5 Reasons to Join a Farm Share (CSA) Program

The Prairie Heritage Farm Vegetable Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) is a unique way to get local, seasonal, healthy, organic vegetables to your table every week.

We offer two types of shares: A full share (delivered every week) and a half share (delivered every other week). A full share will feed a family of 3-4, or a couple who eats a lot of vegetables. A half share is great for a light-veggie-eating couple or one person.

A typical July share.

See more information here.


Now, to the 5 reasons you should join...

1. Eat local.

Eating from your “foodshed” has many benefits. The first one is easy to quantify because it's economic. Each dollar you spend with a local farmer multiplies as we send it back into our community via stores, suppliers, mechanics and the like. The next benefit is a bit more nebulous, but just as powerful: taste of place. When you eat locally, you are cultivating a taste of where you live – putting the “culture” into agriculture. And, the closer your food is, the less fuel it takes to get to you and the fresher it is. Which brings us to ...

2. Eat fresh.

And by “fresh” we mean truly fresh – as in picked that morning. Fresh food not only tastes better (and we're talking way better), it lasts longer, which means you waste less and save money.

3. Eat organic.

Organic is about more than just what a farmer doesn't do. Of course, we don't use synthetic fertilizers or chemicals of any kind. But, being certified organic doesn't stop there. It means we are caring for the whole ecosystem in which our farm operates, doing things like rotating crops to build the soil, planting trees to keep erosion down and making sure that our seeds were also developed organically, among many other things. We take the extra steps to certify ourselves because even though we have a relationship with most of  the people who eat our food, (and thus, they know how we farm) we believe that the checks and balances and education that certification offers helps the organic community at large – and that means we are supporting the promise that when you buy anything “organic” you can be certain that it lives up to that name.

4. Eat creatively.

Each week, you'll get something new in your share – maybe even something you've never had before. Eating in season means you get to be an “Iron Chef” of sorts. When you start a meal based on what's best and fresh right now, it changes the way you see food. It changes the way it tastes. It's endlessly fun to experiment and create when the food is this good and fresh. And, we all get to be creative together. We love sharing recipes from our own kitchen as well as those of our customers. Each week, you'll get lots of ideas for how to use all these veggies in our newsletter.

5. Know your farm, your farmer and your food.

Knowing your farmer means you get to create a different kind of relationship with your food. When you get to really be a part of a farm, as you are with a farm share, you get an important connection. Not only do you get an upfront look at the health and safety of your food, but you also share in both the bounty and the risk of farming. And because of that, food becomes something more than just a means to an end, more than just fuel or a commodity. It becomes personal. You start watching the weather. You start thinking differently about soil and fertility and the seasons.

Find out more and how you can join the Prairie Heritage Farm CSA here.

Happy Earth Day: Celebrate by Supporting Local Food in the Great Falls Area!

Happy Earth Day! To celebrate, we planted hundreds of trees today to build the shelterbelt along the South side of the vegetable garden.

And, today also kicks off a great promotion with 2J's Fresh Market in Great Falls in which the market is giving away farm shares from Prairie Heritage Farm and our friends at Groundworks Farm up the road. To enter, you need to "like" 2J's Facebook page and comment on the picture announcing the contest.

2J's has been a big supporter of what we do. In general, they do a lot to help promote local food in the Great(er) Falls area, but they also buy and sell quite a few of our veggies.

This year, we're planning to produce even more for the market. We will be at the store on Friday afternoon to sample a few of our favorite dishes and talk to people about local agriculture and Community Supported Agriculture farm shares. Come by and say hello if you're in the neighborhood.

And, now, in other news from the farm.

We have pigs. (Thanks to the pork operation over at Groundworks. Hoo boy. They raise some good pastured pork.)

And sheep.

 And sheep with baby lambs.

And  on the grains front, we've started working with this ahhh-maze-ing coffee shop in Great Falls, The Crooked Tree. They've been experimenting with some of our flour and will be using some of our veggies this season as well in their baked goods.

And we've been doing some experimenting on our own. Sonora Heritage Wheat makes super good whole-wheat tortillas. It's truly incredible how different something can taste when you use fresh, high-quality ingredients. (I detest flour tortillas normally.) We're thinking of calling these Willa's Tortillas. (See what I did there?)