Farm Update
Hi everyone! We have exciting news! The CSA will officially be kicking off the week of June 20th, so mark your calendars! And just send me a quick email so I know you got the message, because I want to make sure no one misses their first week of veggies!
The first Alma drop-off will be Monday, June 20th from 5-6 PM out in front of His Place on Superior St.
The first Mt. Pleasant drop-off will be Tuesday, June 21st from 5-6 PM behind Herbs Etc. on Broadway.
The first Lansing drop-off will be Wednesday, June 22nd between 4:30 and 9 PM at the Soup Spoon Café on Michigan Ave.
The first Okemos drop-off will be Wednesday, June 22nd between 4:30 and 6 PM at Mert’s Specialty Meats on Grand River.
The first St. Johns drop-off will be Wednesday, June 22nd anytime after 2:30 PM at the home of a CSA member who lives around the corner from the hospital. I’ll send all of you St. Johns folks a separate email with the address shortly.
The first Midland drop-off will be Thursday, June 23rd from 5-6 PM in the pavilion behind the Eagle Ridge Church of God on Waldo Rd.
The first Midland MyMichigan Hospital drop-off will be Thursday, June 23rd anytime after 3 PM at the seating area behind the Center for Women’s Health. There is a place where delivery vehicles pull over on Campus Ridge Drive, and a sidewalk goes up to the back of the building. There are a few picnic tables there under some shady trees, and that is where you’ll find your CSA shares!
And if you get home or workplace delivery, I’ll be dropping off your shares on the afternoon of whatever day we deliver to your town, probably between 2 and 4:30 PM.
So there you have it! I’d definitely recommend setting up a repeating calendar event or reminder so you don’t forget! The CSA will go for 19 weeks until the end of October.
Some other exciting news is that we are (probably) adding a drop-off at MyMichigan Medical Center in Alma! This is currently in the works, and we just started talking about it with the hospital on Thursday. We had some CSA members who were affiliated with the hospital ask if we could do a hospital drop-off in Alma like we do in Midland, and I said that if we had 10 hospital employees sign up, we could do a delivery there. So far we have several people signed up for the Alma hospital drop-off, so it’s looking like it’s probably going to happen. So if you are signed up for our regular Alma drop-off, but you work at the hospital and would like to switch to the hospital delivery, just let me know and I’ll change you over! The main difference would be that at the hospital drop-off, we’d do prepacked shares instead of you getting to pick your produce out from the tables. You can learn more about that later in the newsletter when I talk about how our various drop-offs work.
Wow! I am just amazed that despite the prolonged cold weather we had in the spring and the slow start to our growing season, we are starting the CSA at the same time we usually do! And I am thrilled to see all of you in just a little more than a week!
What to Expect at Your First CSA Drop-off!
Some of you have been CSA members for years and are old hands at this. And some of you are CSA newbies, and probably have some questions about how it works at the drop-offs. If you’ve been part of the CSA before, it’s pretty much the same as it’s always been. But if you’re new, here is everything you need to know for your first CSA drop-off!
First, we have two different types of CSA drop-offs. In Alma, Mt. Pleasant, and Midland, we have our regular “market style” drop-offs, where we set up big long tables and CSA members get to pick out their veggies one by one. For our Lansing, St. Johns, Okemos, and hospital drop-offs, we prepack your shares at the farm and bring them to your drop-off location for you to pick up at your convenience. If you want to, you can skip right to the part about your particular drop-off style. :-)
“Market Style” drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, Midland): When you pull up to the drop-off, you’ll see us and our tables full of produce, and probably a bunch of people lined up to get their veggie goodness. On the tables, there will be a sign-in sheet where you can initial next to your name, and then seven different produce “stations”. At each station, you’ll see a sign telling you what the options are for that station. It might say something like, “Spring mix or spinach: Half share, choose 1 bag. Full share, choose 2 bags”. Then you’d choose either one or two portions depending on whether you have a half shar or a full share. Then, you’ll continue down the line to the next six stations and make your choices there. At the very end, we have our Trading Station, where you can switch out any items you’re less excited about for something you like better. For example, if one of the stations is Kale or Bok Choy, but you don’t like either of those, you can take your item from that station to the end and trade it for something you like more at the Trading Station. This means that you don’t get stuck with stuff you don’t like!
Some pro tips for the market style drop-offs:
There’s usually a big rush at the very beginning of the drop-off, where about 80% of people go through the line in about the first 15 minutes. After the rush goes through, some of the variety is usually snapped up, so if you want the widest variety, it’s a good idea to get there early and get in line. But if you don’t have a strong preference for what veggies you get and you hate to wait in line, it’s a good idea to get there after 5:15.
If you have one, bring a basket or reusable grocery bag! We’ll have plastic bags available, but it’s definitely more eco friendly if people bring their own that they can keep reusing.
If you’re in a hurry, or you just would rather not wait in line, we can prepack your share for you at the farm, and you can just grab your bag of produce when you arrive! If you want us to pack up your share, you can just fill out the quick form I’ll have in the newsletter each week and let me know what choices you prefer. Definitely read about how the prepacked shares work if you’d prefer this option!
We usually also have eggs from our free-range chickens for sale on the side, so if you are interested in eggs, it’s a good idea to carry cash. Like just about everything these days, the cost of our eggs is going up this year from $4 per dozen to $5 per dozen, so I just wanted to give you all the heads up about that!
And now, for the other type of drop-off.
Drop-offs with prepacked shares (Lansing, Okemos, St. Johns, and hospitals): For you, your CSA pickup actually starts the weekend before when our CSA newsletter arrives in your inbox. Each weekend in the newsletter, I’ll tell you what fruits, veggies, and herbs will be available in the shares the next week, and there will be a special section for the prepacked shares. You will have the choice between three different prepacked shares. It will say something like, “Share A has these 7 items, Share B has these 7 items, and Share C has these 7 items.” And then if you have a half share, you’ll choose one of those bags, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two of those bags. There will be a quick form for you to fill out to let me know which share(s) you want for the upcoming week, and you’ll just want to make sure you submit that by lunchtime the day before your drop-off. So if you pick up your share on Wednesday, you’ll want to get your choice to me by noonish on Tuesday so I can be sure to get your preference onto our harvest list for the next day. If you get it in later in the evening, I’ll still probably be able to get you your preferred share, but the best way to make sure you’re able to get the veggies you wanted is to submit your form on time. Also, if you forget to fill it out, that’s totally fine! We’ll still bring you a share, but we’ll just decide what to put in there for you.
Then, on the day of your delivery, you just show up at the pickup location sometime within the time windows listed above, tell them your name, and they’ll give you your preferred share in a bag with your name on it. It’s that easy!
No matter what drop-off you’re at, here are some things you’ll want to know:
If you’re going out of town, or you’ll be otherwise unable to make it to the drop-off, just let me know by the day before the drop-off you’ll be missing, and we can make other arrangements for your share. You can either postpone your share and get a double share when you get back, pick up your share at a different drop-off location on a different day that week, or have a friend pick it up for you. If you’re having a friend pick it up for you, you don’t have to let me know ahead of time, and your friend can just initial next to your name on the sign-in sheet. But if you’re postponing your share or picking up at a different drop-off, I just need to know ahead of time.
And if you ever realize that you totally forgot to pick up your veggies, no worries! Just let me know, and while I can’t necessarily put an extra share for you on the harvest list the following week, we usually have some veggies left over at the end of each drop-off. The next week, if you come through the line after the rush goes through, chances are pretty good that we’ll be able to send you home with some extra veggies to make up for what you missed the week before.
So that’s it! Let me know if you have any questions about the drop-offs or anything else, and we’ll see you the week of the 20th! And don’t forget to let me know you got the message about the CSA starting! :-)
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