Your First CSA Drop-Off: How it Works and What You Need to Know

Farm Update

The lettuce is looking gorgeous out
in the fields!  The deer seem to agree,
so here's hoping they move on before
they do more damage to this lovely stuff!

Hello everyone!  We have an official start date for the CSA!  We'll be kicking off the drop-offs the week of June 13th, so mark your calendars or program it into your phones!  Alma will begin Monday, June 13th from 5-6 PM, Mt. Pleasant will start Tuesday, June 14th from 5-6 PM, Midland will be Wednesday, June 15th from 5-6 PM, and East Lansing will be anytime from 4:30-9:00 on Thursday, June 16th.  On the farm front, things have really taken off!  It's been pretty hot and dry, so we've been irrigating a lot.  The blueberry bushes are looking really nice, with lots of green berries on them.  We're still having some struggles with the local deer population; last week they came through and did quite a bit of damage to a really beautiful stand of lettuce we had.  So Fred has been going out late at night (when they usually come through) for the last few days to scare them off, and hopefully they'll get wary and stay away.  Our coldframes, which used to be planted with spring veggies, are entirely planted with the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini we'll have later this summer.  We also have some early zucchini and their accompanying squash blossoms coming out of the heated greenhouse already!  It's been so nice to have zucchini on the table already, and we've sold some of it to local restaurants as well.  Also, in case you're interested, we're now on Instagram!  You can follow us there to see what we're doing at the farm one photo at a time!

Your First CSA Drop-Off:
How It Works and What You Need to Know

Arugula blooms in the coldframes.

One thing I have learned in the last few years of hanging out with CSA farmers is that we all have our own ways of doing things.  Different growing methods, preferred crops to work with, management styles, and of course, different types of CSA drop-offs!  So if you’ve never been in a CSA before (or you just have never been in our CSA before), you probably have some questions about what to expect at your first drop-off.  I was going to write a whole article all about it, but I realized that the details in last year’s article on the topic are still equally relevant.  So you can read about that here.  There are a few things that will be different though, and here they are:

The East Lansing drop-off:  Instead of having a regular drop-off in East Lansing this year, where we set up the tables and you all walk down the line and choose your veggies, we’re going to be doing all prepacked shares this year.  So here’s how it will work:  The drop-off is still on Thursdays at the East Lansing Food Co-op, but instead of having to be there between 5:00 and 6:00 PM, you’ll be able to show up anytime between 4:30-ish and 9:00 (or even the next day if your schedule is crazy).  You can just go into the co-op and someone will help you get your bag of veggie goodness!  You’ll still get some choice as to what goes in your share too, because we’ll offer two prepacked options.  When I send out the newsletter each Saturday, I’ll let you know what will be in Share A and what will be in Share B for the upcoming week.  Then, you can just send me an email anytime by noon on Wednesday and let me know which one you prefer.  If I don’t hear from you, I’ll assume both options sounded equally awesome to you, and I’ll just pick one. J  If you need to postpone your share because you’ll be out of town, that will work just the same as last year:  you can just let me know by Wednesday and I’ll postpone your share that week and get you a double share the following week.

It's been really hot and dry lately, so
Fred has been spending a lot of time
watering and irrigating.

Home/ workplace delivery:  If you are signed up to have your share delivered to your home or workplace, it will be pretty much the same system as last year.  However, the details on that are not in last year’s article, so for those new to the home/workplace delivery option, here is how it works.  You also will have a choice of two prepacked shares, Share A and Share B.  I’ll let you know in the newsletter each Saturday what those options will be, and you can just email me by noon on the day before your drop-off and let me know which one you prefer.  Again, if I don’t hear from you, I’ll just choose for you.  So if you’re super busy and forget to let me know, don’t worry, we won’t skip your share or anything.  We’ll come by sometime in the mid-afternoon on your drop-off day and leave your share near your front door, so if that happens to be a sunny spot, it’s a good idea to leave a cooler out where we can put your veggies so they don’t get all wilty.  If you are going to be out of town and need to postpone your share, just let me know by the day before your drop-off, and I’ll plan on skipping that week and getting you a double share when you get back.

So that’s it!  Just let me know if you have any questions about any of this, and we look forward to seeing you soon! J

Recipes

Although we have had spinach for a while now, I'm still not over being excited about it, and just about everything I cook has spinach in it somewhere!  If you're loving spinach right now too, check out this Spinach Pie recipe!  You can also add whatever other veggies you have on hand for a really flavorful and interesting meal