Tag: community supported agriculture

Getting Back in the Groove for 2024

February 10, 2024

Greetings everyone – I hope the weirdness of this winter isn’t throwing you off too much. Last week I had this terrible feeling that I should be planting radishes or getting the high tunnels prepared until I re-checked my calendar. “Settle down, Ryan, you are at least two month too early.”

Although not a seed’s been put into soil, I do certianly need to get this season kicked off by letting everyone know that NOW is CSA sign up season. I just updated the CSA sign up page for 2024 and looking forward to growing again for the new year! SIGN UP HERE

I did want to take a little time, however, to just give an update on our plans. Last year we intentionally kept it small, capping the the CSA at 40 boxes and only having dropsites in Detroit Lakes and at the farm. I had about four dozen projects that I’d been ignoring for a decade or more, so keeping it simple helped cut through my backlog.

Now that I’m down to only a couple dozen projects that I’m still ignoring, I am kicking the CSA numbers back closer to previous years of 50-55 boxes a week and bringing back the Pelican Rapids and Perham dropsites. I know some of you were dissappointed in 2023 that it wasn’t conveneint to get a share and didn’t, so hopefully with these moves you may choose to return. We’d love to have you back. And, my apologies, good people of Fergus Falls, I’m leaving you abandoned.

As we age, I think we try to find ways to focus our efforts and I realized probably three years ago that I couldn’t keep my stress level as far in the red as it was and some of the proverbial plates had to be set aside. So, my compromise is to return to a good number of shares but in a tight delivery area, bringing back Pelican and Perham, 15 and 20 min from the farm respectively. We will remain at the Pelican Market on Friday evenings and the farm stand will keep on rolling too for anyone to access.

Lastly, let me thank all of you who have been members and anyone who rejoin for the season. I may not say it enough, but I’m super grateful for each and every member. It’s the CSA that is the base load of our business and it’s what allows us to do what we do. My hope is that this CSA arrangement is a mutual exchange and you receive as much benefit as ourselves. SIGN UP HERE

Community via Pizza

July 19, 2021

Today is an ode to UFDA, a non-profit dedicated to making local foods cool. Born of Lost Farm (which used to be off Lost Highway to our north, but is no more), the UFDA crew jumped into action to make our event a success on Saturday.

Andy Hayner of UFDA and the pizza oven on trailer

I’ve known Andy and the Lost Farm guys for a long time at this point. Ever the community-minded group, they have lent us a hand on everything from recreational weeding to shoveling dirt for the greenhouse and any heavy farm project I’ve had that needs a little oomph. I’ve felt so much support over the years and been blessed to have them part of the “agri-hood.” Now in their next iteration, they are helping to build community more widely, featuring local foods at events like ours on Saturday. Music from Darren Quam, usual boring farm tour from me, and pizza out of Andy’s wood-fired oven made for a relaxed evening where friends reconnected and members got to meet other members. It felt good to get together and just talk.

If you missed it, never fear. You have another chance! We’re hosting the Deep Roots Festival on Saturday, September 11. UFDA will bring their wagon and do tacos featuring local foods, plus we’ll have a couple educational workshops, an original play about booya and local foods by Sod House Theater, and music/dancing, all at Milt’s Barn west of Pelican. A time to celebrate the harvest our human connection to the land and one another. Be there or be square. I’ll send out a link to RSVP in a week or so.

In the box:

  • Mixed Cherry Tomatoes: Yes! It feels good to start getting into some high summer crops.
  • Garlic
  • Sweet onion
  • Red torpedo onion
  • Broccoli: I thought this sounded good as something that used both cherry tomatoes an broccoli. IF you feel like turnig on your oven 🙂 https://pamelasalzman.com/balsamic-roasted-broccoli-cherry-tomatoes-recipe/
  • Kohlrabi
  • Summer Squash: A real mix and match of yellow straightneck, pattypan, green zucchini, yellow zucchini. Hard to remember it being their cold, but we lost most of our initial green zucchini plants and first planting of cukes in the May frost. Typically regular zucchini and cucumbers have been in the box a couple times at this point.