Haley and Girls: Organic Farm Share 2011

How it all began...For Christmas last year I bought myself a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I wrote a little about it here. From that book, came my ideas of growing or finding more local produce. We have wonderful farmer's markets that are local, but it can get rather expensive. I found a local organic farm share through a website, http://www.localharvest.org/ . I really recommend checking out the website if you are not local to South Jersey.

If you are a South Jersey local, and you are interested in a farm share, follow along and I'll let you know how this year goes. Unfortunately they are sold out for 2011.

I joined Honey Brook Organic Farm C.S.A, way back in February. You can check them out here. It seemed much cheaper to put money down for the whole year, then to spend $20 or $30 each week at the market. Follow along out year and find out if I'm right. I didn't hear anything from them, until about May. I saw that they cashed my check, so I figured that we got in, but there was no guarantee because only so many shares are available. I did get my confirmation (guarantee) postcard during April or early May, and my directions for pick up just within the past few weeks.

I am a boxed share member, which means that we get a "box" of organic produce every week. I still have no idea how much produce will be in the box. They say it varies year to year depending on the harvest which makes sense. I joined the Collingswood group, because it is the closest local pickup. (The Cherry Hill group is only for members of a local Jewish Temple. I am trying to get this changed or provide a local pickup at my house. I just inquired yesterday so I will keep you informed on how that plays out.) My first box pick up is tomorrow.

So far, my favorite part about the farm share, is the pick your own privileges. Certain crops will not be included in the box shares, but can be picked by you at the farm in Chesterfield. So yesterday, we all took a trip up 295 to pick strawberries. A big Thank You to Auntie Lyndsay for coming with us and helping. It was opening weekend and we were allowed to pick 4 quarts! They had a wagon take us out to the field, and we got to work. They have lots of strawberries planted, but it took some effort to find the ripe berries. Looks like we will have plenty of weeks of strawberries ahead.