Hungry?

[posted Oct 14, 2010 on the new website: SharedHarvestCSA.com. Please head over there for details about the 2010 Winter share and more recent posts!]


Shared Harvest Winter CSA can supply the veggies for many tasty meals this winter! Lots of two month shares are available. Pick up is at Busa Farm in Lexington (Nov 20) or Brookwood Farm in Canton (Nov 13). Picadilly Farm and Riverland Farm grow the majority of veggies for the share, with smaller farms like Busa, Brookwood and Moraine adding the finishing touches. Here's a link to the Shared Harvest CSA site, where you'll find a Two Month Subscription Form. You've got to supply your own chef!

Purple Cows in the Winter Share!

[posted Sept 8, 2010 on the new website: http://sharedharvestcsa.com. Please head over there for details about the 2010 Winter share and more recent posts!]

Next week Charley Baer hopes to harvest the heirloom Jacob's Cattle beans he's growing for the Shared Harvest CSA.

According to Slow Food USA, "Jacob's Cattle bean is also called a Trout bean or an Appaloosa bean, but Jacob’s Cattle bean is the oldest name for the variety. This bean is a Prince Edward Island heirloom. Legend has it that it was a gift from Maine’s Passamaquoddy Indians to Joseph Clark, the first white child born in Lubec, Maine."



Of this year's crop, Charley writes: "In hot years like this one there is much more red than normal. This year they are almost pure red with very little white. There is so little white in the few I have checked that they almost look like purple kidney beans with a few white spots. Although a good growing year, yields look like they will be light with weak pod sets coming on Beverly's sandy soils lacking water earlier on. I've got a lot of these purple cows coming in."

So there you have it, the reason for the one pound bag of purple cows you'll find in your Shared Harvest CSA share this year!

Yep, there are shares available, but ...

the three-month Lexington/Busa Farm winter share is quite popular and there are just a couple of dozen left. If you’d like a Shared Harvest CSA share for October 23, Nov 13 and Dec 11, now’s the time to sign up! Subscription information is here.


The blog has been moved over to our new website: Shared Harvest CSA. Join us there!

Riverland Farm Visit

As promised, here are pictures from my working visit to Riverland mid-June. Megan T from the Newton Farm came along. Wish I’d been able to get a video of Megan and Riverland farmer Rob Lynch tying tomatoes – looked like they were dancing! Mouse over the photos for a brief description.

Farm Fleet

Every organic farm has a farm fleet -- the equipment needed to make farming economically, environmentally and physically sustainable. On a recent working visit to Riverland Farm, I came across one of the nicest pieces of farm transport I've seen in some time.


That's a blue Schwinn in front of a field of garlic. Riverland's big red barn and hoop house are in the background. Yep, those are blue streamers on the handle bars. On Riverland's twenty-five acres it's essential to have a way to get around. I'll post more farm fleet photos soon.

Why Farm?

A friend asked me why I love to farm.

I love farming because it's hard (physically) and challenging (intellectually) and it's political and social and fun (except when it's snowing, and then it's an adventure). Unlike so many other occupations where compromises must be made, organic farming is totally consistent with my most deeply held values. What's not to love?

I wonder why other farmers love to farm. An article on the CRAFT web site summarizes a conversation farmers-in-training had about this topic a few years ago. Here's the link: Why Farm?

Bare Naked Farming

Another road trip to a Shared Harvest CSA partner farm is being planned, this time to Riverland Farm in Sunderland, MA. Should be an interesting experience given that Riverland farmer, Rob Lynch seems to be setting a new standard for farm wear. Here’s an excerpt from the most recent Riverland Farm newsletter, Riverland Currants:

Knowing the power of the wind here on this open plain in Sunderland, we make it a point to close down all of our barn and greenhouse doors in the evening. Forgetting to do that simple task on Wednesday made for an eventful night. As that storm came in Meghan and I both shot out of bed, disoriented but knowing exactly what we had to do. At that time I was so focused on closing everything down that things like clothes and shoes seemed unimportant. Despite our best efforts the wind got to the barn before we did and took a 6’ x 11’ 200# barn door off and threw it into the road like a piece of cardboard. We reached the greenhouse in time preventing any structural damage though the wind did take several of our plug trays and scatter them all over the farm and smash up a solid wood bench that we use for filling trays with soil. The hail that came in with the storm did some minimal cosmetic damage to our first head lettuce, bok choy, and some of the swiss chard and spinach. Overall the storm was mostly just mentally traumatic but ended up being good fodder for comedy when I think back on running around in my birthday suit closing things down.

Visit Riverland Currants for the full newsletter article.

Picadilly Road Trip

Picadilly farmers Bruce and Jenny Wooster are well known in the eastern Massachusetts farming community as skilled organic farmers and exceptional teachers and mentors to new farmers. So, when I planned a road trip to Picadilly, I invited Newton Community Farm intern, Megan Talley, to join me. The Newton farm is about one acre in size; Picadilly Farm has 25 acres under cultivation. Seemed like a great learning opportunity. And boy, was it ever! While Megan mastered tractor seeding, I helped transplant the celeriac that will be in the winter share. In the afternoon we hoed beds and beds of newly emerged potatoes with the farm crew. A very special thank you to farmer Jenny for making this such a great learning experience for Megan!

Here are some photos from our day.

New Web Site!

In this, the fourth year of the multi-farm, winter CSA, I've finally created a real web site. This Blogger site works just fine, but the web site -- even better! Let me know what you think.

Shared Harvest CSA, our shiny new web site!

The new site includes posts to this blog. So you'll not miss a thing, which ever way you like to get your Shared Harvest news!

Notes from Picadilly Farm

Picadilly Farm is one of the primary growers for the multiple farm extended season CSA. Picadilly farmer, Jenny Wooster, sent us this farm report.

Dear Shareholders,

We're halfway through May, and the first harvest is just around the corner! Sails are fully set here on the farm, with the full crew on deck and about a third of our 25 acres planted. The farm looks better than ever, as the relatively dry (but not too dry) spring has allowed for plenty of sunny-day time to spread paint, level and re-seed some of the farm roads (something we've wanted to do for several seasons now!), and clean up fallen timber and brush around the field edges. Now that the danger of frost has (likely) past, all of our focus will turn toward the fields, as we start in with planting the first of the cold sensitive crops in the field - first summer squash and zucchini, quickly followed by cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, melons, eggplant, peppers, and our second attempt at organic sweet corn.

Bruce and this season's apprentices, Jenny-Q and Andy, have taken advantage of a few recent rainy days to build a second mobile chicken-coop. Our spring chicks - we're calling them teenagers, as we have to catch them every morning and return them to the incubation box that they have clearly outgrown - will soon be out on pasture and enjoying the sunshine. The older laying hens have enjoyed the spring pasturing our marsh field, a part of the farm that it usually too wet for anything but bird nesting and a July haying. Three black lambs are grazing at the crew house, and six piglets will arrive from a Vermont farm in early June, to spend the summer here. Two of the three bee hives made it through the winter and are going strong - it's a survival rate that we are pleased about, given the poor weather for the bees to build their honey stores last summer. Our volunteer beekeeper, Brendan, will add two new "nuke" hives in a few weeks, to bring us back up to four hives. While we raise the bees primarily for crop pollination, we do like to get a honey crop, and it looks as if we just might, maybe, hopefully, this fall. Our well-loved barn cats came through the winter well, and have been valiantly protecting the greenhouse seeds and seedlings from those pesky little four-legged predators.

We've just learned that our farm will receive a grant from Natural Resource Conservation Service, a part of USDA, for construction of a new high tunnel (farm-speak for greenhouse). The high tunnel grants are geared toward low energy production - solar heat, manual ventilation, and season extension for local foods. We'll put up the new house next winter/spring, hopefully with a second one to match, filling up the open space between the current hoop houses and the distribution barn. Our plans include summer greenhouse tomatoes and winter greens growing, as early as 2011 - exciting steps for our farm.

We come into harvest season with nearly all of our CSA shares sold - a milestone for us in our fourth year on the farm. We're growing for 200 shareholders on the farm, and 200 shareholders who received delivered boxed shares in eastern MA. Thanks to all of you for your early support! You've allowed your farmers peace of mind, as well as the opportunity to focus our time on growing the veggies, training our crew, and enjoying our days of planting and weeding with you in mind. Thanks also for spreading the word about the farm, and we still have about 15 shares left... so tell your friends and neighbors!

We're looking forward to harvesting for you!

Jenny (for Bruce, Susie, Andy, Jenny-Q, Antonio, Adelina, Caitlin, Alejandro & Edgar)

A day at Powisett Farm

Yesterday was overcast, drizzly and cold. After an early morning field walk, I spent most of the morning in the greenhouse at Powisett (a Trustees of Reservations CSA farm in Dover, MA). The afternoon was spent transplanting kale and napa cabbage.

Farm Visits: Busa Farm Greenhouse

Parts of the field have been underwater or very water-logged the last few weeks, but it looks like spring in the greenhouse! I took these greenhouse photos at Busa Farm last week: peppers, parsley, geraniums, lettuce and geraniums again.

Farm Visits: Powisset

I've been visiting farms in the area this spring. Here are a few of my favorite photos of Powisset, a community farm in Dover.

How to Choose a CSA

The most recent Local Harvest newsletter has a very nice article about how to choose a CSA. I've copied the first couple of paragraphs below and supplied a link to the full article.

Know Thyself
Utterly fantastic idea though it is, community supported agriculture is not for everyone. Deciding whether or not CSA is for you requires a healthy dose of self knowledge. Some of us confuse how we are with how we would like to be. Not that there's no room for movement, but if you truly do not like vegetables, signing up to receive five to 20 pounds of them a week is probably not going to go well. When considering whether or not to join a CSA, there are a few questions that you might ask yourself. Be sure to answer for yourself and the people you live with since asking other people to change their eating habits is no small thing.

* Do I like to cook and does my schedule allow me to make homemade meals most evenings?
* Will it be fun to [use] vegetables that are new to me?
* How will I handle excess produce? (Do you have a neighbor who would like to get some if you get "behind"?) Feeling bad about wasting food is one of the top reasons former CSA members site for not renewing.
* Am I willing to accept the unknowns involved in "shared risk"?

Read the rest of the article.

Imbolc

The holiday was, and for many still is, a festival of the hearth and home, and a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of spring.

Crocuses are coming up in my home garden. Or maybe they are snowdrops.

Seedlings are sprouting and seed orders have been placed.

Kids and lambs are being born.

Sap is flowing.

Root cellars are being emptied.

Vegetables and Chocolate

More unlikely winter work for this farmer. I built my first web site. The effort made me a bit crazed.


Cleaner, but much, much harder than changing tractor oil or putting new tines on the BCS. Take a look: CSA Farm Share Fair

The Fair is coming together nicely. Fifteen farms, including a fishery and a honey CSA have confirmed that they will attend the Fair on February 25. Our fingers are crossed in hope that a meat CSA and a dairy CSA that supply our communities will also be able to attend. All of the Shared Harvest farmers will be there. Charley Baer is bringing beans. Rob and/or Meghan from Riverland will tend the SH CSA table along with Charley. Our other growers, Jenny Wooster from Picadilly Farm and Dennis Busa from Busa Farm will be nearby, selling their own summer CSA shares at the Fair.

Just in case the thought of all that healthy food you'll be eating this summer (and next winter) has you feeling a bit overwhelmed, it looks like Taza Chocolate will be on hand to sell chocolate :-)

Save the date! Spread the word!

What: A CSA Farm Share Fair in Arlington! CSA farmers will be on hand to tell you how their CSA works, what they are growing this year and how you can get a share of their harvest.

When: Thursday, February 25, 6:00-7:30 PM

Where: 50 Paul Revere Road, Arlington, MA at the Park Avenue Congregational Church in Arlington Heights, the Parish Hall.

Who: Over twenty CSA farms have been invited to participate. Most of these farms distribute CSA shares in Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Lexington, parts of Cambridge and Somerville, Medford, Watertown, Winchester, and other nearby towns. Several are community farms and provide educational programming for kids and adults during the growing season.

Why: If you haven't lined up your CSA share yet, the Farm Share Fair is a great place to learn about what's available. You will be able to sign up for summer and winter CSA shares at the Fair. For those of you who have already purchased your 2010 CSA share, this is a great opportunity to say hello to your farmer. We are also inviting farmers to bring and sell their produce to the Fair, so you may want to bring your shopping bags!

Want to help? The Farm Share Fair committee is looking for volunteers who want to help make this Fair a success. Contact GrettaAnderson [at] earthlink.net if you'd like to help in any way. A planning meeting is scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, January 31.

Stay tuned. I will send out more information, including a list of the farms and organizations who will be attending, in the next week or so.

Tractor Work

It often surprises people to learn that there really is farm work to be done in the winter. Equipment repair and maintenance are things that are often left for the winter months. For example, I just spent the last few days building a tractor and manure spreader. When I was done, my neighbors and I ate them for dessert.




I'm explaining what the ROPS is and why it's important. My friend M. is wondering when I'll stop talking and when we can start eating the farm equipment!

What's the story behind Shared Harvest CSA?

I (Gretta Anderson) created this multi-farm Winter CSA in 2007 (then named the Belmont CSA) in an effort to make my little one-acre market garden economically sustainable. One acre of land, farmed intensively during the summer, was a full-time job, but didn't yield a full-time or sustainable income. Increasing income meant growing more crops: While my little acre did not have room to spare in the summer, it could accommodate a number of cool-season greens that would be ready for distribution in the late fall and winter. But who would come to a farm in December for a few bunches of kale and a head or two of cabbage? I began to wonder if there was a way to partner with other growers. Maybe I could find farmers with more land than I and together we could create a Winter CSA. I got really excited about this idea when I thought about who I might partner with: Folks who had just bought their first farm, farmers I admire because of their skill, knowledge or vision, farmers whose fields I've worked in, whose food I've eaten and whose growing practices I trust.

In 2007, Vanguarden CSA, Picadilly Farm and Belmont CSA (my little acre) provided 155 shareholders with produce in November, December and January. The majority of shareholders seemed delighted with the food and the experience. In 2008, we tweaked the distribution schedule to better accommodate farm crews who wanted the month of January off. Cider Hill Farm's apples sweetened the 300 winter shares that were distributed in 2008.

2009 brought more changes to the multi-farm winter CSA. I did not return to farm in Belmont and began to search for new farmland. The Belmont Multi-Farm Winter CSA was renamed Shared Harvest CSA. Meghan and Rob of Riverland Farm joined us, as did Charlie Baer, grower of Baer's Best Beans. Distribution of CSA shares moved to Busa Farm in Lexington. In response to many requests for a two month share, we offered both a two and a three month winter CSA. We experimented with offering additional local items (honey, maple syrup, dried beans, apple cider, bulk quantities of root veggies, eggs). Vanguarden CSA farmer, Chris Yoder, decided to turn more of his attention to his own CSA and not grow for Shared Harvest.

In 2010, Dennis Busa, Busa Farm in Lexington and Judy Lieberman, Brookwood Community Farm in Canton, join our multi-farm winter CSA as growers. We will again distribute the share from the Busa Farm in Lexington. We will also distribute shares from the Bradley Estate in Canton where Brookwood Farm is located. Picadilly, Riverland, Cider Hill and Charley Baer will continue to provide great produce for the share. Lessons learned from our 2009 additional item experiment will help us improve this offering in 2010. We also hope to create more opportunities for shareholders to connect with the farmers and farms that grow their food.

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.