Fresh CSA Produce for 2004

[Guest guest]

 

hiphop4freedom [hiphop4freedom]

Monday, March 01, 2004 3:59 PM

dr.sunyatta; colbertmvc;

topshotter51

Fw: Fresh CSA Produce for 2004 Season CP

 

 

 

Peace and Blessings Folks,

 

I am sending this out to you because I know you will be interested. we

have participated in this for the last two seasons and it is wonderful.

The quality and amount of basil (and other exotic herbs) alone is worth

the small amount of money you pay for twenty weeks of fresh (and I do

mean fresh...they pick it the morning of delivery), organic (it's better

than organic really because it is biodynamically farmed), and locally

grown (so local, you can go and pick them yourself) produce. Tiombe and

I have done this for two years and we are very pleased with it. If you

are skeptical but interested we would be happy to split a share with you

for this season. (We will definitely eat it!) This years letter is below

and if you have any other questions you can contact the farmer. His

info is below as well.

 

 

Taking Deposits Now for 20 Weeks of Very Fresh, Locally Grown Vegetables

in Our 2004 Growing Season

 

Here's how it works. Our CSA raises more than 100 varieties of

vegetables and herbs. We manage our soil and crops-not with chemical

pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers-but with chemical-free practices

and quality organic matter (compost!). We judiciously guard against the

possibility of GMOs in our seedstock and with food as fresh as this,

we'd never consider irradiating your food. (Nor would we ourselves

knowingly buy any irradiated food for our own tables.) We sell shares of

the harvest from our two acre biodynamically* managed garden outside of

Shepherdstown, West Virginia We plant, tend, wrestle deer and

woodchucks, harvest, wash, and deliver this produce fresh ( the same

day!) to a drop-site near your home. 20 weeks costs $425 (there are

additional small one-time delivery fees for sites in Northern Virginia,

Maryland and Washington, DC). You will get an assortment of 10 to 15

varieties for every week of the 20-week harvest season.

Please consider this:

If you'd like to cook and eat fresh from this garden, or if you'd like

to learn how to do that with free weekly recipes we provide, join our

CSA. (This year we are establishing an on-line recipe and cultivar

(vegetable variety) database on-line so that you can actually skip ahead

of us in your meal planning!)

* If you'd like to have a relationship with a local farm family (through

potlucks and on-farm events, as well as by volunteering in the garden)

and become part of the Community Supported Agriculture movement, sign up

for our coming season.

* If you'd like to be part of forward-thinking model for local food

security and ecology (one that conserves non-renewable resources and

protects the local environment), please join our CSA.

* If you'd like access to other fresh and clean local foods, such as

eggs from pastured chickens, grass-fed be ef, pastured pork, wholesale

fresh roasted organic kona coffee (from a csa partner in Hawaii),

orchard fruit and honey, join our CSA

* If you'd like your food dollars to support an educational endeavor

that provides programs on local food for the Mid-Atlantic region,

organizes national conferences on biodynamic farming and gardening, and

conducts on-farm apprenticeships, providing important hands-on training

for the people who will grow wholesome food for our children's families,

then please join our CSA (See www.gardeningforthefuture.com for

information on our current programs.)

 

 

A CSA Share from Fresh and Local CSA is more than good food. CSA members

establish a connection with the food they eat, the land where it is

grown, and the people who produce it. By doing so, they make a tangible

commitment to local, sustainable, environmentally-sound agriculture,

then literally reap the benefits

 

" CSA is a relationship of mutual support and commitment between local

farmers and community members who pay the farmer an annual membership

fee to cover the production costs of the farm. In turn, members receive

a weekly share of the harvest during the local growing season. The

arrangement guarantees the farmer financial support and enables many

small- to moderate-scale organic family farms to remain in business.

Ultimately, CSA creates " agriculture-supported communities " where

members receive a wide variety of foods harvested at their peak of

ripeness, flavor and vitamin and mineral content. "

From the national CSA support pages at www.CSAcenter.org

 

We will sell all of our shares this season, but it is very helpful for

us to sell them all before farming begins in earnest in March. By

receiving payment for shares before we plant the crop, CSA farmers can

use their time to concentrate on the quality of their soils and produce

rather than marketing-a real bonus for you! You can secure your share by

sending a deposit (at least $ 50) to the address below as soon as

possible. The balance will be due by March 1. (If you want to pay by

charge card, we can arrange that. If you need other financial

arrangements, contact allan@freshandlocalcsa)

The basic tenet of CSA is this: By spending no more for produce than you

would at the chainstore, you will receive absolutely fresh vegetables

grown locally with management methods that promote the nutritional

content of your food. In addition, without you spending one more cent

for your farm-fresh locally grown vegetables, we provide community

outreach on topics such as food security, local economics and food

safety and conduct conferences, workshops and apprenticeships to help

assure that there will be holistic organic farmers to provide quality

food for the generation coming up. We do ask you to share in the risks

of farming and the rhythms of our bioregion, which means that some crops

may fail and some years may not be as good as others, so your weekly bag

w ill be smaller, but we enthusiastically share the bounty of good years

with our shareholders. Remember this: we are a CSA founded to provide

food of highest quality for families who will not find it elsewhere. CSA

is our business, not just a 'tool in our whole farm marketing program.'

You never get market culls from us.

We currently have drop-sites in Shepherdstown, Herndon, North Arlington,

and Cleveland Park. We are willing to start new drop-sites in the are

described above or sites along the I-270 corridor and Connecticut Ave.

to Dupont Circle if there are 20 interested participants at that site.

Visitors are always welcome during the growing system at the Garden;

please call ahead (304) 876-3382 to insure that we will have some time

to spend with you.

Make out checks to FRESH and LOCAL CSA and mail them to Fresh and Local

CSA, POB 3047, Shepherdstown, WV 25443 If you have any questions email

info@freshand localcsa.com or call Allan Balliett at (304) 876-3382

Our website is under construction, but you can find it at

www.freshandlocalcsa.com.

 

 

* Biodynamics is a system of holistic biological ( " organic " ) agriculture

developed by Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Waldorf Schools, in the

first quarter of last century. Industrial farming and commercial organic

farms have one goal: higher productivity. The goal of biodynamics is to

produce food of the highest nutritional quality by cooperating with

Nature instead of declaring war on her. Biodynamics is well established

in Europe and Australia and boasts close to 50 certified farms in the

US. More information on biodynamics is at www.biodynamics.org

 

 

A formatted version of this letter is attached. If CSA interests you,

please print it off and pass it around among your friends.

 

 

 

" Being revolutionary is to recognize things as they are and not be

afraid to say it "

-----Ariel Fernandez, Cuba's Minister of Hip-Hop

 

 

--

 

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