FARM CULTIVATES HARVEST OF HOPE

Star Ledger ^ | 09.21.06 | ALEXANDER LANE

[Coleus]

Emilio Camacho and Jennifer Caruso could hardly be more different. He's a migrant worker from El Paso, Texas. She's a home-schooling mother from Hightstown. What they have in common is Honey Brook Organic Farm in Mercer County, the nation's largest practitioner of an increasingly popular business model called community-supported agriculture.

Camacho and his family are the field crew, the backbone of the 60-acre farm. During the growing season they till the fields and pull the weeds, commuting from a rented house in Trenton. Caruso and 2,986 other New Jersey and Pennsylvania residents are the farm's members. Their checks fill its coffers ahead of the season, guaranteeing a profit no matter how healthy the harvest.

Though Caruso and Camacho haven't met, both are crucial to the success of Honey Brook, which is thriving after 15 years in business and representing to some a hopeful glimmer in New Jersey's struggling agricultural sector. What Caruso gets out of the arrangement, foremost, is fresh produce grown without synthetic pesticides.

Both she and her 4-year-old daughter are vegans, meaning they don't eat or drink animal products of any kind. For about $20 a week, Honey Brook provides 75 percent of their diet during the growing season, she said. She eats as much of it as possible raw. Cauliflower gets steamed and blended to serve as a creamy base for soups. Eggplant gets stewed in Indian spices. Onions, garlic and tomatoes get mashed together with avocados purchased elsewhere. "Guacamole is a food group in my house," said Caruso, who home-schools her daughter and works part-time tutoring another home-schooled child.