I've read about these things. How do they work?
depends on how you set it up. my wife started the one in our town through a grant from Grow Pittsburgh. The way ours works is as a true community, not for profit, farm. Strictly volunteer workers and we plant, harvest, weed, water etc....
I should know the exact square footage but I don't...I would guess 40 yards x 25 yards and we grow everything you can think of...greens, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, kale, bruss sprouts, beets, cucumbers, beans, pumpkins, watermelons, and berries. We also have an herb garden surrounding the main farm area for fennel, garlic, basil, thyme, etc. this is end of 3rd full year and most of the food goes to the local food bank for the 150ish families in the area that are on food assistance plans. Volunteers can take home what they want but 90% of the food each week goes to the food bank. We also have a few restaurants that buy from us but that is very limited under the terms of the grant and is more for the herbs, onion, garlic, and flowers (garnish) than the vegetables
some community farms allow residents that sign up to "own" their own piece of the farm. usually that is for very urban areas with a lot of apartment buildings where you cannot have a garden but I'm in a Pittsburgh suburb and probably the only garden in the borough larger than the community farm is my backyard
... other community farms sell their weekly harvest for profit but depends on how they secured land, if farm started privately or via grant, etc.
Check out the Vietnam doc next week...
been taping them. so got them all on DVR...will be a nice way to get through next few NFL Sundays