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| Prairie Farro, just poking up. |
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| The turkeys have the right idea. |
Snow Way
2012 Veggie CSA Pick Up Schedule
Dutton/Power: Fridays 3:30-4:30 p.m., His and Her Hair Design in Dutton. First pick up: June 1
Great Falls Full Shareholders: Fridays 4:30-6:00 p.m., Gibson Park (in front of the bandshell). First pick up for full shares: June 1
*First pick up for Great Falls half shares: June 8. *
Helena: Every other Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Helena Farmers Market downtown. First pick up: June 2
Choteau/Augusta: Mondays, 3:30-4:00 p.m., Mountain Front Market. First pick up: June 4
Conrad: Tuesdays: 5-6 p.m., 504 S. Virginia Street. First pick up: June 5
What to Expect
With the Prairie Heritage Farm CSA you can expect:
-To eat in season. Your first few shares will be early-season crops like lettuce, greens (kale, chard, etc), radishes and the like. Your first share will be baby greens, salad mix and greens mix. We'll ramp up as the season progresses.
-You'll get a weekly newsletter via email with information on the week's share and recipes to give you some new ideas in the kitchen. (So make sure we have the right email address for you!)
-Everything you get in your share will either be harvested that morning or, at the very longest, the day before. There's nothing like fresh-picked homegrown produce.
-To know your farmers. There are many reasons it's good to know your farmers, but one big one is that you have a direct line of communication with us. So, we hope throughout the season you'll tell us what's working for you and what could be better. If you want more of one thing and/or less of another, please let us know. We keep our CSA numbers small so we can have a direct relationship with you and can make sure this isn't a one-size-fits-all program. We understand that different families have different needs and preferences. So, let us know if we can do anything to make the program work better for you and your family.
-Please bring your own bags to pick up your produce.
If You Can't Pick Up
If you are not able to pick up your share, it is your responsibility to make arrangements to have someone else pick up your share or you can choose to donate it back to the farm. Please be respectful of the time and energy it takes to harvest and put together your share and let us know -- with some advance -- if you'll need to skip a week. We cannot refund money or make up shares for missed pick ups. (That said, we can be flexible on where and when you pick up to make it work.)
Thank You
Thank you for your commitment to local food, local farmers and local economies. You are helping, one tomato and one bunch of chard at a time, revamp how we value food, how we support our farmers and how we build up our local economies.
We are so very excited to be growing for you and getting to know you this year.
Here's to a great season!
Your Farmers,
Courtney, Jacob and Willa Cowgill
Seeds
Our friend Amy Grisak, a gardener and journalist, wrote a great piece on seeds:
Co-op saves seeds that grow in Montana
On Your Marks! Set!
Big day at the farm yesterday.
One hundred and fifty turkeys arrived via U.S. post. The first big thunderstorm rolled through. And, greens are popping up everywhere. You can almost hear them growing.
Our first CSA deliveries will likely be happening the first week of June. A little more than a month away.
So far, we have lettuce, kale, cabbage and chard seedlings transplanted and all sorts of greens, radishes, turnips and beets direct seeded. So, that big dump of rain was a lovely little present.
And, so far, the turkeys are settling in quite well. We're trying a different brooder this year -- in the greenhouse, where it's already nice and toasty. And, we have fewer birds per brooding pen too. So far, we've only lost one little birdie. (We've had pretty big infant mortality rates in the past and have done a bunch of research every year to figure it out. We still don't have any concrete answers, but the increase in pens and the greenhouse/brooder is an effort to cut down on the losses.) That is to ask you to: cross your fingers and toes and feathers, please.
One hundred and fifty turkeys arrived via U.S. post. The first big thunderstorm rolled through. And, greens are popping up everywhere. You can almost hear them growing.
Our first CSA deliveries will likely be happening the first week of June. A little more than a month away.
So far, we have lettuce, kale, cabbage and chard seedlings transplanted and all sorts of greens, radishes, turnips and beets direct seeded. So, that big dump of rain was a lovely little present.
And, so far, the turkeys are settling in quite well. We're trying a different brooder this year -- in the greenhouse, where it's already nice and toasty. And, we have fewer birds per brooding pen too. So far, we've only lost one little birdie. (We've had pretty big infant mortality rates in the past and have done a bunch of research every year to figure it out. We still don't have any concrete answers, but the increase in pens and the greenhouse/brooder is an effort to cut down on the losses.) That is to ask you to: cross your fingers and toes and feathers, please.
Cheap Food and How We Can Better Value What Nourishes Us
We're off to Helena tomorrow to speak at a Grow Local event for the Helena Community Gardens with a few of our favorite farmer-friends.
So, for the last few weeks, we've been thinking and talking about what we're going to say. We want to talk about all sorts of things, but what's been heaviest on our minds as we prep for another growing season on our little farm is, in two words: cheap food.
We've been really struggling to figure out how in a depressed economy, when families are watching every penny, we can make the case for paying a little more for locally-produced food. And, how do we ensure that local food -- food that's produced ethically and with community and health in mind -- doesn't just become, for lack of a better descriptor, designer food?
In our own small world, we've recently been feeling some pressure, from let's just call them false CSAs. As you might know, CSA stands for "Community Supported Agriculture" and this type of direct-marketing has blossomed in the last 10 years as a wonderful, sustainable way to sell and support local food. Basically, you "buy-in" to the farm at the beginning of the season and you reap the benefits when the farm starts bearing fruit. It connects farmer with eater.
Because of the popularity of CSAs, false CSAs have started to pop up -- programs that package like a CSA, but source the produce from all over, including globally, and dramatically undercut both the economics and the spirit of the CSA concept.
One recently moved into our community and we've definitely seen a drop in interest in our CSA and have been just flabbergasted by the quick popularity of the other program. But, it's not hard to see why -- their boxes are year-round, often featuring produce we can't grow locally and are about half a much as ours (although their organic version is priced about the same as ours.)
We've been struggling with how to approach this competition because while we can compete on quality, freshness and knowing your food (there's no comparison in these regards), the price is something we just can't tackle.
And, if price is the only thing people care about, then whammo, we're in the wrong business.
Basically, if we can't produce the cheapest food (which we absolutely can't -- we can't compete with the "efficiency" of our modern food system, year-round growing conditions abroad, cheap labor, etc.) what is our value proposition? Nutrition? Community? Environmental health?
To that end, I've been just fascinated by looking at this within a framework of household spending. We're now paying less for our food than any other time in the last century and I believe we're all suffering for it. Our health, our communities and our environment are all suffering for it. (See this recent piece from Time Magazine that explores the "High Cost of Cheap Food.")
Yet, when we budget our money, we're happy to pay $120 a month for cable packages or $500 for an iPad, but an extra $10 a week on groceries -- to pay for something we actually need to survive -- is sometimes where we draw the line.
This graph, showing the share of family spending per category over the 20th century, from this recent Atlantic article that illustrates this point well. (More in depth on how this happened here.)
Now, I'm not saying that food shouldn't be affordable. It certainly should be.
But, we need to more fully explore the difference between "affordable" and "cheap."And, I would posit, that we also need to think about not only the monetary value we put on food, but also the nutritional, social, environmental value as well.
Still, as much as I believe all of that, we're really struggling with how to make the case to a family who is strapped for cash (and especially because we are certainly in that category) that the cost of their food shouldn't be their only concern.
That is to ask: How can we make local food "affordable" for all, but more importantly, how can we change the way we all see and value the food we put on our tables?
So, for the last few weeks, we've been thinking and talking about what we're going to say. We want to talk about all sorts of things, but what's been heaviest on our minds as we prep for another growing season on our little farm is, in two words: cheap food.
We've been really struggling to figure out how in a depressed economy, when families are watching every penny, we can make the case for paying a little more for locally-produced food. And, how do we ensure that local food -- food that's produced ethically and with community and health in mind -- doesn't just become, for lack of a better descriptor, designer food?
In our own small world, we've recently been feeling some pressure, from let's just call them false CSAs. As you might know, CSA stands for "Community Supported Agriculture" and this type of direct-marketing has blossomed in the last 10 years as a wonderful, sustainable way to sell and support local food. Basically, you "buy-in" to the farm at the beginning of the season and you reap the benefits when the farm starts bearing fruit. It connects farmer with eater.
Because of the popularity of CSAs, false CSAs have started to pop up -- programs that package like a CSA, but source the produce from all over, including globally, and dramatically undercut both the economics and the spirit of the CSA concept.
One recently moved into our community and we've definitely seen a drop in interest in our CSA and have been just flabbergasted by the quick popularity of the other program. But, it's not hard to see why -- their boxes are year-round, often featuring produce we can't grow locally and are about half a much as ours (although their organic version is priced about the same as ours.)
We've been struggling with how to approach this competition because while we can compete on quality, freshness and knowing your food (there's no comparison in these regards), the price is something we just can't tackle.
And, if price is the only thing people care about, then whammo, we're in the wrong business.
Basically, if we can't produce the cheapest food (which we absolutely can't -- we can't compete with the "efficiency" of our modern food system, year-round growing conditions abroad, cheap labor, etc.) what is our value proposition? Nutrition? Community? Environmental health?
To that end, I've been just fascinated by looking at this within a framework of household spending. We're now paying less for our food than any other time in the last century and I believe we're all suffering for it. Our health, our communities and our environment are all suffering for it. (See this recent piece from Time Magazine that explores the "High Cost of Cheap Food.")
Yet, when we budget our money, we're happy to pay $120 a month for cable packages or $500 for an iPad, but an extra $10 a week on groceries -- to pay for something we actually need to survive -- is sometimes where we draw the line.
This graph, showing the share of family spending per category over the 20th century, from this recent Atlantic article that illustrates this point well. (More in depth on how this happened here.)
Now, I'm not saying that food shouldn't be affordable. It certainly should be.
But, we need to more fully explore the difference between "affordable" and "cheap."And, I would posit, that we also need to think about not only the monetary value we put on food, but also the nutritional, social, environmental value as well.
Still, as much as I believe all of that, we're really struggling with how to make the case to a family who is strapped for cash (and especially because we are certainly in that category) that the cost of their food shouldn't be their only concern.
That is to ask: How can we make local food "affordable" for all, but more importantly, how can we change the way we all see and value the food we put on our tables?
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