To all of the slumbering CSA-ers, localvores and seasonal food connoisseurs. The days are getting longer, the chickens are laying more eggs and the itch in my boots is starting to return. My calendar, my plans and my intuition are telling me that it’s almost time to git farmin’ a-gin. Your small family farmers have recharged their batteries. The buildings on the farm are all straightened up, some renovation projects are under way, and all of the equipment is greased, repaired, and ready for another season of heavy use.
Here on the farm we’re getting ready for our best season ever. We have a fancy new website that we’re pretty excited about. It is now possible to sign-up for CSA shares online using your paypal account. This is huge! As farmers, so much more familiar with the world of physical matter and tangible objects such as steel, soil and plants, it’s truly amazing to watch a website be created out in the ether and light world of computers. Check out our Forum, leave comments, ask questions, or talk about our veggies and share options.
Depending on where you live, where you work, or who you’re insured by, you may also be eligible for a rebate of $100-$200 on the cost of your CSA share! This is really exciting to see so many insurance companies offering rebates to their customers and partnering with CSA farmers. In our winter months we are spending time creating and strengthening existing CSA coalitions and contacting other potential insurance companies that may be interested in offering rebates to their customers in the future. This alone is impacting the world of CSA memberships in a really big way. It’s exciting to see so many more people interested in buying local foods and signing up for CSA memberships. A $100 rebate is always a nice incentive! Check out the MACSAC website that explains this a bit further.
We have made the very difficult and large decision to also market our produce to Madison, Wisconsin next year. We’re hoping this will help us meet our membership goals for next year a little more easily and quicker than we have in the last couple years. We have also decided to switch our delivery dates to Wednesday next year. From reviewing so many survey forms, it seemed like a popular request to have the produce delivered mid-week rather than at the end of the week when so many people have plans to eat out, travel out of town or are simply not available at 5pm on a Friday afternoon. We hoped this will help make it more convenient for you to pick up and use up your veggies.
You may have also noticed that we will be a ‘Certified Organic’ farm this year. We are taking full advantage of using those words and plastering them all over our website as we are paying good money to use those words. We’re not sure how much it means to all of you, who know very well our farming practices and that we have been growing delicious organic veggies for years. But the truth is, so many people come to trust the symbol ‘USDA Certified Organic’ more than they care to get to know a farmer and their food themselves. A swirl of convenience. We made our decision to get ‘certified’ very slowly and took a good long time to come to where we are about it now. But we’re happy with our decision now and we know that we made it for the right reasons.
Be sure to take advantage of our Early Bird Discount that is available through March 1st! You can receive $20 off the cost of the share. This is a big savings, and it’s only good through March 1st!
