MORROW— Logan and Marissa Kruthaup look out at the five acres of fertile farm ground they plowed in the past week with a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Just a few years ago, the land was a yard and they were casual gardeners raising a few crops for family dinners. Now, these two industrious teens are running a businesses that is geared toward supporting the community while it supports their farm.

The Kruthaup’s farm is one of a growing trend of community supported agriculture farms, or CSAs, a sort of communal farming system that gives farmers a greater sense of financial assurance and provides a wide variety of fresh vegetables to hungry local consumers. While Marissa, 19, and Logan, 16 may be uniquely young to be running such a farm, the idea itself is a method that’s gaining popularity nationwide.

“Before, you never knew how much to grow when planting a farm,” explained Marissa on one of the key benefits to a CSA. “You hate to grow too much because then you’re just going to have rotting vegetables. But with the CSA we can plan ahead because we know what people ordered.”

Erin Barnett, the director of LocalHarvest.org, an online database of CSAs nationwide, said there are 3,539 CSAs registered with its Web site. In 2007, Barnett said 376 new CSAs joined the Web site. In 2008, 557 news CSAs joined and in 2009 that increased by 892.

“The notion of buying local food is extremely popular,” Barnett said. “For many, it translates to keeping money in local farms.”

In a CSA, a customer subscribes to a farm at the start of the growing season. In the Kruthaup’s farm, customers can purchase either a half or full share of the farm for $150 or $275 respectively. Then, for 10 weeks in the summer, the customer is greeted with a cornucopia of freshly grown vegetables, ranging from green beans to tomatoes to a wide variety of peppers.

Customers can expect around 10 pounds of fresh veggies a week, the Kruthaup’s said. Customers can either pick up the crops at the Kruthaup’s farm or at a couple of drop off spots once a week.

Last year, the Kruthaup Farm had 58 members join the CSA. They are expecting 100 members this year and say contracts are pouring in at a rate of two to three a week.

“People love the idea of having fresh vegetables from a local farmer,’’ Logan said.

“People want to know their farmers and feel like they have a connection to them,” Barnett said. “They also provide a chance for parents to teach children about farms which will in turn make eating a vegetable more attractive to them.”

For farmers, a CSA provides a chance to market their food early in the year before they are tied down to a tractor and a gives them a more manageable cash flow, Barnett said.

Ken Kruthaup said that farming runs in his family’s blood, dating back to his great-grandparents, who lived in Clinton County. When his family moved to their Morrow farm 17 years ago, he planted a small garden for the family and maintained it every year.

Six years ago, the family found themselves with an abundance of melons and sold them at a local farmer’s market. Enticed at the notion of turning their green thumbs into green currency, Marissa and Logan grew broccoli for Jungle Jim’s grocery store.

Then when their father was on a business trip in Chicago, he heard about CSAs and decided it would be a good way for his children to earn some summer money.

“I thought it would teach them about business and responsibility and give them something to do,” Ken Kruthaup said. “But I didn’t think it would take off the way it has.”

Today, Ken can still point out the 10 foot by 10 foot plot that was his initial garden and still grows some berries.

Marissa and Logan Kruthaup, the teens who manage the farm, said that running a community farm has offered them several benefits: they’ve learned several aspects of running a business such as cost/benefit analysis and expenses vs. revenue. They also become acquainted with a variety of vegetables they never even imagined existed.

“A customer requested blue potatoes,” said Logan, who is a sophomore at Little Miami High School. “We didn’t know they existed.”

Logan said he and his sister can grow pretty much anything, except carrots, which can’t survive in the area’s hard soil.

“I like growing peppers best,” said Marissa, who is a freshman studying psychology at the University of Kentucky. “They come in all colors and when they hang down its beautiful.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4544 or jmcclelland@coxohio.com.