Holiday Harvest

Due to the labor shortage of 2019, we will not be offering this program this year.

For several years, we contemplated offering a winter CSA program and floated the idea by our members in order to get feedback on what they would like in a winter CSA offering. Many loved the concept and encouraged us to offer this option.

While some greens like collards and kale are not too difficult to grow later in the fall, tender crops like braising/spicy mix and lettuce mix are more challenging, so we needed to invest in farm improvements, such as high tunnels, to make off season production more feasible and to minimize crop losses due to chill or freeze.

In anticipation of offering a winter CSA in 2015, in late 2014  and early 2015 Farmer Jim and other farm staff installed high tunnels, greenhouse-type structures that are installed in farm fields, that allow crops to be planted directly in soil and do not require supplemental heat, as is necessary in greenhouse production. He also obtained materials to construct low tunnels, structures roughly three feet high that cover rows of crops and protect them from frost, light snow and wind. Both high and low tunnels give farmers the ability to extend their growing seasons and harvest crops at an earlier or later harvest date than would be typical for field-grown crops.

Our crop planning allows us to ensure enough storage crops, such as cabbage, potatoes, rutabaga, carrots and beets, are grown during the traditional growing season to accommodate the Holiday Harvest program. Since Farmer Jim has over twenty-nine years of production data to draw upon, these are relatively easy calculations for him! After making thses calculations, we add acreage and plant more storage crops to accomodate the Holiday Harvest program. Membership fees on the Holiday Harvest program are slightly higher to factor in increased storage and production costs. 

Here is the basic idea regarding the Holiday Harvest CSA program: once the regular CSA distribution season ends in November, we begin distribution for an extended season of CSA shares to bridge the Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year holiday seasons.  Pick-ups will be every other week for a total of 3 pick-ups, running from the last full week of November through to the last full week of December.

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Pick-Up Logistics
We were offering three share sizes determined by weight, i.e. a 10-pound size, a 20-pound size and a 30-pound size of produce for each pick-up week. Pick-ups will be every other week.  Members will be given a box in which to weigh out their total amount of produce and will be allowed to freely choose among the items in the market, with an exception being that there may be posted limits on some crops. For example, if you have the 20-pound share, you will take your box around the Distribution Center, filling it as you choose from the crops until you have taken your 20 pounds of produce; however, there may be a sign above the lettuce mix advising of a 2-pound limit on that crop. We will have scales tared for box weight in addition to the hanging scales available in the market.