Shared Harvest Winter CSA FAQ

The Basics
Shared Harvest CSA is a multiple farm Winter CSA that connects local, small-scale family farmers with people who wish to eat well while supporting local farms. In 2010 our primary vegetable growers are Picadilly Farm and Riverland Farm. Busa Farm and Brookwood Community Farm are joining Shared Harvest this year, each growing a small number of leafy greens. Cider Hill Farm grows our apples (IPM) and Charley Baer provides our dried beans (IPM). Produce for Shared Harvest CSA is grown within 100 miles of where you will pick it up.

Shared Harvest Farmers
Picadilly farmers Jenny and Bruce Wooster have been growing high-quality produce on community farms since the mid-1990s. Learn more about Jenny and Bruce and Picadilly Farm.

Riverland farmers Meghan Arquin and Rob Lynch bought their farmland and a farmhouse in the winter of 2008. Learn more about Meghan and Rob and about Riverland Farm.

Busa Farm is managed by Dennis Busa. This is a family farm that has been growing vegetables for the local markets and community since 1920. The farm stand has been open since 1959. In 2009, the farm was sold to the town of Lexington. Dennis continues to farm the land and a citizen group - the Lexington Community Farm Coalition - is working to ensure that the land remains a farm.

Brookwood Community Farm is managed by Judy Lieberman. Brookwood is situated on two sites: A 70-acre parcel of land within the Blue Hills Reservation and the 90-acre Bradley Estate owned by the Trustees of Reservations. Brookwood Farm greenhouses and fields are managed organically; no synthetic fertilizers or chemicals are used.

Location, Cost and Pick Up Schedule
In 2010 there are three Winter Share options from which to choose.

Lexington Two Month CSA, $160
Saturdays, Nov 20 & Dec 18
10:30 AM - 3:00 PM
Busa Farm, 52 Lowell St, Lexington

Lexington Three Month CSA, $240
Saturdays, Oct 23, Nov 13, Dec 11
10:30 AM - 3:00 PM
Busa Farm, 52 Lowell St, Lexington

Canton Three Month CSA, $240
Saturdays, Oct 23, Nov 13, Dec 11
9:00 AM - Noon
Bradley Estate, 2468 Washington St, Canton


What will be in the 2010 share?
Plans for the winter share include apples, beets, broccoli, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (napa and green varieties), carrots, celery, celeriac, cilantro, collard greens, dried beans, escarole, fennel, garlic, hakurei turnips, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, leeks, onions, purple top turnips, parsley, parsnips, pie pumpkins, potatoes, popcorn, sweet potatoes, radishes, radicchio, rutabaga, spinach, turnips, winter radishes and winter squash. You can read about what was in past Shared Harvest shares by looking through the blog archives for the months of October, November and December. Here's a link to the October 2009 share to get you started. The 2010 share will be similar, with a few adjustments that reflect shareholder feedback.

How many people will one Winter Share feed?
In 2009, the monthly shares weighed, on average, 43 pounds. If your goal is to completely eat all the food in each distribution within a month, that's about 10 pounds of produce per week. Much of the produce stores well - winter squash, potatoes, onions, shallots, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, beets can last months if stored at the right temperature and humidity. Shareholders often make the produce last even longer by cooking and freezing it (soups are great for this), pickling it (pickled beets - yum!) and fermenting it (cabbage). Other shareholders use the share up more quickly by juicing some of the produce (carrots, beets, apples) or use it to feed family and friends at holiday meals and parties. See what past shareholders have to say by reading their reviews of the 2008 and 2009 Winter CSAs.

Do you sell half shares?
No, there's just one size.

Why are the Winter Shares on sale now? It's months before I'll get my first winter share.
The multi-farm Winter CSA is a fairly traditional CSA. The primary farmers really do count on supporters to prepay for CSA shares. This prepayment allows seeds, supplies, tools, labor to be bought or lined up. A good number of winter CSA crops are begun in the greenhouses in February (celery, celeriac, leeks, onions) and most supplies have been purchased by then. Labor has been arranged and in some cases farm workers are already being paid. Equipment and tools are in the process of being bought or fixed so they will be ready to go the first of April. The CSA model, with it's prepayment and shared risk/bounty elements, allows these farmers to focus on growing healthy food and tend to soil health rather than worrying marketing and administrative chores in the middle of the farming season.

How do I sign up for the Winter CSA? Can I sign up on-line?
Send me an email - GrettaAnderson [at] earthlink.net and I will send you a subscription form. Sorry, but there is not an on-line sign up form.