Monday, December 28, 2009

CSA Update- Pleasant Pastures Delivery this Thursday!!


Greetings!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

 

Just a reminder that Ben will be delivering on this Thursday, December 31st.

Please have your orders into Ben by Tuesday- stock up on some milk for hot chocolate and enjoy the snow fall this weekend!!

 

We hope to see you out at the mid winter membership meeting on Saturday January 9th at 10 am in the community room of the Henrietta Hankin Library. Please pass the word along to anyone who may be interested in joining the CSA.

 

We wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!

 

Sam and Annmarie




Think Globally, Eat Locally
Maysie's Farm Conservation Center
15 St. Andrew's Lane Glenmoore, PA 19343
(610)458-8129 www.maysiesfarm.org

Friday, December 18, 2009

Communit shoppng night- tonigt!!

 
 
 

COMMUNITY SHOPPING NIGHT

TO BENEFIT

 

MAYSIE'S FARM CONSERVATION CENTER

 

FRIDAY December 18, 2009

5-9 PM

 

TEN THOUSAND

VILLAGES

 

AND

                                                                                      

WENDELL AUGUST FORGE

 

LOCATED AT MAIN STREET EXTON
Think Globally, Eat Locally
Maysie's Farm Conservation Center
15 St. Andrew's Lane Glenmoore, PA 19343
(610)458-8129 www.maysiesfarm.org

Monday, December 14, 2009

Maysie's Fam CSA Update

Greetings!

 

Time is flying by so quickly. We are already in the midst of the Hannukah Celebration and Christmas is just another 2 weeks away!

 

We wanted to remind you of some shopping opportunities that will help support Maysie's Farm Conservation Center.

Come out to two unique stores in Exton this Friday, December 18th from 5-9pm.

Ten Thousand Villages and Wendell August Forge will be donating proceeds of the evening's income to Maysie's Farm. Both shops are located in Main Street, Exton.

 

Looking for another unique gift idea which will help support the farm?

Buy a Blueberry Bush and donate it in someone's honor! Gift Certificates for the bushes are now available and each costs $25. We are excited to have these 4 year old blueberry bushes, as they will bear a substantial amount of fruit for us this summer!

 

 

Farm Deliveries:

Ben Stoltzfus will continue to deliver his delicious dairy and meat products to the farm every other Friday this winter. He will be coming out on this Friday, December 18th.

Please have your order into Ben by Wednesday. You can continue to do this through the online ordering system or call Ben directly at 717-768-3437.

 

You will still be able to pick up the Wild Alaskan Salmon (however, Wild for Salmon is out of their portions!), as well as Jeremiah's chickens and pork.

 

Maysie's Farm is participating in the Winter Ordering System through the Anselma Farmers' and Artisan's Market. Items will be for sale every other week. To participate in the market, you need to sign up by sending an email to anselmamarket@gmail.com. Every other Thursday, you will receive an online order form listing each vendor and the items available. Your orders must be placed by the Monday before Pick up (you can order directly from the farmer) and pick up is Wednesday afternoons between 4:30 and 6:00 pm. (The next pick up will be next Wednesday, December 23rd).          

 

Winter Membership Meeting:

Mark your calendars for Saturday January 9th. We will be holding our winter membership meeting at 10 am at the Henrietta Hankin Library. Please bring anyone who may be interested in joining the CSA for next season.

Remember that we are offering a discount to those who pay their membership in full by January 15th!

 

 

Happy Holidays!

Hope to see you out on Friday evening!

Sam and Annmarie


Think Globally, Eat Locally
Maysie's Farm Conservation Center
15 St. Andrew's Lane Glenmoore, PA 19343
(610)458-8129 www.maysiesfarm.org

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Maysie's Farm CSA Update- 2010 membership information

Maysie's Farm Conservation Center

Community Supported Agriculture

 

                                                                       Think Globally,

              Eat Locally

                                   

 

                                                                                                                Sunday, 6 December, 2009                                                                  

Greetings CSA Members!

 

            We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are happily gearing up for the rest of the holiday season. Annmarie and I ate a lot of turkey and gave a lot of thanks for families, friends and all the households who helped support our CSA this year and we are now happily gearing up for the 2010 season.

 

            Our overwintering staff of three, Dave Hubbard (transitioning from Intern to Farm Manager), Nate Ela and Meghan Morris, are working on project after project, such as gradually acidifying the soil in the beds in the lower end of the Barnyard Garden where we plan to establish blueberries this spring, repairing and expanding our irrigation system, finishing the walk-in cooler we started this summer (with the help of CSA member, Ted Harlan), building half a dozen new tables, digging a huge new hole and moving the outhouse and assembling a vegetable oil handling system that will let us run a couple of our vehicles on (free) used vegetable oil instead of (expensive and non-renewable) diesel fuel. When the weather precludes outdoor work, they're busy taking an inventory of our remaining seeds and compiling a seed order for the many varieties of each of the fifty-some crops we grow, updating our crop history spreadsheets so we can effectively rotate the crops in each of our 370 beds or tackling the ultimate challenge of organizing the barn.

 

            One of the preparations for the upcoming season that I'm attending to is trying to develop an organizational budget that will allow us to avoid the nasty cash flow deficit situation we've encountered this year. How can we make sure our operation is at least as sustainable economically as it is ecologically and socially? I researched the share prices and season lengths of the other CSAs in the area and found that every single one of the thirteen closest CSAs charges more than we do or has a shorter season (or both). We didn't raise our membership price at all last year, so I hope you can appreciate that this year we have no choice but to do that (since we won't be increasing the number of memberships budgeted). You'll see from the attached 2010 Membership Form that our Family Share is now $750 but that we are also offering a discount to encourage full payment right away, which would be very helpful to our cash flow predicament. I certainly hope to be able to provide you with more than a $2.30 per week increase in the value of your share and feel that some of the things I mentioned in the paragraph above are, by themselves, some assurance of harvests more bountiful than last year's: three very capable workers continuing into their second season (the first time I've ever been able to look forward to a Farm Manager trained here, on this farm), an improved irrigation system, a much improved cooling arrangement and about 200 new blueberry bushes!

 

            We will also be enhancing our educational programs in 2010 and Annmarie will be looking for help in resurrecting our Children's Garden in the early spring so that your children will have their own special place to visit on each pick-up day and be able to experience a little hands-on food production. As a natural complement to our children's garden, she will be offering week long Summertime Cooking Camps for kids in age groups from 6-18. Children will learn first-hand where their food comes from and master some of the basic kitchen skills necessary to prepare great meals!  Also, with the help of herbalist and CSA member, Cindy Koser, she's planning a medicinal herb garden so that members will have the opportunity to learn how to cultivate, harvest and use these herbs for their own benefit. More specific information on these and other programs will be released by early spring.

 

            It's an exciting time here at Maysie's Farm Conservation Center and we'd like to share our enthusiasm with our members. We've scheduled a Membership Meeting for Saturday January 9th at 10:00 am in the Community Room of the Henrietta Hankin Library, in the Weatherstone development, about half a mile from the farm. We'll be accepting new members there, so if you know of anyone interested in joining a CSA, please bring them along. We will also be seeking to recruit a few new Board Members or other volunteers interested in helping us with fundraising, marketing and promotions or volunteer coordination.

 

             We greatly appreciate your involvement with Maysie's Farm Conservation Center and hope you will continue to be "part of the solution" and help us as we work toward a local, sustainable food system.

 

            Thanks –

                            Sam 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Think Globally, Eat Locally
Maysie's Farm Conservation Center
15 St. Andrew's Lane Glenmoore, PA 19343
(610)458-8129 www.maysiesfarm.org