JOHNSTON COUNTY — If you’re looking for fresh produce, it might be right around the corner. A handful of Johnston farms allow locals to buy produce fresh off the fields every week or two.

“When you buy it from a farmer, the oldest it could be is three days ago,” said James Taylor Jr., one of the owners of TayLee Organics near Clayton. “You can’t get no fresher than that; that’s like going to the beach and buying fish.”

The idea is called community-supported agriculture, or CSA, and it is taking off in Johnston County. TayLee is in its first year of operation. It grows produce on 13 acres that Taylor and co-owner Robbie Lee, both 23, are leasing from Wilson Blackmon, Taylor’s grandfather. Word of mouth has spread quickly and put the small farm on the map.

“We’ve had people calling every day,” Taylor said. “You want your local community to know it’s really for them.”

Already, TayLee has more than 20 shareholders who have paid seasonal fees of $250 or $500 to pick up produce every other week from the farm or one of its drop-off sites. (Folks who have paid $500 get twice as much.) The boxes can include everything from corn, tomatoes and squash to pickled cucumbers. The new farm is an adventure for Taylor and Lee, and they’ve brought in help. Taylor’s younger brother, Josh, cut back his hours at his full-time job to work the fields more, and one woman, Christine McGuire, comes in and does farm labor to pay for her share of produce.

“I’m interested in keeping everybody connected, keeping everyone involved, keeping farmers involved on the small scale,” said McGuire, 24, a recently married senior at N.C. State University. She found TayLee through the Web site LocalHarvest.org, then bartered her labor for produce.

“I’m broke, and I have not had much success with growing my produce,” she said.

Taylor thinks he has chosen the right business to stay afloat. “With the recent economy, the food industry seems like the only one to go into,” he said. “People gotta eat.”

Another plus for TayLee: Taylor says it’s the first USDA-certified organic farm in Johnston County. Organic farming can involve a lot more labor and specialized products, like a natural bacterial pesticide. One of the hallmarks of the style is the recycling of nutrients back into the soil and other techniques that sustain the land.

Taylor’s mother, Sheila, got the family started on organic food because she believes it is better for the land and better for the body.

And in some cases, farmers say, it just plain tastes better. Tom Kumpf, who runs Double-T Farm in Garner, thinks his lettuce is sweeter and crunchier than the “bitter, over-fertilized” greens from industrial farms.

Kumpf is an organic-style grower and has been at the forefront of the local CSA movement. Double-T, owned by Kumpf and his wife, Theresa Ryan, is in the fifth growing season of its community-model farm. “Local organic trumps everything,” Kumpf said, looking out over his fields and greenhouses. “Our stuff’s fresh.”

Kumpf’s CSA program is well established in the community and regularly sells out of space at $400 for a half-share and $600 for a full.

“What keeps ’em coming is the flavor and the quality,” said Kumpf, who is looking to expand from a summer program to year-round produce. One of the most important parts of the model, he added, is that his customers can come to the farm and see the work that nurtures their food.

“They want to be close to the food; they want to know their farmer,” he said.

Kumpf estimated that demand for local organic food outstrips supply 20-to-1. “If it’s there, people will buy it,” he said.

Smith’s Nursery also opened its own CSA this year, the Doorstep Market, and has already signed up 60 members.

“We thought, everybody’s growing it out this way, but not many people are providing the service here,” said Heather Rollins, sales manager for Smith’s. “Especially for smaller farmers, the movement’s just starting.”

One of the biggest boons, Rollins said, has been word of mouth on the discussion boards at 4042.com. “When it got posted on there, it kind of exploded,” she said. “It just has gone viral from there, all thanks to the Internet.”

The farm also packages products from other local food sources, such as Maple View Farm in Hillsborough.

The baskets start at $21 a week, depending on what size you order.

“Best $28 we spent in a long time,” a user with the handle Pirate96 posted.

This week’s box from Smith’s will be strawberry shortcake-themed, including fresh strawberries and a pound cake from Creative Cravings.

Joetta and Tim Stillwell of Clayton got involved in Johnston County agriculture early this year when they found a brochure for TayLee.

When they signed up in February, the couple brought their 15- and 11-year-old sons out to see Taylor and Lee’s field.

“I wish we’d seen something like this earlier on,” Joetta said. “It’s the best way to experience pretty much anything, hands-on.”

For Joetta and Tim, gardens run in the family, and the local farm has offered a chance to get their boys more involved with the tradition.

The farms are putting a new face on local food, and their owners take pride in their roles. “You really could not have a more noble profession than to provide people with healthy food,” said Sheila Taylor, James’s mother.