CSA Information 2006

Here is a reprint of our CSA flyer. Our CSA is our weekly basket service (more information below).

For a printable registration form, click here.

To see what folks in the CSA got in their baskets each week last season, click here.

Let us grow a summer’s worth of great tasting vegetables for you. Join the Old Shaw Farm CSA!

Rich soil

For more than 75 years, the Shaw family farmed this land, raising cows and chickens. The natural fertilizer from their animals enriches our soil.

Also, the glaciers were very good to us. They left us great soil without many of the rocks and boulders you find in much of Vermont. It gently sloped our land to create natural drainage, with a small pond for water during dry spells.

Finally, our land faces south. This gives us abundant sunshine. And the hot houses gather in the spring sunshine, so we can get our tomatoes and peppers to you earlier in the summer.

Best seed varieties

We choose our seed varieties based on best taste. Some are heirlooms, some are new. We don't have to make trade-offs for vegetables that ship well or look fresher than they are. We pick turnips for salad that are crunchy and crisp, and charentais melons that are fragrant and complexly sweet.

We pick our produce at peak for the best flavor possible.

Wicked fresh

It's usually less than a day from our field to your kitchen. Vegetables taste best when they are fresh. Kids love our veggies. Kids will eat our broccoli when they won’t touch regular broccoli. And kids eat our cherry tomatoes like candy!

Our vegetables taste better because you get them faster. It takes ten days or more for many of the vegetables that you find in the supermarket to get to you. They start in California, or Texas, or even another country. From the field they are flown to an importer, and then are trucked to a wholesaler, and then to a distributor, and finally they end up in the supermarket. Then the store leaves them out until you buy them. They are tired and have lost half their taste when they get to you!

Lots of love

We love our farm! We care about our land! And the people who work for us love the farm too!

Our baskets

Every week we pack a basket for you full of great tasting vegetables. Last year's baskets included (in rough order of the season) mesclun, peas, lettuce, salad turnips, arugula, sun gold cherry tomatoes, broccoli, basil, red slicing tomatoes, zucchini, garlic scapes, yellow summer squash, strawberries, sweet peppers, hot peppers, new potatoes, baby chard and beet greens, fresh garlic, cucumbers, beets, green beans, yellow beans, carrots, yellow onions, eggplants, dried garlic, charentais melons, watermelons, corn, cauliflower, red onions, kale, collard greens, leeks, winter squash, spinach.

People often ask how much is in the basket. It’s about $21 worth of vegetables, in farmer’s market prices. (The price for the season breaks down to about $18 per week.) You get a lot for your money. Most of our subscribers are households with two adults, sometimes with kids, though all kinds of households subscribe.

Community Supported Agriculture

Our weekly basket service is a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The name CSA comes from the idea of linking local residents with nearby farmers. Eliminating middlemen reduces costs. Consumers get fresh, healthy products at a good price. CSAs also help sustain local farms by getting revenue to farmers early in the season.

Price

The price is $325 for the 18 week season, which breaks down to $18 a week. It’s a 15% savings over farmer's market prices, 20% or more over store prices. We also have a large basket available for $475.

The season runs from the week of June 14 through the week of October 18. The deadline to sign up is June 1.

Pickup options

Wednesdays Danville Farmer’s Market 9am-1pm
Fridays At the farm in South Peacham, 4-7pm
Saturdays Waitsfield Farmer’s Market, 9am- 1pm

To order

Call Maryellen at 592-3349
Email Maryellen@oldshawfarm.com
Mail your check to Old Shaw Farm, Box 181, Peacham 05862
Click here for order form

Who We Are

We are the Griffins - Maryellen, Peter, Waverly and Henry. We had been looking for good soil and a good home for about four years when we finally found our home in Peacham. It was more land and more house than we had planned on, but it has beautiful, fertile, well-drained soil, and a great history. Since most people know our house as the old Shaw place, we decided to stick with the name.

So far, things are working out. We’ve expanded the amount of land we farm each year. We have built two greenhouses. We do two farmers’ markets a week - Danville and Waitsfield - and sell from a farmstand at our farm.

Farm Share Program

Please consider including a $10 donation to the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA-VT)'s Farm Share Program when you sign up. We will gather all the donations from our members and send them to NOFA, who will match the money and use it to make a share in our CSA available to a low-income family at half price. More information about the Farm Share Program is at nofavt.org. Thank you!!

Comments from last year's CSAers

“Your produce is beautiful, the price is extremely reasonable, and your friendliness made it all even more worthwhile. I'll be back next year!”
Nichole Ruggles - W. Burke

“We enjoy the produce knowing that it is grown locally. We also like supporting local farmers.”
Gib Parrish - Peacham

“We ate so well all summer with Old Shaw Farm. The only downside is now we have to face supermarket lettuce again”
Tom Forster - Danville

For a printable registration form, click here.