Why we love Farm Shares
We started with a small Farm Share this year but we are opening more spots for the coming year. Of all the ways people can get fresh vegetables – restaurants, grocery stores, farmers markets – we believe the Farm Share model is the best for a couple of reasons .
Connecting farms and people: When we share that we are farmers, we often hear reminiscences of times on a parents or grandparents’ farm. Our society used to be much more agrarian with most people connected to a farm and their food in a more intimate way. While it’s unfeasible to be that completely agrarian society once more, a Farm Share still connects people to a piece of land and to their food in a way that picking up produce at a grocery store can’t provide. When you have a Farm Share from our farm, you are a part of our farm. You know us and how we grow your food. And we hope you come out to the farm to see it for yourself. A Farm Share is taking back that connection to land and declaring that sustainable farming is important for our society.
Inflation proof: We all know costs have gone up. But when you purchase a Farm Share, you’re locking your price in for an entire year. We don’t change our prices halfway through the season. We’re able to give you the same prices in June as in October because we’ve figured out our budget already, how many shares we need to sell to cover our costs and divided the costs evenly among shares.
Tasty and nutrient-dense produce: Vegetables grown in healthy soil take up the nutrients from the soil. Nutrients equals taste in food. Our tomatoes taste much better than tomatoes at the grocery store because most large vegetable farms have dead soil. We build our soil up through cover crops and compost so it’s full of nutrients. We’ve also figured out what vegetables are people’s favorites. We build our farm around those crops to ensure we have enough of the favorites as well as other crops for people to experiment with and try. And with our custom-choice Farm Share, you choose when you want comfort food and when you want to try something new.
Cost-effective: It’s hard to eat out for $25, especially if you have kids. But for that price, you’ll get all your vegetables for a week. While there is an upfront cost with a Farm Share, you don’t have to think about buying vegetables from June to October. We always think the grocery store cashiers must think we’re unhealthy because once the vegetables start producing, all we buy are dairy products and grain products at the store! We believe everyone should have access to nutrient-dense food. We keep our costs down so our vegetables can be as cost-effective as possible.
Decrease food waste: Food waste is a big issue in our society. Restaurants and grocery stores refer to this as “shrink” and they expect a certain percentage of shrink every week. But that doesn’t have to be the case. We harvest to order so we don’t have food waste on our farm. And the vegetables we can’t sell because of damage, we compost (we’re hoping to make this a more focused part of our farm next year). We know that some weeks are hectic and there are probably weeks when you don’t have time to get through all of the food you buy, but our vegetables can be frozen to be used later and even in the city, food scraps can be composted (check out this handy composing basics guide here). Plus, a benefit of our custom choice Farm Share is that you get vegetables you actually want and will use.
We hope our Farm Share nourishes you and your loved ones, provides chances to experiment in the kitchen and find new favorite recipes, and connects you once more to a farm. We’d love for you to join our farm community in 2023.