New CSA Season around the corner!

Farm updates, Welcome Luke!

Longacre Leadership Program

Announcing the next CSA Season

Spring is now in full swing and with it comes constant events, projects, and excitement on the farm.  We’ve had baby kid goats being born all last week, and all 6 were girls (is this a sign that we are meant to have a dairy??)  Another batch of 500 chicks arrived in the mail through the post office, which is where our son Kaj thinks baby chicks come from. It’s hay cutting time, pig shelter building time, pasture-chicken house fixing time, and milking time.  Every day it seems there is an array of absolutely necessary things that must be done but in reality cannot possibly be done in the 14 hour window of daylight we now have.  So thank goodness for Luke, our not-so-new intern! You may have met him at the CSA drop-offs.   He has been on the farm since mid April to help us through our growing season, at least until Thanksgiving.  He moved here from Washington D.C., leaving his job as an immigration attorney to grow some food and explore his deep interest in farming. 

A lot of the activity on the farm this time of year is getting things cleaned up and organized for the summer camp for teenagers on our farm every summer called Longacre Leadership.  The camp has been here with teenagers participating in farming activities for over 35 summers, and now we get to be part of introducing them to pasture-based farming.  In addition to the farm, they make biodiesel, learn carpentry, learn horsemanship, and participate in various arts such as theater, ceramics, and stained glass. 

The vegetable CSA season is just starting, and many of you have gotten your first shares.  What an exciting thing for the local eater, to know there is a steady flow of fresh and varying veggies on the way.  We have been talking about the fact that our “seasons” really aren’t season in the sense of being seasonal the way a veggie CSA is.  On grass-based livestock farm there are seasons for growing, and we only raise chickens from April through November.  However , since our meat is delivered frozen, in a sense it is in season throughout the year.  So for our CSA, “season” is just a way of describing a period of time that we will be delivering.  Maybe we should call it a CSA “Program”, or a CSA “session”.  

Regardless of semantics, we are going into our next season starting immediately after the current season ends.  The next season will run from July through November, 2010.  We will be delivering to all of the same dropoff locations in the Harrisburg, Hershey, Carlisle area as well as a new one in Takoma Park MD, outside of Washington DC where we have started selling at a farmer’s market.  There are many new options to choose from in the coming season.  We will now be offering an Everything Share that also includes lamb, along with chicken, beef, and pork.  The sizes for the everything share are different too, to accommodate varying family sizes and frequency of meat eating. 

Below is a description of the share types for July-November 2010. We will include an order form with your next CSA delivery, or you can order online starting now.  Deadline to sign up is June 30.

Original Shares– Beef and Chicken: about 55% beef and 45% chicken:

• Full share: 20 lbs/month- approx. 11 lbs. of beef and 9 lbs. of chicken (2 whole)
• Half share: 10 lbs/month- approx. 5.5 lbs. of beef and 4.5 lbs. of chicken (1 whole)
• Quarter share: 5 lbs/month- approx. 3 lbs. of beef and 2 lbs. of chicken (halves or pieces)

Pork Included shares– Beef, Chicken, and Pork:  about 45% chicken, 27.5% pork, and 27.5% beef:

• Full Pork Included share: 20 lbs/month- approx. 6 lbs of pork, 6 lbs of beef, and 8 lbs of chicken (2 whole)
• Half Pork Included share: 10 lbs/month- approx. 3 lbs of pork, 3 lbs of beef, and 4 lbs of chicken (1 whole)

Everything Shares- Beef, Chicken, Pork, and Lamb: about 25% each chicken, beef, pork, lamb:

• Full everything share: 20 lbs/month- approx. 5 lbs of beef, 5 lbs of pork, 5 lbs of lamb, and 5 lbs of chicken (1 large whole)
• Medium everything share: 12 lbs/month- approx. 3 lbs of beef, 3 lbs of pork, 2 lbs of lamb, and 4 lbs chicken (1 whole)
• Small everything share: 8 lbs/month- approx. 2 lbs beef, 2 lbs pork, 2 lbs lamb, and 2 lbs chicken (1/2 whole)

Chicken Only shares - three chickens a month, averaging about 4 lbs each.  These chickens are always whole, unless noted otherwise.

Prices and Payment:

We are asking for full payment before your first delivery. 

These are five share options to choose from: