What’s New for 2012

This year our CSA season will run from June 13th until October 17th, excluding the 4th of July, which falls on Wednesday.

As of January 13th, we have 33 shares available.

Your name will be on the box label

We are offering FruitShares . See the details below.

We will be dropping off shares at Birchwood Cafe.

We are discontinuing drop offs at May Day Cafe and Seward Co-op due to low numbers.

I would add a dropsite in Rogers if enough people were interested and there was  good location. Rogers is not between anyplace that we usually go, there would have to be 8-10 members to make it work. If you are interested, let me know.

We started dropping off CSA shares at a couple businesses last year and it worked out pretty well. I’m open to do more of that. You need 6 or more shares going to the same location.

Community Supported Agriculture

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) began in the US in 1986. Two farms in New England developed the idea independently, at about the same time. One of the earliest CSAs in this area was Common Harvest, first organized in 1989. Other than having your own garden, CSA is the last word in local food.

Community Supported Agriculture has its roots in local consumers wanting to know where their food is coming from, to the point of being able to visit the farms and meet the farmers. CSA supports small, diverse, family farms. The community in CSA preserves open space and farm land, CSA keeps farmers on the land and provides a realistic way for young farmers to get started. CSA members also share some of the risk of farming. If it is a great year the members reap the rewards of bountiful harvests. If it is a bad year or there is a weather related disaster, there will be less produce in the boxes. This is an important point to remember when purchasing any CSA share – there are risks associated with farming. As a CSA member, you share those risks.

A typical CSA share box contains between 7 and 11 different vegetables, 8 to 25 pounds of produce, depending on the time of the season. It can be an overwhelming amount of produce if you do not cook and eat the majority of your meals at home. If you would like access to the freshest, best tasting vegetables, but don’t think that you can use all of it, consider sharing the harvest with a friend or neighbor. Canning, freezing and drying are great ways to preserve a little bit of summer for later.

Our CSA season runs from mid-June until mid October, depending on the weather.  Shares can be picked up at the farm on Tuesday evening between 5 pm and 8 pm. Or at Harvest Moon (Long Lake),  Lakewinds (Minnetonka), Lakewinds in Chanhassen (limited to 10 shares at Chanhassen), Linden Hills  Co-ops, Birchwood Cafe in Seward neighborhood, and Eastside Food Co-op in  Northeast Minneapolis, on Wednesday after 11am. 

Shares will consist of a selection of the best available seasonal produce throughout the growing season. Our vegetable varieties are influenced by ten years of growing for some of the finest restaurants in the Twin Cities. Each

share will be packed in a 5/9 bushel box. At the beginning of the season, when the soil is still cool you will find salad greens, peas, lettuce, radishes, and quick growing cooking greens. As the season progresses into summer, zucchini, hand picked green beans, the best tasting tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant (the kind that actually tastes good), cucumbers, sweet onions, juicy muskmelon, and sweet corn will fill the boxes. If we get too much good stuff, we reserve the right to pack into larger boxes. As fall comes along shell beans, cauliflower, winter squash, turnips, fall radishes, potatoes, carrots, beets, and sweet spinach round out the season.

The inner workings of the farm are updated weekly in our newsletter that you will find in your email inbox on Tuesday so you can plan your menus for the week. Through the newsletter you can follow the progress of the season, learn a little about the process of growing vegetables, and share the farmers concerns through out the growing season.

FruitShares

This year we are partnering with Everett Myers at FruitShare to offer the best, fresh, organic fruit to our CSA members. Everett was one of the farmers at Red Cardinal CSA Farm in Stillwater. He is not growing the fruit, but sourcing it from the best organic growers around the country. The focus of the FruitShare is variety, freshness and quality. Everett tells me that his cherry grower doesn’t shake the cherries off the tree, He hand picks them starting with the ripe ones on the outside of the tree. Then he picks the ones closer to the center. And finally he picks the ones at the center as they ripen. Fruit shares are only available with a regular CSA share.  FruitShares are delivered every other week starting June 27th and ending October 17th. The schedule looks like this:

June 27            Blueberries 12 pint (8.5lb)             

July 11             Cherries 8lb                       

July 25             Mixed fruit

Aug 8               Mixed fruit

Aug 22             Colorado Peach 9lb                   

Sep 5               Mixed fruit

Sep 19             Mixed Local Apples 9-10lb                 

Oct 3                Mixed Pears 9-10lb              

Oct 17              Mixed Apples, Pears 9-10lb    

 

Mixed fruit may contain Nectarine, pluots, meyer lemons, avocados, peaches, figs, valencia, mango, grapes, or persimmons depending on availability and quality.

Disclaimer and full disclosure:

1) Farming is a risky business. In buying a CSA share from any farm you share some of  that risk. Every year we are exposed to the risks of wind, excessive rain, drought, hail, heat, cold, insects, and sometime just plain bad luck. For example, an early August hail storm could be devastating. As a matter of fact, a farm in western Minnesota was hailed out in 2009. The risks in farming are real. If something bad happens, you will receive less produce in your share.

2) Unless you cook and eat  most of your meals at home, you will be overwhelmed with produce. If you eat only meat and potatoes, you will be overwhelmed with produce. In either case, if you will feel guilty throwing the vegetables away. Splitting a share with a friend or neighbor can help with this. Good intentions alone will not keep you from finding rotting vegetables at the back of your refrigerator.

3. 3)The cost of a CSA share is $575 for the season.
   

4. 4)The cost of a FruitShare is $360 for 9 deliveries.
   

5. 5)The deadline for purchasing shares is May 1st.
   

6. 6)CSA shares are sold on a first come first served basis. There are a total of 84 shares are available for the 2012 season. As of January 13th, we have 33 shares available. Shares are sold on a first come first served basis and sell quickly. We were out of shares by March 10th  last year, The ‘official’ deadline might be May 1st, but when the shares are gone, they are gone.