: Food, Culture and Nutrition,” posed the questions: Is there a CSA cuisine? How do different ethnic groups incorporate CSA produce into their traditional recipes? Judith Belasco from the Jewish organization Hazon, recounted her group’s desire to feature CSA produce in Shabbat dinner, Professor Fa Tai from the Food Studies Department at New School commented that different cultures have clashing notions of nutrition, and Zaid Kurdieh of Norwich Meadows Farms contributed his experience of incorporating tenets of his Muslim faith into his practice as a farmer.

At the end of the day, it all comes back to the way the food tastes, why we like to eat it and share it with our friends and families. Fittingly, we moved from talking farming politics to sampling products from local purveyors who had assembled in an indoor market. Jessamyn Waldman from Hot Bread Kitchen was vending her local line of flatbreads and floating the idea of starting a CSA that would offer bread shares. “If we can get enough people interested the shares would pay for a new oven,” she told me. Sure enough, just last week I read that her plan has taken off.

Like Rogowski said, we’ve got to be willing to think weird. This week I heard Jimmy’s No. 43, a popular East Village gastro-pub, will be a drop-off point for a CSA. Since when does a restaurant want to encourage its neighbors to cook their own dinner? Now restaurants are relying on their communities in a new way, and like a farm, having regulars invest support makes it possible to sustain and grow business in the face of the economic downturn.

As the gathering was winding down I bumped into Jacquie Berger and congratulated her on such a well-organized and well-attended conference. We started talking about our own CSAs and it turns out we share a farmer! “People want to know where their food is coming from-who makes it and who benefits from their dollars. With all of the turmoil right now people are looking for assurance, solid connections,” said Berger. While it’s safe to say the CSA movement is growing with gusto, the city and my personal food route feel like they’d both just gotten pleasantly smaller.

Jeanne Hodesh is a freelance food writer and committed locavore. She blogs regularly for Takeabite.cc, Saveur.com, and has been published in Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan. She also composes Local Gourmands, a weekly e-newsletter that lists local food events in New York City.