T h e F a r m
The Farm
1057 Elizabethtown Road
North Columbia, NY 13357
ph: 315.895.0060
laurakni
C.S.A. was...
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. CSA subscribers received a box of produce every week throughout the growing season, which is roughly from June to mid-October.
Winter and early spring was a really good time for us to have people join... We were still farming at that time of year, but had less income because the crops weren't in yet... We were preparing the greenhouse, ordering and starting seeds, watering, transplanting, repairing machinery, etc... The original concept of CSA was started in the early 1990's as a way to help farmers through the winter when income slows as well as supplying consumers with farm fresh vegetables.
A CSA box was generously filled with produce and herbs
that were in season for that week. Boxes included:
Arugula, broccoli, garlic, snap peas, three round andthree heirloom zucchini,
golden, chioggia, red ace and bulls blood beets,baby brassica braising mix,
fennel, cauliflower, celery, Chinese greens,winter squash, cucumbers,
leeks, daikon radishes, Russian radishes,copra, redwing & 4 other onions, tomatillo's, eggplant,green beans, green onions, scallions,rainbow, red & giant Swiss chard, turnips,over 85 varieties of tomatoes,white & purple kohlrabi, redbor, Tuscan,blue Scotch, red Russian & rainbow kale,Red, white and savoy cabbage, triple washed salad mixes,collards, hot & sweet peppers, dandelion greens,rutabagas, lettuce, rainbow carrots, mustard greens,celeriac, parsnips, peas, shallots, Brussels sprouts,- pumpkins, four fingerling and seven other potatoes,
spinach, sweet potatoes, summer squash,cantaloupes, melons, watermelons, gourds,mint, parsley, basil, chives, tarragon,sorrel, oregano, thyme, sage.
Photograph of contents of a weeks Farm Csa Box By Debra Richardson
Boxes included a variety of vegetables.The boxes were a 1/2 bushel and have 7-9 items as they came into season.A typical box in August might have included: potatoes, heirloom tomatoes,onions, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, kale, garlic and an herb.The boxes were good for 2-4 people.Our produce was grown using organic practices, we signed the NOFA Farmers Pledge, were Certified Naturally Grown and are Slow Food members.We are fond of growing heirloom and heritage varieties. We grew forty different heirloom tomatoes last season and have over 83 this season.
Thanks to our wonderful members!
Being a CSA member with us....
Was getting a box of peak of season, clean, beautiful, healthy vegetables from mid-June - mid-October. We did our best to please everyone. Some vegetables might be what you can get year round at the grocery store (but better because they haven't traveled miles and miles are fresher), some unfamiliar... You won't necessarily get what are planning on.
The vegetables are local and in season.
You are supporting a local farm; us farmers work very hard 80+ hours a week. We jump through many hoops and get few rewards. We were very appreciative of your support and depended on it greatly. The food system in this country is badly broken; small local farms and people who support them are part of the solution.
“One of the things I have found over the years is that you never know what there is going to be an abundance of. The first year it’s easy to think you will get equal amounts of “normal” vegetables each week in a predictable manner. However, that is not the case! If you embrace the unpredictability it can actually make it more fun; if you don’t it can be overwhelming and stressful. What a blessing this year to have an abundance of lettuce and carrots! Other years it’s been tomatoes, squash, etc…Each year we create unique memories of that season. We actually remember what we ate and can reminisce about it! We have a much broader appreciation of food & farming then we did when we started. If everything happened according to ‘plan’, we wouldn’t have all of these great memories.”
- Rachel Zylstra, a member of Trillium Haven Farm CSA.
Read more:
Or: From VEGETABLES FOR BREAKFAST
For CSA subscribers overrun with vegetables and those who care about local food
For CSA subscribers overrun with vegetables and those who care about local food
MY 7 BEST REASONS FOR SUBSCRIBING TO A CSA
I've been a shareholder in Fresh & Local CSA in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, for several years now, and every year--just like you, baby--I reevaluate all the things to which I subscribe. But I keep subscribing to my CSA, and since now is the time when subscribers need to put down their money and make that subscription for the season, I thought it might help newbies and those on the fence to hear why I subscribe. (If you're in Washington, DC, or nearby Maryland or northern Virginia, you can subscribe right now by emailing Farmer Allan Balliett at info@freshandlocalcsa.com and asking for a 2012 share.)
In a world where Whole Foods pays employees (and you pay them, in turn) to toss out any bruised or odd-looking vegetables so that you'll always pull out a great-looking zucchini no matter where in the pile you reach, lots of folks think CSAs are too much trouble. You've got to pay in advance, pick up the food, take it home, wash it, pack it and store it, in effect becoming a food processor. You can't predict what you get each week. There are crop losses from storms, drought, rain, bugs, heat. Sometimes, you've got to work to figure out what the heck that vegetable is.
But, until recently, Whole Foods defined "local" as foods that could take up to 8 hours to get to a store. And I like variety, and puzzles, and great flavor, and community, in no particular order. When I first subscribed, it was a real gamble--I'd never done anything like it. I imagined I'd have to eat vegetables for breakfast in order to keep up, once the season got into full swing, hence the name of the blog. A few years in, though, I can't imagine not having the discovery, flavor and fun that come with my subscription. Here, in no particular order, are my 7 best reasons for subscribing to this CSA:
1. Freshness is a revelation in your mouth: Nutrition researcher Marion Nestle described in What to Eat how fresh-from-the-field broccoli changed her mind about the damage that shipping does to flavor in vegetables. No shipped vegetables can beat the ones that come to me from less than 100 miles away on the day they're picked. For me, while everything tastes different this way, it was the new potatoes, full of moisture, that were my revelation.
2. Vegetable roulette will make you a better eater and a better cook: I already love to cook, but subscribing to a CSA has really made me a better and more challenged cook. I've expanded the range of vegetables I eat, and how I cook them. Now I like getting things in "gourmet" sizes and portions, but very fresh--and figuring out what to make from a week's share is one of my more pleasant puzzles.
3. Eating seasonally feels right. Subscribing to a CSA has done more than anything to reset my tastes seasonally...so in the early part of the season, when everything in the share bag is green, I'm happy with that. Chef Tom Colicchio writes in Think Like a Chef about cooking in his restaurant for a top French chef, and making a seasonal meal. When he went to greet his important guest, the chef said, "But everything was green." And Colicchio said, "Chef, it's spring." He was offered a job in France the next day. The CSA has taught me to appreciate every season, its bonuses, short-term specialties, woes and shortages.
4. Knowing about my food's origins matters: The first season I subscribed to Fresh & Local CSA, there was an outbreak of e.coli in spinach--and people learned they actually ought to be washing the "pre-washed" stuff you get in the supermarket. The authorities warned "know the sources of your food," and all of a sudden, I did--right down to the person I could call who was closest to the field. Since I first subscribed, there've been many outbreaks of disease in the food supply, and while a small farm isn't immune to that, it's a better bet, in my view, to know where the food comes from.
5. Helping make my local food happen is a bonus: I don't do it enough, but boy, do I like the ride out to the farm, helping to plant at the annual garlic-planting party, and doing things like this blog to spread the word. I've met not only the family behind my farm, but the hens, cows, and hogs, and I've waited over a winter to eat garlic I helped to plant. Being a city dweller, I put some herbs in pots and occasionally dabble in peppers or beans, but helping the CSA lets me contribute to getting much more out in the world, and on my own plate.
6. It's in the hood: I live in the 16th Street Heights neighborhood in Washington, DC, and we have many advantages, but no grocery stores. The CSA now delivers on the next block over from me, so I just need to walk over to a neighbor's porch to pick up my share. This is tough to beat, as food shopping goes. (My CSA delivers in Maryland, Washington DC and northern Virginia, and Farmer Allan would be glad to discuss setting up a share site in, say, your apartment or condo building or office building, or in locations along the way into DC.)
7. I get more than veg: I've learned to take advantage of all the different offerings of my CSA, which offers vegetable shares, as well as shares of eggs, fruit, lovely old-fashioned fresh flowers, and special offerings of beef, pork, chicken, lamb and holiday turkeys. But Farmer Allan also makes periodic special offers to shareholders of things that not everyone wants, like hot peppers, okra, and garlic scapes, or things that are byproducts of other offers--so, when beef is being butchered, he'll offer butcher-cross-cut beef bones that make the most amazing beef broth, for the asking. As a result, I've been able to extend the "fresh and local" concept further into my kitchen. Farmer Allan's great about listening to subscriber preferences, how you use the food, and whether you have a wish list for what to grow (although your ideas may need to wait until next season to happen).
So, will you subscribe in 2012? It's time....
I've been a shareholder in Fresh & Local CSA in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, for several years now, and every year--just like you, baby--I reevaluate all the things to which I subscribe. But I keep subscribing to my CSA, and since now is the time when subscribers need to put down their money and make that subscription for the season, I thought it might help newbies and those on the fence to hear why I subscribe. (If you're in Washington, DC, or nearby Maryland or northern Virginia, you can subscribe right now by emailing Farmer Allan Balliett at info@freshandlocalcsa.com and asking for a 2012 share.)
In a world where Whole Foods pays employees (and you pay them, in turn) to toss out any bruised or odd-looking vegetables so that you'll always pull out a great-looking zucchini no matter where in the pile you reach, lots of folks think CSAs are too much trouble. You've got to pay in advance, pick up the food, take it home, wash it, pack it and store it, in effect becoming a food processor. You can't predict what you get each week. There are crop losses from storms, drought, rain, bugs, heat. Sometimes, you've got to work to figure out what the heck that vegetable is.
But, until recently, Whole Foods defined "local" as foods that could take up to 8 hours to get to a store. And I like variety, and puzzles, and great flavor, and community, in no particular order. When I first subscribed, it was a real gamble--I'd never done anything like it. I imagined I'd have to eat vegetables for breakfast in order to keep up, once the season got into full swing, hence the name of the blog. A few years in, though, I can't imagine not having the discovery, flavor and fun that come with my subscription. Here, in no particular order, are my 7 best reasons for subscribing to this CSA:
1. Freshness is a revelation in your mouth: Nutrition researcher Marion Nestle described in What to Eat how fresh-from-the-field broccoli changed her mind about the damage that shipping does to flavor in vegetables. No shipped vegetables can beat the ones that come to me from less than 100 miles away on the day they're picked. For me, while everything tastes different this way, it was the new potatoes, full of moisture, that were my revelation.
2. Vegetable roulette will make you a better eater and a better cook: I already love to cook, but subscribing to a CSA has really made me a better and more challenged cook. I've expanded the range of vegetables I eat, and how I cook them. Now I like getting things in "gourmet" sizes and portions, but very fresh--and figuring out what to make from a week's share is one of my more pleasant puzzles.
3. Eating seasonally feels right. Subscribing to a CSA has done more than anything to reset my tastes seasonally...so in the early part of the season, when everything in the share bag is green, I'm happy with that. Chef Tom Colicchio writes in Think Like a Chef about cooking in his restaurant for a top French chef, and making a seasonal meal. When he went to greet his important guest, the chef said, "But everything was green." And Colicchio said, "Chef, it's spring." He was offered a job in France the next day. The CSA has taught me to appreciate every season, its bonuses, short-term specialties, woes and shortages.
4. Knowing about my food's origins matters: The first season I subscribed to Fresh & Local CSA, there was an outbreak of e.coli in spinach--and people learned they actually ought to be washing the "pre-washed" stuff you get in the supermarket. The authorities warned "know the sources of your food," and all of a sudden, I did--right down to the person I could call who was closest to the field. Since I first subscribed, there've been many outbreaks of disease in the food supply, and while a small farm isn't immune to that, it's a better bet, in my view, to know where the food comes from.
5. Helping make my local food happen is a bonus: I don't do it enough, but boy, do I like the ride out to the farm, helping to plant at the annual garlic-planting party, and doing things like this blog to spread the word. I've met not only the family behind my farm, but the hens, cows, and hogs, and I've waited over a winter to eat garlic I helped to plant. Being a city dweller, I put some herbs in pots and occasionally dabble in peppers or beans, but helping the CSA lets me contribute to getting much more out in the world, and on my own plate.
6. It's in the hood: I live in the 16th Street Heights neighborhood in Washington, DC, and we have many advantages, but no grocery stores. The CSA now delivers on the next block over from me, so I just need to walk over to a neighbor's porch to pick up my share. This is tough to beat, as food shopping goes. (My CSA delivers in Maryland, Washington DC and northern Virginia, and Farmer Allan would be glad to discuss setting up a share site in, say, your apartment or condo building or office building, or in locations along the way into DC.)
7. I get more than veg: I've learned to take advantage of all the different offerings of my CSA, which offers vegetable shares, as well as shares of eggs, fruit, lovely old-fashioned fresh flowers, and special offerings of beef, pork, chicken, lamb and holiday turkeys. But Farmer Allan also makes periodic special offers to shareholders of things that not everyone wants, like hot peppers, okra, and garlic scapes, or things that are byproducts of other offers--so, when beef is being butchered, he'll offer butcher-cross-cut beef bones that make the most amazing beef broth, for the asking. As a result, I've been able to extend the "fresh and local" concept further into my kitchen. Farmer Allan's great about listening to subscriber preferences, how you use the food, and whether you have a wish list for what to grow (although your ideas may need to wait until next season to happen).
So, will you subscribe in 2012? It's time....
The Farm
1057 Elizabethtown Road
North Columbia, NY 13357
ph: 315.895.0060
laurakni
