2014 CSA: Week 1

Wendell Berry teaches us that “eating is an agricultural act.” As a member of this CSA family, you are acknowledging this profoundly important role that you play.  I love to wax poetic on how meaningful the CSA lifestyle is on so many levels, but the fact is it’s just plain fun to eat this way. Riding out the seasons and enjoying the gifts that mother nature brings to us. We’re so happy to have you along with us on this adventurous ride. And we’ve planned plenty of surprises along the way like strawberries, blueberries, and pecans as well as fresh ginger, specialty herbs, citrus and melons too. Of course, be prepared to receive your fill of greens during the spring, as well as lots of okra, peppers and eggplant in the summer and fall.

Some important changes have been highlighted in the previous posting (see Crate Fee Update below) Make sure you’re familiar with these. Most importantly:

• Don’t take your crates home this year.  Bag it all or bring your own coolers. Crate fee refunds are in progress for this season and winter.
• For all you 1/2 share folks – know if you’re an A week or B week.
• All veggie members – Make use of your 10% meat discount.
• The updated information for your pick-up locations have been posted to the “CSA Manual” link above.

Finally – This season we are introducing the SHARE BIN: Each location will receive a grey plastic bin that is stenciled with the White Oak Pastures “H” logo. This box should stay at the location all season and be used for leaving behind items you disfavor. Of course, this means you are freely allowed to take any items that are in the box.  From time to time, we’ll also leave items the farm wants to share or has plenty of to sharer. To kick things off and help introduce the idea, we’re giving Collard greens away in the SHARE BIN this week.  Feel free to take an extra bunch or three to par-boil and freeze or just feed a horde of hungry friends.

Here’s a look at today’s harvest and then we’ll explain the contents of your veggie boxes. We hope you’re looking forward to this season as much as we are. It’s going to be a delicious year!

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Pasture Raised Eggs: 

Spring means eggs and boy do we got em. 12 beautiful brown eggs from our own lovely ladies that range freely on certified organic pasture. The eggs are washed, candled and graded fresh for you each week.

(Want another dozen – or are you not on the Egg CSA, Call to order and we’ll bring them to you : 229-641-2081)

 

Certified Organic Vegetables: 

Salad mix – A mix of red and green varieties. Just enough for a few good salads!

Head Lettuce – (x2) Buttercrunch, Red and Green Romaine and Red Sails

Baby Hakurei turnips – Amazing raw! These spring beauties can’t be beat as a side

Carrots – Scarlet Nantes and Yellowstone. Super sweet after the winter’s cold.

Herb – Parsley or Cilantro

Red & White Russian Kale – The most popular health food item right now. It’s reaching cupcake status as far as food fads go. We’ll have plenty of it to share this year.

Swiss Chard – The bright neon that lights up Spring. Yummy!

Fennel – One bulb to add flavor and flar to a salad or stir fry, omelette or saute. Mmmmm.

Beets  – Bull’s blood and Touchstone Gold. Slice these like medallions, coat in olive oil, sea salt and pepper to taste, then broil until crispy on both sides. It’ll be your new favorite!

Crate fee Update and More news

I hope everyone had a delightful St. Patrick’s day! Between the celebratory lunch at the Pavilion yesterday and all the clover around the pasture and fields right now, we all felt quite Irish yesterday.

On to new business – I wanted to take a quick moment to review some updates and changes we’re implementing before the Spring Season kicks off!

NO MORE CRATE FEE! – We’re happy to announce that we will no longer charge the refundable crate fee. The crates are rather expensive and we continue to lose an unnacceptable number of them throughout the long season. So since we already pack the veggies into the box liners, we are inviting you to remove the liner bags and either transfer them directly into your own cooler OR take them straight home to your fridge. Then just neatly stack your crate into the nested stack nearby and you’re all set. We will still have a sign-in list to track who has and has not picked up, but this will ultimately relieve the headache of tracking box numbers and processing year-end refunds. Sorry if the change is an inconvenience, but I truly believe it’s a necessary and positive step forward.

Crate Reimbursements – Full Season CSA members are having their crate fees reimbursed this week, either by cc on file or by check by post. Winter CSA members will receive reimbursements once crates are retrieved next week from your locations. (If you haven’t seen your reimbursement come in by Friday 4/4, please shoot me an email (tripp.eldridge@whiteoakpastures.com)

1/2 Shares! – This has proven to be a really popular option for many of you. If you have signed on as a half-share member, then sometime soon, you will be receiving an email designating you as an “A week” or a “B week.” As an added reminder, I will post the Blog with the A or the B week in the title. Just don’t get mad at me when we get strawberries, figs, or citrus and it doesn’t happen to fall on your week! That’s how the CSA paleo-cookie crumbles, my friends. But seriously, if you are excited about something that you think you’ll miss one week, please email me and we’ll do our best to get you an extra share or an a la carte bag of tasty goodness to help tide you over the off week. (tripp.eldridge@whiteoakpastures.com)

Meat Discount! – Thank you for your feedback last fall which led us to this discounted Meat CSA program. Now it’s up to you to make use of it. You don’t have to use it every week, in fact, I would recommend looking at our website for package ideas, such as the Family Feast which contains…

• (4) 14 ounce ribeyes
• (4) 12 ounce strips
• (4) 6 ounce filets
• (1) chuck roast
• (1) medium chicken
• (2) 1 pound pack of ground lamb
• (2) 1 pound pack of ground beef

There’s also convenient 1/8 cow packages and Poultry samplers that are great ways to stock your freezer with a diverse selection of proteins – all raised on pasture and hand-butchered here on the farm. We’re developing a new website login for CSA members to receive custom pricing as well as access to limited supply inventory items such as handmade sausages and canned goods from the garden. It’s a busy time of year, and we’re so excited about sharing the delicious fruits of this hard work with you. If you’re half as excited as we are, I hope you’ll tell a friend or two about us. And if you have any questions about the updates today, feel free to write me (tripp.eldridge@whiteoakpastures.com) or comment below.

2014 Winter CSA: Share 8

Alright friends and neighbors, we have come to the final week of the winter CSA. You don’t need me to remind you how cold it has been this season, but I will anyway in an effort to recap. Back in December, we rejoiced over the amazing fresh ginger and late fall varieties of summer’s showstoppers. Then an earlier than normal frost nipped hard and we quickly lost our peppers, eggplant, fall potatoes and late tomatoes. Then Winter really showed her teeth, realized by cruel storms with harsh temps, ice and snow. Even the Kale and Collards felt the chill out there on the tundra and were beaten in the end. All of the livestock were well taken care of though and we never faltered in serving up the freshest and best quality eggs and meats during these cold months. Rye and clover have rocketed lately all around the farm much to the delight of all the ruminants and foraging fowl. All of the new transplants as well have seemingly found a higher speedier gear.

So as we mark the end of this winter’s chapter, I offer my sincerest gratitude to all of you who shared with us during these cold months. But there’s only more celebration as we look forward because there is only hope on the horizon. Spring is right around the corner and we’re so excited about it! Please know that we welcome you and yours back for a brand new CSA season! 2014 is going to be such a delicious year – Lots more exciting organic veggies, the freshest possible farm eggs, and a 10% discount on ALL Meat Orders. That’s good stuff! We still have room for more so please tell all of your friends to check us out and sign up soon!

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CERTIFIED ORGANIC VEGETABLES:

Lettuce mix – A mix of red and green varieties. Just enough for a few good salads!

Head Lettuce – Still got it, so we’re flaunting it! Times two to last you until Spring week #1.

Baby turnips greens – A perfect pesto candidate. Try your favorite pesto recipe with this or…

Pea Shoots – Another pesto candidate. Also good in a stir-fry. Gives a pleasant peanut taste so help it out with a toasted sesame oil in your stir-fry or a tahini dressing in your salad with these chopped in too. Yum!

Herb – Dill, Parsley, or Cilantro

Chinese Cabbage OR Collards – The last of the winter Chinese Cabbage. Great stuff!

Carrots  – Scarlet Nantes and Yellowstones. gorgeous tasty carrots.

Swiss Chard  – More greenery! Just in case you had an extra square inch of space in your crisper.

Enjoy!!!

2014 Winter CSA: Share 7

Hello Everyone!

Tripp is out of town this week, so I am taking this opportunity to fill in for him and introduce myself. My name is Ryan Carnley and I am the new assistant farm manager here at White Oak Pastures. I have been here about three months now and I am absolutely loving it here! I came from a farm a little south of Atlanta called Serenbe Farms. Serenbe is a picturesque community nestled into the Chattahoochee Hills area, and centered around green building tecniques and sustainability in all things. I did an apprenticeship there under two very well respected farmers, Paige Witherington and Justin Dansby, which prepared me for my future in organic farming. I am very excited to join the team here at White Oak and I hope to bring my energy and enthusiasm in to grow some amazing vegetables for you guys! I will be doing CSA drops and markets in Albany in Columbus pretty regularly so please come by and introduce yourselves; I want to get to know all of you!

The days are slowly warming up and getting longer here on the farm. Its exciting to feel Spring creeping closer. We have been able to get a lot of seeds and plants into the ground lately. The farm is going to be completely transformed by the new growth over the next month! We got our potatoes in the ground this weekend, seeded lots of carrots and beets, and planted the last of our spring onions. Make sure you all sign up for our full season CSA, and spread the word to your friends and family so you can all take advantage of all of the beautiful and healthy produce thats coming!

In addition to all the new plants we are excited about two new team members joining us. Our two full season apprentices, Mary and Andy, started this week. We are very excited to have them aboard and look forward to a great season and lots of learning from each other. Make sure you keep an eye out for them at markets as well! Here are some pictures from around the farm this week, and the share list. I hope you all enjoy it!

Thats me! Washing the carrots for your shares.

Our bottle brick wall on the intern cabin

Our intern Andy prepping some beds

Happy worms for happy soil

Me inspecting the beets for your share this week

CERTIFIED ORGANIC VEGETABLES:

Spinach – This is what winter tastes like. Lovin it!

Swiss Chard – Beautiful and delicious!

Baby Beets – First of the season! Remember the greens are edible too. They go great mixed in with scrambled eggs!

Lettuce mix – A mix of red and green varieties. Just enough for a few good salads.

Head Lettuce – Looking extra good this week! Welcome to Lettuce season!!!

Herb – Dill, Parsley, or Cilantro

Chinese Cabbage – The last of the winter Chinese Cabbage. Great stuff!

Carrots  – Scarlet Nantes and Yellowstones. Gorgeous tasty carrots.

Collards OR Edible Bouquet  – More greenery! Just in case you had an extra square inch of space in your crisper.