The Andersen Family started Charlestown Farm in 2000 on land it purchased a year earlier both to save from development and to create a local source of premium quality organic vegetables and fruits for our community.

Prior to our purchase, the property had been farmed conventionally for many years and consisted solely of open fields planted in hay, corn and soybeans. To create a viable sustainable farming operation here, we had much to do. Despite the large number of potential customers in our suburban Philadelphia community, there was no ready way to access this market. Local retailers sold vegetables they could buy in large quantities from major producers in California or Florida not Phoenixville. Consequently, we had to create new systems to sell our product which we did by creating a CSA and by organizing the Phoenixville Farmers' Market.

We also needed all of the infrastructure a farming operation requires including a driveway, barn, irrigation system, hoop house, root cellar, erosion control system, fencing etc.. In addition, we had to rebuild lifeless soil depleted by years of chemical farming. And, most critically, we needed talented full time farmers. We have been blessed in this regard first with the hiring of Aimee Kocis and John Good (now Aimee and John Good), gifted growers who left in 2005 after four years with us to operate a CSA they started at the Rodale Institute, one of the country's first and pre-eminent organic farms located in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. Our second farmer, Sue Kilpatrick (now Sue Decker), was also a very talented grower. After four years with us, she purchased her own farm in Hudson, New York where she is now working on a starting a CSA. Sue was ably assisted by Andrea Grom, who is now pursuing farming interests in Italy and ultimately possibly on her ancestral farm in Germany. Melissa Ingaglio is beginning her second year as Farm Manager and third year at Charlestown Farm and like her predecessors is a talented grower.

The CSA has grown and now includes 150 CSA members. As the CSA has matured, we have worked hard to improve our product and our production systems. Each year, we have improved and expanded our fleet of farm equipment to increase the efficiency of our operation. For example, in 2008, we purchased a new John Deere 6430 primary tillage tractor, an old John Deere model 30 two row potato digger, a two row transplanter, and a John Deere manure spreader. In 2009, we purchased a Kuhn 3 bottom roll-over plow, constructed a cob bread and pizza oven, and improved one of the farm roads.

We have also improved our product by expanding and refining our offerings in response to information gathered from year end surveys of our CSA members. As a result of these surveys, we have expanded our u-pick and herb gardens, stopped planting certain vegetables while growing more of others, and increased our cooking workshops. To increase small fruit production, we have installed a 1-acre planting of table grapes and blueberries which is fenced to protect from deer and will be netted to protect from birds.

We welcome suggestions for new ways to improve the Farm.

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