Fiber · Breeding Stock · Meat · Vegetables
“CSA” stands for “Community Sponsored Agriculture.” When you buy a CSA share, you are purchasing a slice of the farm’s produce for a season, delivered, in our case, every other week starting. You pay up front, which allows the farm to meet the up-front expenses of the growing season. It is like buying your own small serfdom — we plant YOUR seeds, harvest YOUR vegetables, and, hat in grubby hand, bring them to you.
Why do you call your CSA “modified?”
2010 Green Fence Farm CSA and Buying Club FAQ
What is a CSA? _
"CSA" stands for "Community Sponsored Agriculture." When you buy a CSA share, you are purchasing a slice of the farm's produce for a season, delivered, in our case, every other week starting in late May. You pay up front, which allows the farm to meet the upfront expenses of the growing season. It is like buying your own small serfdom - we plant YOUR seeds, harvest YOUR vegetables, and, hat in grubby hand, bring them to you.
Why do you call your CSA "modified?"
A normal CSA gives you a percentage of the farm's produce each delivery - so if a late freeze wipes out the June lettuce crop, you get just a couple of sad looking Kohlrabi roots for several deliveries in a row (this happened to me the first time I signed up for a CSA). Plus, we learned in doing this for the first time last year that there is no way in the world we can stay the size we like (small enough to avoid having to set up a base camp between the lettuce and tomato beds) and serve the demand of our DC customers. So we guarantee a delivery every other week equal to the market value of the price you paid ($30+$5 transportation cost). We have arranged with a number of small farms - primarily farmers we work with at the Staunton Farmers Market -- to grow some things with which I have had no success (cabbage), which just annoy me too much to do on a large scale (cherry tomatoes - they take forever to pick), or for which we don't have enough land (sweet corn). We also make weekly trips to the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction - an auction set up by a tremendously creative ag extension agent (who is also our sheep shearer) to provide a market for a small community of Old Order Mennonites who have been farming in our area for hundreds of years. Because this community farms primarily by old methods (that is, no tractors or cars - purely horse, buggy, and plow) and is extremely reluctant to travel into the world of the "English" (that's we modern folk) - they were finding it hard to support themselves doing what they have done for a very long time, farming. The auction brings these producers together twice a week and auctions off produce to local stores and CSAs smart and lucky enough to have found them.
Green Fence Farm is now taking reservations for our vegetable, egg, and bread CSAs as well as accepting members into our NW and Capitol Hill Buying Clubs. Our CSAs deliver a basket a vegetables and sometimes fruit every other week to Capitol Hill (starting May 26) and Northwest DC (staring June 2) locations (see delivery dates below), 12 deliveries per location, 24 deliveries to DC in all. Our CSA drop-offs coincide with our delivery of à la carte vegetables, meat, eggs, and other products to our Buying Clubs (CSA members are automatically members of our Buying Clubs - the rest of you can get in by sending Kate your email address; it's that easy), and CSA members will have the first opportunity to order our limited supply of meats, extra eggs, bread, vegetables, and whatever else we figured out that we have and you might want.
Prices
Below there is a more detailed discussion of what exactly is in each of these options and why you should buy them (all of them!).
You made that stuff about the produce auction up, didn't you?
No, it really exists. Highlight of my week is going there and chatting with the bearded, suspendered farmers in their straw hats, the women in their homemade "Little House on the Prairie" dresses, and the kids running around dressed like miniature adults but with no shoes (I asked someone once why - she told me it was to keep them close to home). The best parking is for buggies (they get shade, I guess because an overheated horse is a lot worse than an overheated Suburban), and lunch, with pie, is $3.
The Buying Club is just a fancy name for our email list; if you want on, just let Kate know. Normally, a few days before we come to DC, we email all our Buying Club members with a list of what we have for sale, prices, and a deadline for ordering. We will sometimes offer small or large baskets of vegetables at the drop-off, but usually only a few - so if you are interested in vegetables, you should join the CSA. Other than that, we have all sorts of meat products (chicken, quail, duck, rabbit, lamb, goat, beef - but it is all seasonal with the poultry not really showing up until late June/July; gotta have grass to raise grass fed animals), bread, jam, and eggs (though, again, if you want our famous chicken eggs, you should join the egg CSA - CSA is always served first). You email us back with what you want. On delivery day, we bring your pre-ordered goods to our Capitol Hill or Northwest location (depending on what week it is). You show up, pay us in cash or check (we won't have a total on meats sold by the pound until you get there - sorry, we are already straining our limited powers of organization just to show up with the right stuff at all), and carry off your goodies in bags you bring yourself.
How does the Full Flex Share work?
Good question - this is a new one for us. You are buying 5 deliveries, but you can use them on any of the 24 weeks we are coming to DC. You let us know the same time the Buying Club orders are due that you want to cash in one of your five chits, and we'll have your basket ready for you at the next pick up.
Two or one dozen eggs from our pastured chickens with each delivery - also any additional eggs you buy ala carte will be at the price you paid/dozen for the CSA. For those of you new to Green Fence Farm, I've reproduced our propaganda on how wonderful pastured eggs are at the end of this FAQ - regular customers who know how these are the most amazing eggs you will ever eat no longer need to cling to the security blanket of all that dull health information. And, before you even ask, yes, the eggs will keep for a week, two weeks, three
What's a Bakery Share?
A good friend of ours, who also grows many of our CSA vegetables (and his son works for us), runs a bakery. He makes good, old fashioned country bread. Sure, you can walk to any corner in DC and buy yourself an artisanal, stone ground, wood fired, oat covered, hull filled, free form loaf of something (with aniseed, of course). But John's bread is what you need to make a thick tomato sandwich with mayonnaise. It is light, soft and smells like yeast and your Grandma's kitchen if you were brought up in a Norman Rockwell picture. It doesn't even pretend to be good for you, but it is so good. You can specify white or wheat and we are always happy to change if you give us some notice before your delivery.
I can't afford that much for vegetables - haven't these are tough economic times?
First of all, as explained above, since you are paying Staunton prices for your guaranteed basket of vegetables, your veggie dollar will go farther than it would in any of the (fine) DC markets. Second, once you have a big pile of delicious (and easy to prepare) fresh veggies, you'll find your restaurant bill going way down as you choose to stay home and eat Tomato sandwiches instead of gourmet burgers or to make your own "Baby Heritage Beet Salad on Mesclun" rather than paying $12 for the same at any number of DC eateries - and yours will be fresher.
Please note, that for eggs and bread, CSA members get their locked in price if they want to buy extra eggs or bread ala carte. Ala carte eggs (which may be scarce this year - we lost 60 of our new layers in the December snow storm) will cost $4.75/dozen and ala carte bread $5/loaf. Also, unlike last year, you may buy an egg share only AND you can buy more than one (for those of you - like me - for whom 4 dozen eggs a week is just for openers; or buy the share and resell then at the higher price - we encourage entrepreneurs!)
• FULL vegetable/fruit share (80 available): 12 market produce baskets delivered every two weeks starting late May/early June: $420.
• HALF vegetable/fruit share (40 available): 12 smaller (see below - 3-4 items as opposed to 7-8 with the full share) market produce baskets delivered every two weeks starting late May/early June: $240.
• FULL Flex vegetable/fruit share (20 available): 5 market produce baskets delivered to either location with one week notice: $200
• Double egg share (2 dozen eggs/delivery): $96 ($4/dozen, same price as last year!)
• Single egg share (1 dozen eggs/delivery): $54 ($4.50/dozen)
• John's Bread Share (one wheat or white farm baked bread/delivery): $54
• Grassfed Turkey (50 available): Reserve a grass-fed turkey, between 13-22 lbs (depending on when we have to harvest them), delivered frozen the week before Thanksgiving. $40 to reserve one bird - the balance due on delivery when we know what they weigh, and what we are going to charge a pound (probably $4/lb).
Full payment is required to reserve your share.
What You Might See in Your Share
As opposed to last year, when I just made this chart up, this is based on actual deliveries for last year's CSA:
JUNE
*Dozen Green Onions
*Bag of Salad Greens or Mesclun
*Bag of Greens for Stir-Fry
*Bunch of Radishes
*Bag of Spinach
*Bunch of Baby Turnips
*Bunch of Heritage Beets
*Strawberries
*Quail eggs
JULY
*Head Cabbage
*Bag of French Filet Beans
*Bunch of Swiss Chard
*Bunch of Herbs
*Baby Patty Pan, Yellow Squash, Zucchini
*Plums
*Purple of Yellow Snap Beans
*Heritage Lettuce
*Raspberries
*Yellow Beets
*Honey
*Eggplant
AUGUST
*French Filet
Beans
*Bunch of Herbs
*Baby Patty Pan, Yellow Squash, Zucchini
*Purple or Yellow Snap Beans
*Cherry Tomatoes
*Heritage
Tomatoes
*Cucumbers
*Peppers, Hot and/or Sweet
*Peaches
*Early apples
*Sweet corn
SEPTEMBER
*Heritage Tomatoes
*French Filet Beans
*Sweet Corn
*Baby Heritage Potatoes
*Purple or Yellow Snap Beans
*Red or Napa Cabbage
*Head Lettuce
*Quail Eggs
*Salad Greens
*Bunch Baby Beets or Turnips
*Melons
*Eggplant
OCTOBER
*Winter Squash
*Sweet Corn
*Heritage
Potatoes
*Purple or Yellow Snap Beans
*Red or Napa Cabbage
*Head Lettuce
*Quail Eggs
*Salad Greens
*Bunch Baby Beets or Turnips
*Leeks
*Spinach
*Shallots
*Pumpkins
*Apples
NOVEMBER
*Winter Squash
*Heritage Potatoes
*Kale and Collard Greens
*Head Lettuce
*Quail Eggs
*Salad Greens
*Bag of Spinach
*Bunch of Baby Turnips
*Bunch of Heritage Beets
*Garlic
*Chestnuts
*Popcorn
Size of Share
As explained in a little more detail in our FAQ (yes, there is more reading to do - joining this CSA is worse than grad school), our CSA deviates a little from the traditional CSA. One way is that we deliver a nice hefty share every two weeks instead of every week. The share generally contains 7-9 items and we try to include a fruit each delivery. The amount should be enough to meet the vegetable needs of a family of four or two veggie loving adults - without drowning you in
vegetables (we did drown people in beans last year and are adjusting) or making you feel guilty if you want to buy something from the farmer's market or grocery store once in a while. The half share is 3-4 items - not always or even usually the same as in the full share, and about half as much food.
Source of the Food
We grow some of the vegetables in every share, and we contract with other small, sustainable Shenandoah Valley Farms to supply the rest (more on that in the FAQ). All of the poultry, eggs, and rabbit are raised and "harvested" on Green Fence Farm. All of our grass-fed goat and some of our grass-fed lamb is raised on our farm; all of it is butchered at T&E Meats, a small, clean, local USDA inspected abattoir. All of our grass-fed beef and some of our grass-fed lamb is raised to our specifications by two neighbors with more land than we have.
We are better than organic. We don't use chemicals, antibiotics, bioengineered seeds, or other freaks of nature in our farming. We run a sustainable enterprise - letting our animals fertilize our pastures, our chickens harvest our grass, our rabbits enrich our garden soils, our guineas eat the Japanese beetles, and on and on. We subject all our products to the highest standards of food safety testing - we feed our daughters and our mothers from the same bean bush and chicken flock that produce your order. And we are, in the new favorite word of the bail outers, "transparent." Come
Will we get exactly what you listed in your examples?
I hope so; that's what you would have had had we been organized to do this last year. But every year is different - a cold snap in late spring, and you may get sugar snap peas in June - extra rain and the filet beans may show up a week earlier -- a warm fall and you may have tomatoes into November. See, you get all the excitement of eating with the seasons and none of the risks (no kohlrabi!),
I don't like beets (or swiss chard, or beans, or tomatoes or peppers or lettuce); can I get something else instead?
No. Though this year, we may institute a "swap basket" - an idea one of our '09 customers came up with. You see what's there and swap out the stuff you don't want, leaving all the kohlrabi for the last guy.
I'm not going to be here for two of the deliveries - can I just pay for the weeks I am here?
No (except for in the case of the flex share explained above), but you can let someone else pick up your share (what a great gift!). And if you let us know far enough in advance (but not too far lest we lose the scrap of paper we write the info on), we'll put your share up for sale in the Buying Club offerings; if it sells, we'll give you $20 store credit.
Can someone else pick up my share?
Yes - in fact, it is a good idea to have a CSA buddy for those times you have to work late unexpectedly.
What if I don't make it to the pick-up?
We eat your share - not a problem, we're always hungry. Though you can always try tracking us down before it is eaten or distributed to the usually circling relatives and other Green Fence Farm hangers-on.
What are the other benefits of being a shareholder?
Why should I go with your CSA rather than all the others I saw advertised in the Washington Post last week (yeah, I know, I missed the deadline…again)?
First, our CSA involves less of a commitment (every other week rather than every week) so if you really want to eat brussel sprouts in July or avocados anytime, you haven't spent your entire vegetable budget on our seasonal, local products (yes it IS possible to get sick of tomatoes). Second, you are not required to do any work on the farm (though if you WANT to….). And third, you are guaranteed full, diverse basket every delivery (even if it floods - though you will end up with a lot of honey, garlic, and quail eggs in that case).
Alright, you talked me into it. How do I pay?
We'll take checks (made to Green Fence Farm and mailed to PO Box 30, Greenville, VA 24440), Pay Pal if you have an account, or credit card payments through Pay Pal (secure) even if you don't have a Pay Pal Account (I can invoice you and from there it is easy to pay with your credit card). Your reservation is secured when you pay - just let us know how you would like to do that when you email me at kssdc2001@aol.com. We prefer checks, and I will reserve your share once you tell us the check is in the mail (and unreserve you if it doesn't show up for a month - but not without fair warning in the form of extensive whining on our part).
Propaganda on Eggs for newcomers to Green Fence Farm (the rest of you can stop reading - since this is still all as true as it ever was, I haven't updated it)
Why add an egg share?
First they are a deal -- though more expensive than the antibiotic filled eggs pumped out by debeaked, chickens fed animal by products and arsenic and smashed into houses lit 24 hours a day where they lay eggs in their own waste-- our eggs cost less than the "cage free" (translation: their chickens get to see the sun once a day, like prisoners who have yard privileges), "Omega-3" (translation: they don't feed the chickens feed made from slaughterhouse waste) eggs you get at Safeway. Our chickens actually live on pasture -- where they eat grass and bugs, like chickens are supposed to. They are moved at least once a week to new pasture in an admittedly hilarious mobile chicken coop that Nick drags through our fields. They are happy chickens -- or at least, amused. As the chickens get older, the eggs are increasing from medium to large sized, and I think we'll be getting some extra larges soon.
They are delicious. If you have never had fresh eggs, you will not believe the buttery rich taste they have. The yolks are bright orange (not pasty yellow) and the shells are hard.
They are healthy. Our chickens don't get sick and don't get antibiotics. They eat a healthy diet, as nature intended, so you get healthy eggs: lower in fat, lower in cholesterol, and higher in all the vitamins and cancer fighting agents you are paying through the nose for at Whole Foods (who do not have pasture fed eggs for sale, btw). Scientists -- even real ones and not my quack survivalist friends -- have studied the benefits of eggs from pastured chickens and found: