BOULDER -- The next best thing to growing one's own garden could be sharing someone else's.

That's what Perpetual Harvest Farms, a Community Supported Agriculture venture, south of Boulder offers its 27 customers.

Ah, and what a bounteous garden Jackie and Tom Fischer grow!

Surrounded by beauty, it overlooks the lush Boulder River Valley with a vista of the Elkhorn Mountains and Bull Mountain.

Spreading at our feet, grow row upon row of this season's bounty -- cilantro, chives, Italian parsley, summer savory, sugar snap peas, shelling peas, snow peas, beets, carrots, cabbages, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, arugula, lettuces, mizuna, broccoli raab, onions, leeks, scallions, chard, purple and yellow beans, spinach, six varieties of potatoes, sweet corn, tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplants, cucumbers, sweet and hot peppers, summer and winter squash, pumpkins, melons, asparagus, cut flowers -- and basil!

The basil so lush and fragrant, just to be in its midst is aromatherapy for pesto addicts.

"It (the CSA) is kind of like having your own garden," Jackie said, "but you don't do the work."

CSAs are a partnership between the farm and its members or customers.

Perpetual Harvest members this year signed up for 16 weeks of produce, each paying $395. Half-season shares are now available, too.

To be a CSA member is not for the timid. Members take on some risk, such as a crop failing.

And it's best if they see eating as an adventure.

"Every week is a wonderful aromatic surprise," said member Tara Mastel of Whitehall.

"My favorite thing that I did not expect is being exposed to all these different kinds of vegetables. It's stretching my boundaries of what I would normally eat."

"The first year we got rainbow chard. We said, 'What is that stuff?'"

She admitted that some went into the compost heap instead of onto the dinner plate.

"We love it now. My husband, who does not cook, he's cooking it all the time."

The house always smells of garlic, she said, because he loves to cook it in olive oil and garlic.

"It's just fun. It's really fun."

Kelli Butenko of Helena likes the variety, as well.

"We try a lot of new things," she said. "We never would have tried fennel or kale.

"I like the idea of supporting a local farmer," she added, "rather than our produce being trucked in from California.

"You can definitely taste the freshness difference -- that it's just off the vine."

Twelve Helena families pick up their weekly delivery -- a large canvas bag of produce -- from her front porch every Thursday.

"I like to see their faces when they pick it up and see what's in their bag," she said.

Perpetual Harvest also delivers to Butte on Tuesdays.

The farm's name embodies its vision. Someday it will offer eight to nine months of produce per season.

Tom and Jackie stretch the Montana growing season -- using cold frames, greenhouses and a black mulch around heat-loving crops.

In the nearby wood-heated greenhouse, a second crop of peas, broccoli and cauliflower poke out of the pots. Soon they'll be moved to the garden for harvest this fall.

But Perpetual Harvest could just as well be called Intrepid or, perhaps, Undaunted Harvest.

When the farm moved to its current site last year, it gained an inspiring view, but soil that appears rocky and unforgiving.

That's changing with the help of composted manure and worms.

Tom opens a large plastic bucket in a corner of the greenhouse and dips his hand into the dark, rich soil. In the palm of his hand squirm red worms at work.

"We grow worm castings," said Tom. "It's just amazing how well things grow in worm poop."

The worms speed composting of kitchen and garden waste, as well as weeds -- seeds and all. The new, rich soil goes back into the garden.

And then there are the variety of pests to cope with. Since Perpetual Harvest grows produce organically, they work with the pests' natural enemies to control infestations.

Then came the June snow.

But still, the garden thrives. The crops are lagging just a week and a half behind last year, according to Jackie's gardening journal.

The season is right for CSAs to flourish in Montana, said Jackie.

"The whole local food movement is making people aware of why to get their things locally.

"The food tastes better. It's fresher. You can come out and see how it's grown. And you're not paying the cost of trucking the food in.

"I think the whole gas thing has people thinking where things come from."

And Perpetual Harvest has room to grow.

"We would like to get up to 70 members in a few years," Jackie said.

Tom and Jackie are growing with their business. They began with backyard gardening, and the more they grew, the more they loved it.

Tom worked 20 years in the printing industry, while Jackie studied literature and writing.

"When I started gardening -- I knew this was what I was meant to do," she said. "When you've found your passion, you can't do anything else."

On the Web

Click here to learn more about Community Supported Agriculture.

Click here to go to Perpetual Harvest Farms.

Reporter Marga Lincoln: 447-4074 or marga.lincoln@helenair.com