Green Gardens 2010 CSA Information

Please contact the farm at trent@greengardensfarm.com to be on the 2010 CSA list. The farm is increasing its membership for 2010 to 80 members (from 60), There are still some spots left. Green Gardens' 80-member CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program will run every week from June 8th to October 29th in 2010. CSA members will receive a weekly box of vegetables, melons, and herbs. Here are the details...

What's in a Box?

Boxes will have a nice variety. I understand that getting the same produce over and over again is boring and makes eating a chore. Not to worry, we will provide you with recipes weekly in your box - some traditional basics as well as new tasty combinations. Staple crops will be emphasized because they are most versatile and commonly consumed. These include tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, winter squash, beets, radishes, turnips, broccoli, onions, garlic, sweet peppers, lettuce, etc. Greens such as kale, swiss chard, collards, mustards, and spinach will also be commonplace in the boxes.

Unusual crops, though, will also be part of the boxes from time to time. Kohlrabi, pac choi, fennel, hot peppers, strange melons, tomatillos, eggplant, etc. are  examples of crops that will be limited but show up in the boxes on a weekly basis. To get a better sense of what will be in the boxes at certain times of the year, check out our 2010 monthly produce availability.

Examples of CSA Boxes:

Spring Box might include: 1# of spinach, bunch of radishes, bunch of turnips, lettuce, kale, broccoli raab, kohlrabi, green onions.

Photos of 2010 boxes at Green Gardens Community Farm...

Summer Box: 4 Sweet Peppers, 2 LBS Red Potatoes, 8 summer squash/zucchini, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, 6 ears of Sweet Corn, 1 LB Tomatillos, 2.5 LB Tomatoes, 6-8 Baby Eggplant, 1 bunch cilantro

Early Fall Box: 1 Bunch Beets, 5 Sweet Peppers, 2 Jalapenos, 1 bunch Kohlrabi. 1 bunch of Mustard Greens, 1 bunch of Kale, 1 pac Choi, 1 bunch of Carrots, 1 bunch of Hakurei Salad Turnips, 2 Summer Squash, 2 Delicata Winter Squash

Later Fall Box: 1 bunch Kale, 1 stalk of Brussel Sprouts, 5 Eggplant, 1 Pac Choi, 1 bunch of Japanese Spinach, 5 bulbs of garlic, 4 Sweet Peppers, 2 Ancho Peppers, 2 Sugar Dumpling Winter Squash, 1 bunch of Hakurei Salad Turnips, 1/3 LB Arugula.

To provide you with an idea of what a bunch may look like, here are some examples:

 

TL: Swiss Chard, TR: Mustard, ML: Hakurei Salad Turnips, MR: Beets, BL: French Breakfast Radishes, BR: Cherriette Radishes

Each weekly box is likely enough to feed...

1. A family of six light vegetable eaters for one week

2. A family of four moderate vegetable eaters for one week

3. A couple who are heavy vegetable eaters for one week

4. One vegetable-eating machine!

With farming, there are simply no guarantees when it comes to having crops. Numerous things can go wrong. Excess rain, early and late frosts, pests and diseases, and lack of time can all hamper crop production. Fortunately, most things go right most of the time. Sharing the risks and reaping the benefits of the harvest is an integral component of the CSA concept. CSA members will be updated with crop-growing information, farm gatherings, and recipes via newsletters at least bi-weekly.

One-half shares may be available in 2011 or 2012, not 2010.

New Add-On for 2010: Flowers!

A flower share will be available for approximately 8 weeks of bouquets of flowers from the farm. The bouquets will include a wide assortment of flowers: sunflowers, zinnia, black-eyed susan, amaranth, celosia, gomphrena, cinnamon basil, eucalyptus, and grasses.

Here is a good example....

Cost will be $60. They will be delivered in buckets of water to pick-up locations.

Since these are freshly cut flowers, they normally should last 6-7 days in a vase

 

Will all the items in the boxes be for sale at the market or the farm?

Many of them will, some of them won't. Since CSA members have decided to invest so heavily in the farm, we intend to give them priority when we have a limited amount of a certain crop available. This means that hierloom tomatoes and other unusual crops may be in the boxes, but not at the farmers market or farm stand.

Is The Produce Organic?

The farm follows the standards as layed out in the National Organic Program for organic growers. However, the farm is not Certified Organic. Instead, we opted to be Certified Naturally Grown. We use composted dairy manure for fertilizer, organically-approved pesticides and fungicides only, cover cropping, crop rotations, and other techniques to reduce our footprint on the land and grow great produce. For more information on CNG and the farm's growing practices, click here.

Sharing A Box

Sharing a box in perfectly acceptable. It is fine for family/friends to either rotate weeks or share the contents of each box.

When and Where Do I Pick My Box Up?

There will be three days you can pick up your box at pick-up sites each week. Additional sites may be offered in 2010! These have yet to be determined.

Tuesday: Harper Creek (4-7 PM), Lakeview (4-7 PM), North-side close to Downtown (4-7 PM), and the Farm in Pennfield from 4-7 PM (dusk later in the Fall).

Wednesday: Richland Farmers Market (from 3:30-6 PM) at the Richland Area Community Center on CD Ave.

Friday: Lakeview (4-7 PM) and the Farm in Pennfield from 4-7 PM (dusk later in the Fall).

We Want To Discourage Driving Great Distances For A CSA Box

We encourage people not to be CSA members if they are required to drive more than 10 miles and/or cannot group box pick-up with other members. Driving great distances to pick up a CSA box is not a sustainable practice. When we talk about lowering our food miles, we must also factor in how far we drive to get our food. Having a pick-up spot close to you makes the CSA concept sustainable!If you don't have a CSA farm near you, consider organizing your community and hiring a farmer. This is how many CSA's have started.

What If I Can't Pick Up My Box?

If you nor anyone you know can pick up a box for you at the drop site, there are several possible options. We can hold your box for you at the farm. We have a cooler at the farm and it can remain in there until you can pick it up. You can also donate the box to a local non-profit/food bank in Battle Creek. Or, you can can tell us that you simply don't want us to prepare a box for you for a certain week. In that case, the produce would likely be sold at the Farmers Market, instead. No money is returned for boxes that are not used during the course of the season.

Cost?

Shares will be $425. This is the same price as 2009. Early payment discount will not be available this season, although if you want to pay early that is fine. Despite breaking even in 2009, the farm still has considerable debt from 2008 and is investing in a $10,000 high tunnel (greenhouse) for early tomatoes in 2010, so the extra revenue is sorely needed. 2010 boxes will be of higher value than 2009's, including more salad mix, earlier tomatoes, more potatoes, alliums, and lettuce.

The $425 price tag works out to be roughly $20/week. We believe this is a fair price for premium, local, sustainably-raised, and healthy food.

If you would like to break this down into two or three payments and pay in January and February that will work, too! I have time to be an accountant in January and February!

When Do I Pay?

Please pay $425 to the farm by April 1, 2010. Checks can be made payable to Green Gardens and sent to the farm at 8319 White Rabbit Road, Battle Creek, MI 49017. No deposit necessary for 2010.

A membership agreement will be sent out in late January to remind you of your balance and membership details.

The 20% OFF CSA Member Discount

All CSA members are entitled to a 20% off discount on all additional orders made from the farm at the Farmers Market or through the online farm stand.

Green Gardens CSA Farm Fund

Finally, several members have expressed interest in setting up a low-income box fund, so the farm would be able to provide boxes to low-income families or deserving non-profits in Battle Creek.  Poor nutrition from cheap, processed foods tend to plague low-income families in America. There will be a box to check and add a donated amount to the final amount due on your CSA Membership Form. Whatever money is raised will go towards providing boxes for the families/non-profits.

Nominated families will receive a subsidized share and will be asked to contribute $100 (2, $50 payments) towards the $425 value of their share. The remainder ($325) will be paid through the CSA Farm Fund from generous donors. Therefore, if $1300 is raised, the farm will be able to donate four boxes. The donated boxes will make a huge difference in the health of these families.

Other CSA Tidbits!!!

•               Watch a movie about CSA farms in Michigan!

•               Listen to a Maryland organic farmer discuss the CSA concept.

•               An article from the NY Times about the recent growth of CSA's across the country... 

July 10, 2008

Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms

By SUSAN SAULNY

CAMPTON TOWNSHIP, Ill. — In an environmentally conscious tweak on the typical way of getting food to the table, growing numbers of people are skipping out on grocery stores and even farmers markets and instead going right to the source by buying shares of farms.

On one of the farms, here about 35 miles west of Chicago, Steve Trisko was weeding beets the other day and cutting back a shade tree so baby tomatoes could get sunlight. Mr. Trisko is a retired computer consultant who owns shares in the four-acre Erehwon Farm.

“We decided that it’s in our interest to have a small farm succeed, and have them be able to have a sustainable farm producing good food,” Mr. Trisko said.

Part of a loose but growing network mostly mobilized on the Internet, Erehwon is participating in what is known as community-supported agriculture. About 150 people have bought shares in Erehwon — in essence, hiring personal farmers and turning the old notion of sharecropping on its head.

The concept was imported from Europe and Asia in the 1980s as an alternative marketing and financing arrangement to help combat the often prohibitive costs of small-scale farming. But until recently, it was slow to take root. There were fewer than 100 such farms in the early 1990s, but in the last several years the numbers have grown to close to 1,500, according to academic experts who have followed the trend.

“I think people are becoming more local-minded, and this fits right into that,” said Nichole D. Nazelrod, program coordinator at the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., a national clearinghouse for community-supported farms. “People are seeing ways to come together and work together to make this successful.”

The shareholders of Erehwon Farm have open access to the land and a guaranteed percentage of the season’s harvest of fruit and vegetables for packages that range from about $300 to $900. Arrangements of fresh-cut blossoms twice a month can be included for an extra $120 — or for the deluxe package, $220 will “feed the soul” with weekly bouquets of lilies and sunflowers and other local blooms.

Shareholders are not required to work the fields, but they can if they want, and many do.

Mr. Trisko said his family knows that without his volunteer labor and agreement to share in the financial risk of raising crops, the small organic farm might not survive.

“It’s very hard for them to make ends meet,” he said, “so I decided to go out and help. We harvest, water, pull weeds, whatever they need doing.”

Under the sponsored system, farmers are paid an agreed-upon fee in advance of the growing season, making their survival less dependent on the vicissitudes of the market and the cooperation of the elements. The arrangement involves real farms and real farmers and is distinct from community gardens and other forms of urban farming, where vacant or public land is typically put to agricultural use by residents.

The average share price is $500 to $800 a season across the country, Ms. Nazelrod said, though community-supported agriculture seems most popular on the coasts and around the Great Lakes region. The states with the most farms, she said, include New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and California.

“The C.S.A. provides a base that’s certain, and we get the money when we need to spend the money,” said Beth Propst, who farms the fields at Erehwon, using the abbreviation for community-supported agriculture. “Having the money upfront and guaranteed, that gets us through at least the beginning of the season.”

The operations are as diverse as they are numerous.

Erehwon — the word “nowhere” spelled backward — started with two shareholders, reached its goal of 140 last year, and now has raised its target to about 200 members. Another farm in the Chicago area where the community sponsors the crops, Angelic Organics, makes weekly deliveries to more than 1,400 families in Illinois and Wisconsin.

At least 24 vegetable farmers serve an estimated 6,500 members throughout the five boroughs of New York City, said Paula Lukats of Just Food, which connects farmers with residents there. In 2005, there were 37 C.S.A. groups in the city; today, there are 61.

The Golden Earthworm Organic Farm, on 80 acres on the North Fork of Long Island, grew from 10 members in 2000 to about 1,300 this year, according to Matthew Kurek, one of the owners. About half of the members live in Queens, he said, and the farm delivers their weekly shares to six different sites there, mainly churches and community centers, 26 weeks a year. The farm grows arugula, strawberries and sugar snap peas in the spring; watermelon, eggplant and tomatoes in the summer; and broccoli, potatoes and carrots in the fall.

At the Cattleana Ranch in Omro, Wis., Thomas and Susan Wrchota offer grass-fed meat and organic produce through a community-supported arrangement. They have 55 members, and a seven-month meat membership costs $715.

Mr. Wrchota developed a taste for grass-fed beef while working for the Peace Corps in Costa Rica in the 1970s. When he returned home, he said, he was at a loss for that particular flavor and eventually decided to raise animals himself, starting with just one cow.

“We don’t do millions in revenue, but we make a living, which is rare,” he said. “Our goal is to provide a full portfolio of products for folks who want sustainable products. Up until about five years ago, we had to do a tremendous amount of guerrilla marketing. The consumer who is interested now, they’re doing their homework. They know the health and taste benefits.”

Teresa Crisco is one such consumer in Little Rock, Ark. She is a member of the community-supported agriculture program at the Heifer Ranch, an international humanitarian relief organization that is experimenting with how to make such arrangements more popular and profitable for farmers around the world.

“You feel like you’re doing more than one thing: you’re helping the project and you’re helping yourself,” said Ms. Crisco, a document specialist at a mortgage company who heard about the program from a friend. “The whole premise is really neat.”

Here in Illinois, Erehwon sold out of shares last year and had to turn people away.

Tim Fuller, Ms. Propst’s longtime companion and business partner in running the farm, said: “People are coming to us. We do very little marketing except for explaining what we do. It’s amazing.”

With a wry smile, Mr. Fuller said he considers himself both personal farmer and personal trainer, because shareholders under his direction are going to break a sweat.

“There’s always pressure on,” he said. “This is a complicated business, growing so many crops. We do everything by hand for more than 100 different crops.”

The farm expects to gross between $80,000 and $90,000 this year.

Some shareholders said they found the arrangement a bargain compared to grocery shopping, while others considered it a worthwhile indulgence. Most agreed that the urge to buy and spend locally — to avoid the costs and environmental degradation that come with shipping and storage — was behind the decision to join. Shareholders can pick up their goods at the farm or at a store across the street.

“From a ‘going green’ standpoint, it’s an appropriate thing to do,” said Gerard Brill, a musician who bought a share of Erehwon. “Like everything organic, it’s not a bargain, but what price do you put on being healthy? Considering all things, it’s actually a very good deal.”

The downside for people who are used to grocery shopping comes when they want fresh blueberries in January or, as was the case at Erehwon last week, the tomato plants needed more time in the ground because of a cold spring.

“We eat with the seasons, and there’s no guarantee that Mother Nature will cooperate,” Ms. Propst said. “That’s all part of the deal.”

 

Catrin Einhorn contributed reporting from Chicago.