Shares in community supported agriculture programs, or CSAs, have sold out at record speed this year, leaving produce-loving procrastinators empty-handed.

At Wintergreen Farms in Noti, all 550 shares in its weekly box delivery program were snapped up by April 24, and several people have already paid deposits on shares for 2009.

Only 285 Wintergreen shares had been sold by the same date last year, said Linda Davies, farm office coordinator.

Why the sudden interest in local farm produce?

“It’s a combination of things,” Davies said Saturday, during the farm’s annual open house and potluck. “It’s an idea whose time has come. People are more concerned with what they’re eating and they want to limit their carbon footprint. One way to do that is to eat close to home.”

Usually, people don’t start thinking about produce until the weather warms up and they realize their plans to plant a kitchen garden aren’t going to pan out, Mary Jo Wade, Wintergreen’s financial manager, said.

As a result, the farm typically has 20 to 50 shares available at the potluck event for people who visit the farm and decide to sign up.

Not this year.

“They really flew out the door at an unprecedented rate,” Wade said. “It’s just a boggling difference.”

The same is true at other local farms offering CSA baskets to the public. Groundwork Organic Farm in Junction City is sold out, as is FOOD for Lane County’s Youth Farm program.

People who sign up for a CSA are in essence buying a share of the farm by paying up front before the start of the season.

The system gives farmers seed money and lessens their risk and debt load. Consumers reap the rewards of a bountiful harvest and also share in the disappointment of a poor harvest.

Typically, shares run between $300 and $600 and feed a family of four.

At Wintergreen, a standard share costs $440 and includes 19 weeks of produce deliveries from June to October.

Between 10 and 12 local farms have offered CSA shares in recent years.

But at least two did not do so this year — Hey! Bales Farm in Lorane and Horton Road Organics in Blachly. That could account for some of the increased business at other farms, but not all of it, Wade said. There’s something more to it.