It's "our farm" as members who pay a flat amount early in the year in return for 20 weekly deliveries of whatever is harvested. We just had our 15th delivery of just picked food.
The leaf lettuce (right) is our favorite. By sharing both the risk and reward of farming it's a good deal for both sides.
This past Saturday, farmer Chris Zastrow invited members out for a potluck lunch and tour of the place.
After a nice lunch, he showed us where they grow nearly the crops. More than 80% is started by seed in an on-the-farm greenhouse and planted at the proper time. They hope to increase that percentage.It was interesting to learn so many of the details that go into delivering a variety of products each week, he described it as two farms - an inside farm and an outside one. Crops like cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes are grown inside high tunnels - which are protected from cold and get more heat from the sun than they would sitting in a field.
They "stake" the peppers (right and bottom) and tomatoes (below) leading the tomatoes up a string more than eight feet high. Farming this way gets more of the top grade fruit than they might in a garden.
The farm is organic - with natural fertilizers and lots of attention to weeding and watering.
It's a major operation with many details and many variables to manage. Still, it's farming and sometimes crops don't grow; grow too fast; or grow too slow. This year's heavy spring rains delayed many of the crops according to Zastrow which is one reason this year's picnic was later than usual.
One of the most interesting things to learn is they provide weekly "shares" to nearly 1,000 clients each week from their 30 acre farm. If you look at the picture at the top of the blog you'll see Chris (right side of picture) talking about the carrots. They were transplanted after getting started in a greenhouse and the carrots are the third crop using that particular parcel of land. All of their outdoor farmland gets used for three crops.
They do this by making use of a variety of things - knowledge from research and what they've learned the hard way.
The impressive high tunnel greenhouse of tomatoes (left and below) are actually made from two plants. They use one tomato plant that sets a large root to provide a strong base and then graft a high quality producing tomato on to it.
It's the best of two worlds.
The C.S.A. has been a good graft operation for us - a good deal, helped in part because our health insurance provides a rebate to become a member; a good adventure in getting the freshest food possible and helped spur me to put a few more veggies on my plate (by far this is the best salad I've enjoyed in my life); and a good economic value in knowing that we are linked to agriculture in a direct, personal way.
That was what was most enjoyable about Saturday's lunch and tour - it wasn't just a farm tour - it a tour and visit to our place.
Unfortunately, there's only five deliveries left.... the upside is looking forward to next year.
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