Farm Update
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| Fred holding one of our new hens! We got a new group of ladies last week, and we hope they'll start producing some eggs soon. |
In other farm news, it’s been super busy at the farm! June is always a whirlwind of planting,
harvesting, irrigating, seeding, weeding, delivering, and random construction and
repair projects. Fortunately, this year
we’ve had plenty of rain when we needed it, so we’re super thankful for that,
and we also have a fantastic farm crew in place. So as far as we can tell, it’s shaping up to
be a good year! We’re looking forward to
seeing you all next week! J
What to Expect at Your First CSA Drop-Off
One thing I’ve learned over the years of being a CSA farmer
is that each CSA operates a little bit differently from the next. So if you’ve never been part of a CSA before,
or you’re just new to Monroe Family Organics CSA, here’s the rundown of what
you can expect at your very first CSA drop-off!
First of all, we actually have two different styles of
drop-off. If you are picking up in Alma,
Mt. Pleasant, or Midland, you’ll have our traditional “market style”
drop-off. When you show up at your
appointed drop-off, you’ll see several long tables set up with seven or eight
different stations, and at each station you get to make a choice. Each station will have a sign that says
something like “Spring Mix or Romaine Lettuce:
Half Share Choose 1, Full Share Choose 2”. So then you’d get to choose a bag of spring mix
or a bag or romaine if you have a half share, or you could choose both if you
have a full share. Then you’d go down
the line and make a choice at each sign until you get to the end, which is our
trading table. The trading table exists
so that if there is some veggie that you really don’t like, or you already have
some of it at home, or whatever, you can take an item from one of the stations
and trade it for something you like more at the trading table.
If you have a reusable bag or market basket, bring it
along! We’ll have some heavy-duty
grocery bags there just in case, but if you bring your own bag, it’s more
earth-friendly and also allows us to go through fewer bags. As always, we’ll be there too to answer any
questions you might have, offer recipe ideas, etc. We’ll often also have additional farm items
for sale on the side, such as extra pints of blueberries when they’re in
season, or our free range eggs. So if
you’re interested in any of those items, you’ll want to carry some cash. We’ll see what the egg situation is for the
first few weeks of the CSA; we just got 52 lovely new Isa Brown hens, but they’re
not laying yet as of right now. So my
guess is we won’t have a ton of eggs at first, but the supply will grow as the
season goes on. Keep your fingers
crossed!
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| Here's what the tables at our traditional style drop-offs look like! This picture was taken last year at the Midland drop-off. |
So that’s pretty much it for the traditional drop-offs! Our other kind is the type with pre-bagged
shares. If you pick up in Lansing,
Okemos, St. Johns, or the Midland hospital, or if you have your share delivered
to your home or workplace, this will be your style of drop-off. Basically, the way this works is as
follows: I’ll send out the newsletter
each weekend, and there will be a section entitled “What to Expect in Your
Share this Week”. You’ll see listed the
choices for “Share A” and “Share B”, each of which will have seven or eight
items. Then you can just choose which
share sounds best to you, and let me know by email or text at least a day
before your drop-off. If you have a half
share, you’ll choose one bag, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two
bags. Then we’ll pack up your preferred
share in a bag with your name on it, and drop it off at your pickup location. Pretty simple!
If you’re new to the CSA (welcome!) and don’t remember when
and where you’re supposed to pick up, here’s the schedule:
- Alma: Mondays from 5-6 PM in front of His Place (200 W. Superior St.)
- Mt. Pleasant: Tuesdays from 5-6 PM behind Herbs, Etc. (503 E. Broadway)
- Lansing: Wednesdays from 4:30-10:00 at the Soup Spoon Café (1419 E. Michigan Ave). Just pop in and tell them you’re picking up a CSA share, and they’ll get it for you!
- Okemos: 4:30-6:30 at Mert’s Meats (1870 W. Grand River)
- St. Johns: I’ll send you guys a separate email because the drop-off is actually at someone’s house, but it’s going to be Wednesdays any time after 4:30, just a few blocks from the downtown shopping district.
- Midland: Thursdays from 5-6 PM in the pavilion behind the Eagle Ridge Church of God (2808 Waldo)
- Midland hospital: Thursdays after around 4:00 at the seating area behind the Center for Women’s Health.
So that’s the schedule!
Here are some additional notes:
Every time a bank holiday rolls around, I have a lot of
people wondering if the drop-off is still happening that day. And the short answer is “Yes, it is.” If your drop-off happens to fall on the 4th
of July or Labor Day, it will still be occurring as scheduled, but we totally
understand if you have an event going on and can’t make it to the
drop-off. In a case like that, just let
us know at least a day in advance of the drop-off you intend to miss, and we’ll
make some alternate arrangements. You can either have a friend pick it up for
you, or postpone your share and pick up double the following week, or pick up
at one of our other drop-offs that week, or even arrange ahead of time to pick
up a double share the week before. We
can be pretty flexible about that, we just need to know at least a day ahead of
time so we can adjust our harvest schedule. That also applies if you’re going out of town
or if you are otherwise unable to make it to the drop-off on a particular week.
Also, if you ever realize one evening that you totally
forgot to pick up your veggies, never fear!
You can just email or text me to let me know, and here is what we
usually do. Because we harvest the right
number of shares for the people we know are coming, we can’t necessarily add an
extra share to the harvest list for you the following week, but chances are
good that we’ll still be able to get you some extra veggies to make up for what
you missed. There are always a few
people who forget to come to the drop-off, so we pretty much always have a few
shares worth of veggies left over at the end.
So the week after your missed drop-off, if you come by after the main rush
has gone through (usually around 5:15), we’ll have a pretty good idea of how
much extra we’re going to have, and you can probably pick out some extra
veggies to make up for what you missed.
That brings me to one major piece of advice! At the traditional drop-offs, there is
usually quite a line of people waiting when we open up at 5:00. That’s because early in the drop-off, all of
the options at all of the stations are still available. As the drop-off goes on, some of the choices
often get snapped up, so toward the end of the drop-off, some of the variety is
gone. If you want to have the widest
variety possible, getting there a few minutes early is a good idea. Conversely, if you hate waiting in line and
don’t have strong preferences about which veggies you get, you might want to come
later. It’s usually fairly packed until
5:10-5:15, and after that, there’s almost never a line.
So that’s it! If you
have any questions, just let me know, and we’ll see you soon! J
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