Showing posts with label Our CSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Our CSA. Show all posts
Friday, December 17, 2010
Name Change?
It's been awhile since I've blogged...we are contemplating many things about the farm. One of those is a name change. When we named the farm "Picket Fence Farm", we thought it was unique to our area. Since then we have found out about Picket Fence Creamery in Woodward, Iowa that has been around longer than we have. In an effort to be more unique and original we want to rename our farm. So we are currently brainstorming ideas. We are also coming up with new marketing ideas, farming practices, and deciding what we will grow for the 2011 season. We are thinking at this time we will operate a small CSA and try out selling at area farmer's markets as well. Our goal is to try to make our farm our primary source of income in the coming years so that we can do it better. It is hard having the husband working full-time off the farm, as well as trying to raise a family and grow a business. This farm is what we are passionate about...providing local, farm-fresh, chemical-free food for our own family and our community.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Customize your order...
For anyone interested, if you join our CSA before May 31, we will let you customize your CSA box. For example, if you happen to not like beets and turnips and would like more peas and lettuce instead, we would be willing to accommodate you. Also, we are thinking of setting up a payment plan where our customers can pay in 2 installments if they need to. If anyone is interested in this, please let us know. You can click on Become a Member of Our CSA for our contact info.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Buy a CSA Share Online
For those of you interested, you can now go to www.localharvest.org and buy a share of our CSA for the upcoming season from our new "store".
(The above picture is a sampling of our 2008 harvest.)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Why Choose a CSA?
So, why should you choose to join a CSA?
First, freshness of the food. In most cases, it is picked from the garden the same day you take it home. There are no long shipments from somewhere far away. Most conventional produce you buy is picked before it is fully ripe so it can sit longer in the grocery store. We don't pick out of the garden until it is at it's peak of ripeness. This ensures a better flavor.
Secondly, the nutritional content of the food. Conventional produce is grown in depleted soils--it has less vitamins and minerals than home grown produce. We enrich our soil with compost, natural fertilizers and cover crops. This ensures a healthy and nutritious crop.
Third, freedom from chemical contamination. Over 70,000 chemical poisons have been used in agriculture in recent years, many are still in use. No one knows for sure how any of them interact with each other in the soil, groundwater, or air. Or most importantly, what impact they have on people. These chemicals are designed to kill living things (weeds, insect pests, etc.) Why would they not do any harm to us? Synthetic chemical fertilizers are no better.
And lastly, support of your local grower and community. You are buying from a local business and keeping your hard earned dollars in your own community and country. Plus, you know something of the ethic in which your food was grown, and you get a sense of what farming is all about (the good and the bad) during the 20 or more weeks of seasonal connectivity to the farm.
First, freshness of the food. In most cases, it is picked from the garden the same day you take it home. There are no long shipments from somewhere far away. Most conventional produce you buy is picked before it is fully ripe so it can sit longer in the grocery store. We don't pick out of the garden until it is at it's peak of ripeness. This ensures a better flavor.
Secondly, the nutritional content of the food. Conventional produce is grown in depleted soils--it has less vitamins and minerals than home grown produce. We enrich our soil with compost, natural fertilizers and cover crops. This ensures a healthy and nutritious crop.
Third, freedom from chemical contamination. Over 70,000 chemical poisons have been used in agriculture in recent years, many are still in use. No one knows for sure how any of them interact with each other in the soil, groundwater, or air. Or most importantly, what impact they have on people. These chemicals are designed to kill living things (weeds, insect pests, etc.) Why would they not do any harm to us? Synthetic chemical fertilizers are no better.
And lastly, support of your local grower and community. You are buying from a local business and keeping your hard earned dollars in your own community and country. Plus, you know something of the ethic in which your food was grown, and you get a sense of what farming is all about (the good and the bad) during the 20 or more weeks of seasonal connectivity to the farm.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
What is a CSA?
Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is based on the Subscription Farm Model. This means the farmer provides fresh produce on a prepaid basis to a group of customers for a given season. By participating in a CSA, you are not only getting the freshest chemical free produce available, you are supporting your local farmer and making a connection with the land that your food is grown on.
Currently we have one general growing season, Summer. It generally begins in mid-May and goes through October, with around 20 or so weekly deliveries/pickups. Each week members of the CSA will receive a bag or box of fresh produce--whatever happens to be ready in the garden that week. Boxes may contain less in early spring as the growing season begins, but we will make up the difference in value later in the season when the garden is in full swing.
We are currently planning on having on farm pickup only, but if we receive enough interest in certain areas, we may plan on a day we can drop off produce to make it easier on our customers. A newsletter will be included in each bag or box to help keep members informed about what produce varieties are included for the week, recipes for the produce, and what's happening at the farm.
A membership for this year (2009) will be $400. This includes enough fresh from the garden produce to feed 2-4 people and fresh cut flowers on occasion every week until the end of the season. If you feel this is too much produce for you, consider sharing with a friend. If it is not enough for a larger family, consider buying two shares or buy extras at our farmstand. This year we will require that the full amount be paid upfront at the beginning of the season.
We are currently accepting new members. Because this is our first year, we are accepting a limited amount of memberships with the hopes of expanding in the coming years. If we fill up and still have interested customers, we will start a waiting list in chronological order of when we received the initial inquiry. Please contact us if you would like to join by emailing us at picketfencefarm(at)gmail(dot)com.
Currently we have one general growing season, Summer. It generally begins in mid-May and goes through October, with around 20 or so weekly deliveries/pickups. Each week members of the CSA will receive a bag or box of fresh produce--whatever happens to be ready in the garden that week. Boxes may contain less in early spring as the growing season begins, but we will make up the difference in value later in the season when the garden is in full swing.
We are currently planning on having on farm pickup only, but if we receive enough interest in certain areas, we may plan on a day we can drop off produce to make it easier on our customers. A newsletter will be included in each bag or box to help keep members informed about what produce varieties are included for the week, recipes for the produce, and what's happening at the farm.
A membership for this year (2009) will be $400. This includes enough fresh from the garden produce to feed 2-4 people and fresh cut flowers on occasion every week until the end of the season. If you feel this is too much produce for you, consider sharing with a friend. If it is not enough for a larger family, consider buying two shares or buy extras at our farmstand. This year we will require that the full amount be paid upfront at the beginning of the season.
We are currently accepting new members. Because this is our first year, we are accepting a limited amount of memberships with the hopes of expanding in the coming years. If we fill up and still have interested customers, we will start a waiting list in chronological order of when we received the initial inquiry. Please contact us if you would like to join by emailing us at picketfencefarm(at)gmail(dot)com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)