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Introducing exciting changes to Seeds CSA this year!
Read below to see how these new changes will make your membership with Seeds Farm even better!
I want to make your experience with Seeds Farm something to write home about. I’ve learned that the biggest reason CSA members are unsatisfied with their CSA experience is what I like to call “compost guilt.” That is, they feel bad that they can’t use the entire contents of their CSA box and feel guilty about throwing the leftovers away. Another reason members don’t choose to renew is because they don’t get to pick out what they bring home. I started to think how I could modify our CSA to incorporate more choice. Additionally, while I was working this winter at Essex Farm CSA, a year round CSA in Essex, New York, I was inspired by the freedom members had to choose the contents of their CSA box.
With this in mind, I have been inspired to add a BRAND NEW format to bring the same delicious, nutrient dense vegetables to you. With the "You Pick" add on YOU GET TO DECIDE what you want in your box!
PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE AT SEEDSFARM.ORG.
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How does the 'You Pick' add on work?
For an additional fee of $2/week, you get to decide exactly what you want us to pack in your box!
Every Wednesday, we walk the fields and decide what is perfectly and deliciously ripe. We work hard to ensure a great diversity of produce. We update a list of what is available, and you let us know within 12 hours what you'd like us to pack in your box by signing into your account with your username/password you receive. That's right, you get to decide! If we do not hear from you, we will pack wonderful box for you with the abundant harvest.
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On Thursday we harvest what you ordered fresh, wash your produce, and pack your boxes.
Early Friday morning, we deliver your box to your dropsite. You choose if you’d like to pick up your box at the Farm, Just Food Coop (Northfield), or one of three Metro dropsites (Minneapolis, St. Paul, or Burnsville).
***DON'T WORRY, IF YOU PREFER THE PREPACKED SURPRISE BOX LIKE LAST YEAR, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS ADD-ON.
What size should I sign up for?
Full weekly shares are packed in 3/4 bushel boxes, filled with delicious, nutrient dense, local and freshly harvested produce. This is generally enough for two veggie loving adults or four veggie liking adults a week.
Bi weekly full shares are also packed in 3/4 bushel boxes with the same amount of produce, but they are delivered every other week.
Weekly half shares are packed in the same size box, but they are filled with half the amount of produce, and are delivered every week. This is good for single individuals or busy couples, or people wanting to supplement their summer garden.
***Half share members must sign up for the customizable option. I like to give whole portions of half the vegetables instead of half the portions of all the vegetables so that there is enough quantity of a given ingredient for a meal. I've found that it's best to let you decide what you want!
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In addition to the vegetable share, check out this year's add-ons:
- Meat Share. Prepay for your fall hog, Thanksgiving Turkey, and fall chickens. Whole and half hogs available- $100 deposit required for whole hog, $50 for half hog. Pastured chickens $2/chicken deposit, pastured turkeys $10/turkey deposit.
- Egg Share: This year our wonderful neighbor, Kathy Zeman, from Simple Harvest Organic Farm, will be raising the chickens who lay AWESOME eggs. You know, the kind where the yolk is ORANGE and delicious!
- Flower share: Back by popular demand: Ten flower shares of freshly picked, garden flowers available during the growing season by Toni and Brad Easterson who have been farming flowers organically since the mid-1970's. The mixed bunches to include such flowers as sweet peas, zinnias, cosmos, asters, lisianthus, stock, cornflower, lilies, etc., ready for pick-up when Seeds shares are picked up. There will be ten bunches per share from the field during the peak of flower season, mid-June through early September. The variety of flowers will change each week as they come into bloom. All flowers are cut the day of delivery. Garden flower orders for special occasions and events are also available through Seeds. All flowers are grown without synthetic chemicals, simply relying on the rich soils at Seeds Farm.
- Educational Share: Sign up for 6 weeks of educational material for your kid(s). Past Seed Farm manager and friend, Monica has a wonderful business, Budding Farmers. Check out the curriculum at buddingfarmers.com.
- Fruit Share: Prepay for the opportunity to pick certified organic blueberries at friends, Aaron and Molly McGovern-Wills' farm across town, Little Hill Berry Farm and delicious cherries at our friend, John Porterfield's cherry orchard, also across town, Cherry Leaf Orchard.
- Goat Cheese Share: Our friends at Singing Hills Dairy, Kate and Lynn, will be providing Seed Farm members with their delicious cheese. The share will be five monthly deliveries for $125 (discounted actual cost of $150), June through October. Each delivery will be approximately two pounds of cheese, including: 2 chevre, 1 feta. In addition to seasonal items such as curds, yogurt, cheddar will be offered.
- Cider Club: Keepsake Cidery is a new orchard based cidery in Dundas, Mn. They make hard cider using traditional methods and local apples. They offer a fantastic membership to their Cider Club. Think CSA for cider, the members support the cider makers with crucial upfront support and the members get cider, merchandise, and more! Check it out and pass it on! Visit Keepsake Cidery for more information.
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I was fortunate to work at Essex Farm CSA in Essex, New York this winter and it was wonderful! I was there for a month and joined the team caring for the animals (pigs, chickens, sheep, cattle, draft horses, and dairy cows), milking cows, making butter, sour cream, and yogurt, slaughtering and butchering animals, preparing storage vegetables for distribution, washing eggs, ordering seeds, making kimchee and sauerkraut, and more. It was inspiring being surrounded by other farmers and witnessing their impressive model for a whole diet, year round CSA. I've been thinking of ways to piece together a more 'full diet' CSA for you all in collaboration with my own farming neighbors. Hence - the reason for all of the new add-on's we're offering this year!
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