Down on the Farm

Sunday

Peter and Henry fixed a flat tire on the tractor, and Wavy and I spread hay as mulch in the second greenhouse today. As you can see the second greenhouse is mostly planted. The first is already full.

In the mailbag, Susan sent a link to a good post about the farm subsidy mess. Also, Maxine -- with the caveat that she is not an expert on spiders, id'ed that spider as a barn spider. "Maybe it is (Araneus cavaticus) aka the barn spider. This spider is of particular significance to Charlotte's Web. Charlotte's full name was Charlotte A. Cavatica and one of her daughters was Aranea."

The tide is turning

Yesterday morning it was 4 degrees F on the front porch when we woke up. But next week it is supposed to push 50! And, of course, the first signs of spring are starting to sprout.

Greenhouse on!

We still have 3 feet of snow on the ground, and the weather over the next few days is supposed to be brutal -- very cold, very windy, very snowy. But we tend to be a glass-half-full bunch here at Old Shaw Farm, so to honor the first day of spring, we bring you a post about us turning on the first greenhouse this week!

This first picture is us cleaning out the greenhouse before we actually turned the heat on. I have a respirator on my head since I was sweeping out last year's dusty potting soil remnants from under our seedling benches. Waverly and Henry are doing a little clean-out-the-greenhouse dance.

Here is a shot after we turned the heat on, moved the tomato seedlings out of the basement, and have started filling the seedling benches with trays of seeds.

Mmmmmm . . . tomatoes!

Links

Welcome to the Old Shaw Farm CSA!!

To get to the CSA registration form click here

For information about the CSA click here.

To see what folks in the CSA got in their baskets each week last season, as well as prior seasons, just scroll down.

To see what was in the fall CSA last year, click here. In response to feedback from CSAers, this year's fall CSA baskets will be noticeably bigger, comparable in value to the summer baskets, with the last basket (the Friday before Thanksgiving) being a double.

For information about the Beef CSA, click here.

Please call or email with questions. Hope to see you!

CSA 2008!!!!

Here is a reprint of our CSA flyer. To see what folks in the CSA got in their baskets each week last season, click here. For a printable signup form click here.

Comments from past CSAers
It doesn’t get better than a heaping basket of first class organic vegetables every week from charming, friendly people.
- Scott Campbell, St. Johnsbury

CSA is a great way to eat seasonally while supporting the local economy. The food is healthy and beautiful, and it helped me to stay connected to the land, weather and seasons.
- Leila LaRosa, Lyndonville

Your CSA is the best money I spend all year.
- Lisa Whitney, St. Johnsbury

Being part of the CSA makes it easy and convenient to eat a variety of delicious, fresh, organic veggies all summer long and into the fall. I love it!
- Zoë Gascon

Who we are

We are the Griffins – Peter, Maryellen, Waverly, and Henry. We live in Peacham, and this is our sixth year growing organic vegetables on our farm, and our fourth year of doing a CSA.

In addition to the CSA, we do two farmers’ markets each week in Danville and Waitsfield, and we sell from a farmstand at our farm. We grow about five acres of organic vegetables, and we have two greenhouses and two hothouses. You can find out all about us, our CSA, and our farm at our website www.oldshawfarm.com.

Community Supported Agriculture

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The name CSA comes from the idea of linking local residents with nearby farmers in order to get fresher vegetables to consumers at a lower price. CSAs also help sustain local farms by getting revenue to farmers early in the season, and by consumers sharing in the variations of the season, the weather, and Mother Nature.

Wicked fresh

Our vegetables taste great because they are very fresh. We grow everything organically, and our farm is certified under the federal organic standards. We grow our veggies in healthy soil, with lots of love, and then we get them to you usually within a day of being picked. Supermarket produce can’t compete. It can take ten days or more for supermarket vegetables to even get to the store shelf. Fresh vegetables are more delicious, and they are more nutritious!

We sell everything locally – we don’t worry about shipping – so we grow for taste. We grow French melons and leave them on the vine until they’re perfectly ripe and dripping with flavor. We grow tender, balanced mesclun, and sun gold cherry tomatoes so juicy and bright that you’ll be sorely tempted to eat them all in the car on the way home!

Our Baskets

In our CSA, we start each week’s basket with what’s in season, and then plan a good balance of vegetables within each basket and something different week to week. We grow some unusual vegetables for variety, but we mostly give you vegetables everyone knows and loves. The best way to get a sense of what is in the basket is to look past years’ baskets on our website www.oldshawfarm.com

Last year’s baskets included (in rough order of the season) spinach, mesclun, lettuce, cucumbers, bok choy, salad turnips, beets, napa cabbage, radishes, arugula, swiss chard, garlic scapes, broccoli, head cabbage, red tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, sun gold cherry tomatoes, new potatoes, basil, carrots, string beans, peppers, yukon gold potatoes, eggplant, summer squash, sweet onions, French fingerling potatoes, melons, heirloom tomatoes, corn, leeks, kale, brussel sprouts, storage onions, more carrots, and winter squash.

We include a flyer in each basket with field news, cooking tips and usually a recipe. We set aside veggies from each harvest for the CSA so you get tomatoes no matter when you make it to the pickup. This year CSAers will pack their own baskets from a table we set up for you.

People often ask how much is in each basket. A regular basket comes in a half bushel basket and is usually full. We plan our baskets using the prices we charge at farmer’s markets, giving you a discount of 15% off market prices.

Lisa has a large basket CSA share.

Price

The price for a regular basket is $370 for an 18 week season, which breaks down to $20.50 per week for $23.50 worth of vegetables.

A large basket is $515 for the season, or $28.50 a week for $34 of veggies a week. The season runs from June 18th to October 15th.

The deadline to sign up is June 1.

Pick up options
Wednesdays Danville Farmers’ Market 9 am to 1 pm
Wednesdays St. J Food Coop 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm
Fridays Farm in South Peacham 4 pm to 7 pm
Saturday Waitsfield Market 9 am to 1pm

To Order
If you have questions, you can call us at 592-3349 or email us at maryellen at oldshawfarm.com.
Click here for a printable order form.

Fall Option
This year we are expanding our fall option even more. With the fall option, you keep getting baskets of veggies for five weeks starting at the end of our regular CSA in October and going through the week before Thanksgiving week. Pickup is on Fridays in Peacham only.

The baskets will be the same value and discount as the regular season, except that the last basket is a double sized one. The website lists what was in each basket last year, though this year’s baskets will be bigger. The cost is $120.

Signup deadline for the fall option is July 1.

Farm Share Program

NOFA-VT (the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont) has a Farm Share Program to make CSAs available for folks who can’t afford them. A Farm Share member pays ½ the cost of the CSA, NOFA-VT pays ¼, and the CSA Farm raises ¼ from donations from its members. More information about Farm Share can be found at www.nofavt.org.

If you can, please donate $10 or more (make the check payable to NOFA-VT) for Farm Share when you sign up.