CSA DAY FEBRUARY 23, 2018

CSA Day Offers Second Chance for New Year’s Resolutions

Celebrate Community-Supported Agriculture on Feb. 23 with Still Seeking Farm

Are your New Year’s resolutions already in the rearview mirror? If so, you’re not alone, but you still have time to make good on those resolutions. We are pleased to join other farms from around the country for the third annual CSA Day on February 23, when you can join other like-minded people around the country who are committed to:

• eating healthful foods and preparing them for their families;
• supporting their local farmer;
• being kind to our planet;
• learning something new; and
• being adventurous in the kitchen.

CSA (community-supported agriculture) is a subscription to a season’s worth of sustainable, locally grown produce that is distributed to members throughout the harvesting season. It is a form of investment that allows small farmers to continue growing on a scale that may not be sustainable without the CSA model. CSA members enjoy the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables for their family, while supporting their local farmer.

According to Small Farm Central’s CSA Farming Annual Report, the most popular time to join a CSA each year is at the end of February. To promote this important time for farmers, CSA Day was coined, and each year it falls on the last Friday in February. It’s an entire day dedicated to the celebration of community-supported agriculture, and CSA farmers enjoy an influx of sign-ups from members, which gives them revenue when they need it most for the growing season.
Getting food from a CSA is different from going to a farmers market or using a grocery delivery service. As a CSA member, you make a seasonal commitment to a small farmer in your area, and the produce is either delivered to your door or you pick it up at a local distribution point. CSA members take pleasure in knowing where and how their food is grown, and typically have an open line of communication with their farmer.

“Community-supported agriculture is all about relationships and feeding families,” said Simon Huntley, CEO of Small Farm Central, a company that provides marketing support for small farms and started CSA Day. “CSA farmers typically teach members what’s in season throughout the year, and help them appreciate and cook food to which they may not otherwise be exposed.”

How to Get Involved with CSA Day

If you would like to celebrate CSA Day and support Still Seeking Farm, sign up for a share on February 23, and use the hashtag #CSAday to join the online conversation.

Sign-up is easy. To learn more and to join us for the 2018 season, you can sign up here:

https://csa.farmigo.com/join/stillseekingfarmscsa/csa

 As an added incentive and to pass along our appreciation, anyone who purchases a CSA share on February 23, 2018 will receive an additional 10% purchasing power and a half-pint of maple syrup.  And to those of you who have already signed up, you too, will receive a half-pint of maple syrup.

Thank you for your support!  Keith and Michelle

Tomatoes in June?

As many of you know, our 30′ x 76′ greenhouse was put up at the end of 2017. We were very fortunate to get a grant for two greenhouses last year.  The second one, will be going up in the spring/early summer.

We will have spring veggies in this greenhouse that will be ready in the spring (April/May).  Yum!  Can’t wait!  Also in this greenhouse, we will be growing, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, basil and green peppers.  So….what does this mean?  It means, that we should have these crops ready one month earlier than they are typically ready in this area.

I know, I hear you saying, yeah but greenhouse tomatoes – they don’t taste like anything!  Ours, will have taste and they will actually taste like a tomato because of the way that we grow.  So look for us at the markets this summer with crops a bit earlier than the other folks.  Oh yeah, if you want to make sure you get some and don’t miss out if you come late to the market, think about signing up for our free choice CSA (you pick what you want) and your bag will be already set aside with the products that you want that week so you won’t miss out!  If you sign up by February 1st, you get an extra 10% in purchasing power.  Check it out here.  If you want to learn how to get a free CSA, check it out here.

Strawberry Plants

We just finished planting 2,000 strawberry plants. These are full size plants so by planting them in the fall they can get established and you get a full harvest in June. Conventional methods have you planting in the spring, waiting a year and then getting the bounty. We can’t wait to offer nutrient dense, chemical free strawberries to our customers next year.

Bed Preparation

We thought we should post about what it takes to prepare a bed before we plant into it. For those of you who follow us, you know we feed our soil with nutrients that are severely lacking in many soils these days. Coincidentally, these same nutrients are also lacking in our bodies as well. By feeding the soil, the plants uptake these nutrients and when we consume these plants, we are getting all of the benefits that we put into the soil. It’s pretty neat. First up is a bucket of “black gold” our own compost. We spread this by hand with a shovel. One of us is in the tractor while the other shovels it out while the tractor slowly backs up. Next, we have a picture of the tractor (last Sunday before the rains came) and in the bucket of the tractor are several containers. Within each container is a different mineral. We have lime, gypsum, colodial phosphate, stonedust, sulfate of potash, menafee humates, boron and probooster. There is one more that looks like coal, but the name escapes me right now. All of these get sprinkled (in certain amounts) on each bed by hand (our future hope is to get some kind of mechanical spreader). After all of this is done, we rototil the top layer and if applicable we put down the plastic and irrigation tape. Throughout the summer, we will feed the soil with fish emulsion, calcium or phosphorus. As you can see it is quite the process to prepare a bed. We enjoy this work and really want to provide our customers with good, nutritious, tasty food the way it use to taste many, many years ago.