Boulder Belt 2010 CSA Program

Boulder Belt Eco-Farm in Eaton is now accepting applications for their 2010 Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. That's the share they provided the last week of May this year.  Look at all those asparagus!  For complete details, visit the website.

Think Before Giving the Gift of CSA

This post is a gentle warning to well meaning relatives and friends of locavores.

Do not buy a CSA share/membership for your locavore as a holiday or birthday gift unless you are really sure that this will be a welcome thing. I have had a few of experiences as a CSA grower where this has happened. Once it turned out well because the buyer was (and is) one of the pillars of the international locavore community and was positive the recipients got the whole CSA idea. And these people had been members of a CSA in Iowa where they lived before moving to Ohio.

The other two gifts did not turn out well. In both cases the giftees had never been a CSA member before and simply did not get the whole concept. Fortunately for Boulder belt Eco-Farm we sell monthly memberships and in both cases where the experience was less than good the gift was for a one month membership. One giftee did not want to drive to the farm so asked if she could do all 4 weeks at once. I told her no but I could do 2 weeks at a time. She was amazed at the amount of food she got the one time she picked up and almost understood why I would not make a 4 week share for her (almost). She flaked out on the second pick-up which was not good for her but a nice donation to our farm. the other giftee I believe picked up one time (and this was at a time we had delivery points) and we did not see that person ever again.

I feel that buying a CSA membership for someone is a bit like buying a puppy for another person. it seems like a great idea at the time but in the case of a puppy, if the person is not a competent dog person the end result could be disastrous (think "Marley and Me").

Okay, I do not believe that there is any way being a member of a CSA farm could ever be disastrous. For one the food is inanimate and will not try to destroy your home or year. But joining a CSA means the member must have cooking skills and know how to deal with raw whole foods, many of which will not be familiar. the member better be into the local foods movement as well and already sourcing a good % of their food needs locally via farmers markets, farm stands, etc.. And by this I mean the person is a very regular (weekly) attendee of at least one farmers market. Casual locavores should not be given such gifts as a CSA share.

What I believe happens to the giftee (remember I am a farmer and have never been a CSA member so I am going on what I have observed over the past 13 or so years I have run CSA farms) is they get overwhelmed with the food, especially if they are not a good cook. And the feeling of being overwhelmed gets worse as the season goes on. They are struggling to use the food and find they cannot use up all the food in a share in a week. So now they start throwing out food and that leads to food guilt. Members also tend to get burned out after months and months of CSA shares (even the long term member can feel this way).

So what one ends up with is a person who feels really guilty they are not using the fresh whole food well and they may quietly drop out (this is fairly common with CSA's everywhere and not just with members who joined because they received a gift membership). This is not good for the member who may have in the future become a great CSA member but needed more time to become comfortable with their locavoreness and now may never ever join a CSA again because they had a bad experience. The giftee may avoid the with the gifter over this whole thing because they do not want to talk about the gift because it is a disappointment for them. And the giftee is likely not to communicate with the farmer well over the issues they are having which always leads to hard feelings and a less than good experience (and with communication most things can be remedied).

So think long and hard before signing a dear friend or relation up for a CSA share at one of the many wonderful local CSA farms in the area and by no means make this surprise gift. If you feel you really have to do this talk about it with the giftee.

If your intended giftee is a member of a CSA already than to buy them a share in the CSA that they have been a member of for years is a horse of a different color. That would be a welcome gift.

So do not give a CSA membership this Holiday season unless the recipient already is a CSA member and intends on doing so in 2010 than go right ahead and buy a membership for that person.

Now if you are still set on giving a locavore a locavore gift it is much much safer to find out which farmers market(s) they attend regularly and buy them some gift certificates for that market. A gift like that will be welcomed and not turn into a food guilt fest.

Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm, Eaton OH

Reusable Shopping Bags from Renewable Resources

I run a CSA type program called a Farm Share Initiative (okay it IS a CSA but I have found when you do a search on Ohio CSA you tend to get a lot of hits for Confederate States of America before Community Supported Agriculture and around here that could mean a lot of PU trucks arriving with full gun racks and confederate flags proudly displayed. Not exactly the crowd I want to attract). I started out the season back in April loading the members shares into non reusable plastic shopping bags (okay, these were all reused several times and came to me used but...). So I got to thinking about the whole carbon foot print thing and the huge and growing plastic island out in the Pacific ocean and decided I needed something other than the reused nonreusable plastic bags to pack the shares into.

I considered buying some sort of plastic tote-styrofoam coolers or storage boxes for the members. But here again this is using virgin plastic (and types that are not easily recyclable). Plus this would be an added cost to the farm which, while profitable (we keep out of debt and get the bills paid as long as we live simply and cheaply), is not raking in the bucks. I also considered buying shopping bags for the members but realized we all have too many such bags in our lives and many are not used.

So I hit on the idea of asking my members to supply their own bags. They could bring to the farm their reusable bags that they are not using. This has been a hit, over 75% of the members have supplied me with bags (I figure the other 25% are not complying as they do not read the weekly newsletters or they bring them but leave them in their vehicle as they would when they go shopping at the grocery store or farmers market, an all too common problem).

But I have noticed something about the reusable shopping bags, unless they are over 5 years old, they are made out of plastic. I think the Whole Foods bags are the worst, but Kroger and Wal-mart ain't much better. Most of the cloth bags I have received are from non food/grocery sources-libraries, universities, churches, etc.. I am assuming that these plastic bags are using recycled plastic, though I do not know this for sure. And if they are using post consumer plastic what % of this kind of plastic in the bags?

But the real question is what has happened to reusable shopping bags being made from natural sources like cotton, kenaf, bamboo etc.?

I know they are out there as the Oxford Uptown Farmers Market uses cotton bags as a premium for their Friends of the Market Program. So why don't the big corps use some truly renewable/natural material for the bags they sell to the public?

Wooden Shoe Gardens' CSA Kickoff Event Sunday March 29

Wooden Shoe Gardens is offering a food tasting featuring foods from the first offerings of this year's Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA).  If you're thinking of joining a CSA this year but want to know more, this is a great place to start.  Culinary Olympics medalist Marc Stroud will be doing the cooking. 

The event is at the New Thought Unity Center, 1401 E McMillan St in East Walnut Hills at 1:30pm this coming Sunday and is free, but please RSVP to David so they'll know how many to plan for.

Wooden Shoe's CSA has a slight twist -- the sharers will help decide what they'll offer this year.  David says, "This CSA program will begin by offering microgreens and possibly other organically grown salad ingredients.  Since this is a member-controlled endeavor, the participants will determine what we will do next.  Here’s a few of the ideas we are discussing:  organic sprouts; locally grown seasonal vegetables; greenhouse produced winter vegetables; a full line of shipped in organically grown fruits and vegetables; organic grains and other food staples.  The sky is the limit.  Please join us and help transform the food delivery system in the Greater Cincinnati Tri-State."

Work For Food program at Thistlehair Farm

Vicky Tewes of Thistlehair Farm has a really interesting program she's offering in addition to the traditional CSA she offers: a Work For Food program.

Under this program, a few hours' work translates into a week's CSA share. That's right -- work five hours a week at Thistlehair Farm and get an entire CSA share's worth of food, a box of whatever is growing on the farm that week, in exchange. Plus the satisfaction of helping grow your own food and whatever knowledge and expertise you can absorb working alongside an organic farmer.

This is a great idea for those who'd like to eat more locally but have more time than money, for those who are worried that fresh, local ingredients will cost more than the industrial outputs they normally buy at the supermarket, and for those who'd like to learn how to garden organically.

Contact Vicky for more information.

More CSAs

If you haven't yet joined a 2009 CSA, here's an update to our earlier post.

Farm Beach Bethel
May through mid-October
Pickup: Hyde Park Farmers' Markets (Sun 10 - 2)
Work and no-work shares available
Home delivery option available

Fox Run Farm
May - September
Pickup at farm and locations in Northern Kentucky and Hamilton Co, OH
Home delivery option available
Email for more information

Mudfoot Farm
May 15th - Oct 30th
Pickup: Northside and other Farmers' Markets
Extended season shares available
Email for more information.

Boulder Belt's Farm Share Program

Boulder Belt has updated the page for their 2009 Farm Share program (which is similar to a CSA but has some important differences from most CSAs.) For more information, visit their site.

All I want for Christmas is…

A compost bin!!

No jewelry. No cashmere.

Just somewhere to recycle ALL that vegetable refuse that I produce over the year instead of putting it in (gulp!) my garbage can on its way to the landfill! My husband (bless him!) delivered my lovely black, rotating bin early. Along with a book called “Let It Rot! A Gardener’s Guide to Composting” by Stu Campbell for some holiday reading by the fire! I generate a LOT of green waste and each time I place that in my kitchen garbage can, I cringe. Living in a suburban neighborhood, with manicured lawns on each side, left us with no place to build a bin intended for rotting refuse.

My husband came through with an Enviro-Cycle Composter bin that rotates easily on a roller base. From the operational guide, you can compost year-round, and in the winter, apparently, freezing breaks down fibers readily so you’re ready for some fine decomposition in the spring. As a lovely accessory, I also get a stainless steel pail to store my veggie waste until I have enough to make the trip outside worthwhile! I have a lot to learn – but after glancing at the guide, I realize I need 50% ‘brown’ refuse to mix with my green. Brown material includes leaves, grass clippings, straw, shredded paper … I’m thinking that sounds like a job for one of my kids. I’m sure I can hold up my end of the bargain producing the green!

After 10 years as a CSA sharer, I don’t know how I’ve existed this long without one! I hope you get exactly what you wish for this Holiday as well! I’m going to go peel some carrots for lunch so I can get started…..

It's Not Too Early to Think About a 2009 CSA

If you're thinking next year might be the year to join a Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA), you should probably be investigating now. Several CSAs in our area have started taking reservations for next year's programs, and others are putting together their waiting lists already.

Here's information on everything I could find. If anyone knows of additions or changes, let me know and I'll update.

Balanced Harvest Farm
pick up: Carmel, Broad Ripple, and Meridian St. Farmers' Markets
June thru October (June thru September for spring/summer shares)
Full and half shares available.
Spring/summer shares (17 weeks) and full season shares (22 weeks) available.
Accepting applications now for the 2009 program.

Bluebird Hills Farm
pick up: farm in Springfield, OH, or pickup locations in Yellow Springs, Dayton, Clayton, Beavercreek, Bellbrook, Lebanon, Kettering, Centerville, Tipp City, West Chester
May/June thru October
2009 application will be available in January.

Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
pick up: at the farm in Eaton OH
April thru October (31 weeks)
Monthly shares available; pick and choose which months you want to participate
Accepting applications by early December via the farm's website; join the email list to receive notification when applications are being accepted.

Cedarmore Farm
pick up: at the farm in Hillsboro OH
May thru October
For more information: leave message at 937-588-2195.

Earth-Shares
pick up: at Grailville in Loveland OH
mid-May thru mid-November (26 weeks)
working and non-working shares available
Accepting renewals from 2008 members. Probably full for 2009, currently accepting names for waiting list.

Eaton Farm
pick up: at farm in Madison, IN or at Hyde Park Farmers' Market
May thru October
full and half shares available
Currently accepting reservations for 2009 program. Contact via email link at their LocalHarvest listing.

Elmwood Stock Farm
pick up: at farm in Georgetown, KY
mid-May thru mid-October (22 weeks)
Three share sizes available.
Currently accepting requests for the 2009 season.

Fox Run
pick up: at farm in Falmouth KY or pickups in Alexandria and Dry Ridge.
(20 weeks)
For more information: Email

Goodlife Farm
pick up: home delivery (as far south as Kenwood area)
June thru October
pick up at farm also available for reduced rate
For more information: 937-212-3720 for more questions, or email for an application form.

Gravel Knolls Farm
pick up: at farm in West Chester
June thru September (18 weeks)
2-person, 4-person, 6-person shares available
Accepting reservations now for the 2009 program.

Greensleeves Farm
pick up: at Findlay Market or Campbell County Farmer's Market
mid-May thru October
working and nonworking shares available
Accepting reservations now for the 2009 program.

Hazelfield Farm
pick up: at Hyde Park Farmers' Market
May thru October (22 weeks)
whole and half shares available
Currently accepting reservations for the 2009 season.

Hidden Ridge Family Farm
pick up: at farm in West Union OH or at dropoff points in West Union and Peebles OH
May thru October (24 weeks)
Five share sizes available
For more information: 937-544-0778

Martin Hill Farms
pick up: at Hyde Park and Northside Farmers' Markets
May thru November (30 weeks)
Currently accepting limited numbers of new members, but space is very limited and will likely fill soon. For more information, visit the website to see how the CSA operates, then Email.

Pennington Hollow Farm
pick up: Batesville and Brookville IN
June thru September
working shares available
For more information: Email

Pickin and A-grazin' Farm
pick up: at farm in Morrow OH
May thru October
Currently accepting reservations for the 2009 program.

Stoney Hedgerow Farm
pick up: at farm in Camden OH
May thru October (25 weeks)
working shares available (25 hours for the season)
Currently planning 2009 CSA. For more information: Email

Thistlehair Farm
(Thistlehair is currently deciding whether or not to offer a CSA next year; we'll update when they make a decision.)
pick up: at farm in Union KY
May thru October (20 weeks)
For more information: 859 384-3317

Turner Farm
pick up: at farm in Indian Hill
May thru October (22 weeks)
working shares (44 hours)
Full for 2009, but accepting names for waiting list. Leave a message at 513-561-7400 to add your name to the list.

The Winter Farm

Val has asked my to contribute to the Cincy Locavore blog from the farmers point of view so periodically I will post things here about the life of one small farmer (that would be me) and her sustainable farm. To learn more about my farm visit my blog

Winter is here-it is cold, snowy and most everything that is not we covered is dead. This means things have slowed way down for us (yay!) It is nice to be able to kick back for a month or so before the 80 hour a week grinds starts again.

People want to know what we farmers do in the off season. For us, we spend a lot of November cleaning up stuff like the store, the garden beds, popcorn, catnip, onions. Crunching numbers on the various produce items we grow so we have an idea as to what is selling and what is not selling so we know what seeds to plant for the coming season. Eugene does not do much on the computer so it is me who keeps the blog and website updated and that can be time consuming, especially this year since it looks like Boulder Belt is back in the CSA biz and that means at some point I need to design an informative CSA page for the Boulder Belt Website.

December is too often spent removing snow from hoop houses and driveways. It is also the time we put in our main seed order with Johnny's Selected Seeds (our favorite seed house). In the past we have waited until after Christmas to put in our order but there are rumors that there will be seed shortages this year so I believe I will get at least part of the order in in early Dec. or even late November. December is usually the Month that we start the onions and leeks indoors, though this year I believe the onions will be started today or tomorrow (that would be mid November). The reason for moving up the date is due to the fact we have quite a few Copra onion seeds left over from last year and We decided that those should be planted to see if they have strong germination. If they do than we do not need to order more seed. If they do not than we will know by Dec 1st if the seeds are working or not and can get an order into Johnny's early enough to avoid the dreaded back order that can set one back several months.

If December, January and February are mild (which is the NOAA prediction for us this winter, but I will believe that when I see it) than the crops in the hoop houses will continue to produce pretty much all winter and someone has to go and harvest and package the crops periodically (weekly-as growth slows way down in the winter even if it is relatively warm and sunny). We than sell the greens, leeks, etc., at the Oxford Monthly Winter market and this year the CSA gets their share as well. We also sell through the store via email appointment and occasionally to a restaurant or Miami University.

If the winter months are cold with a lot of precip, than most things quit growing until Late Feb and cannot be harvested, the exception to this are the leeks and scallions. Than we sit around twiddling our thumbs waiting on the greens to come back to life. Okay, we don't spend much time thumb twiddling (but we do start craving greens in a big way and are delighted when things are harvestable again). If it is a snowy winter than we are spending lots of time removing snow from the hoop houses, otherwise they get flattened and are unuseable and have to be repaired or replaced. this has happened a couple of times to us and incredibly the crops under all the snow and plastic are generally unharmed and producing very well when we finally get to them

What we are doing by Feb is starting seriously seeds indoors. This starts out slowly with around 15 pots of onions and leeks planted in Dec/Jan. Those are followed by the brassicas-kale, broccoli, cabbages, etc., and lettuces in mid to late Feb. Those crops are repeatedly seeded indoors through April/May so we have a continual harvest April through June/July. By late March we are also starting early tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and melons to be planted in mid April in hoop houses. In April the main crops of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, celery, celeriac, parsley, flowers, etc., are started which fills up the grow room along with cold frames and hoop houses with thousands of seedlings.

Once the seeds are started we are tied to the farm. The seeds need daily tending-watering, fertilizing, pricking (this means to re pot into a larger container), making soil (we make our own soil mix for seed starting as we have a hard time finding soiless mixes that don't contain petroleum products or chemical fertilizers. Add to that, we start seeds in soil blocks and we make our own soil blocks so the soiless mix has to be just so for it to work for us. Making our own soil blocks means we use very little plastic when starting our seedlings. It probably saves us around a thousand bucks a year as well (of course it increases our work load by at least 100 hours as we have to make a lot of soil and a lot of soil blocks.)

So you can see that we small sustainable farmers really don't have much down time at all. Some day, perhaps, we will quit this idea of winter growing and marketing and will shut the farm down in November and go to the Caribbean for 4 months.

Of Voles and Sweet Potatoes, or: Linguica, Sweet Potato and Spinach Chowder

My Winter CSA box this week from Turner Farm contained sweet potatoes...lots of sweet potatoes. The ugliest sweet potatoes you've ever seen.

This is what a sweet potato looks like when it's been damaged by voles. Pretty ugly, eh? But other than the obvious cosmetic damage, there's no harm to the sweet potato -- you can trim off the damaged parts and use it as usual. Vole-damaged sweet potatoes even store just as well as perfect specimens. But of course a lot of people would be put off by the visual and pass these up in favor of more perfect-appearing sweets. So when you're hitting the farmers' markets at the end of the season, if you see some ugly sweet potatoes cheap, snap 'em up! They're a bargain, and you're rewarding a farmer for using organic methods.

I also had some excellent-looking young spinach in the CSA box, and I had a few onions from the farmers' market down at Findlay. I'd picked up some wonderful linguica from Linwood Sausage Company at one of the last Hyde Park Farmers' Market days a few weeks ago, and I always keep chicken stock in my freezer. It's a blustery day, with the first sleet of the season. I'd had my fireplace going since mid-morning. Soup seemed like the perfect choice. So I made one of my favorite rustic autumn soups.

Linguica, Sweet Potato, and Spinach Chowder
Serves 6

1 pound linguica
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds sweet potatoes, roughly chopped
6 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste

Heat 6-quart stock pot to medium high. Score linguica links and squeeze sausage out of the casings into hot pan; break apart with wooden spoon into small pieces. Add onions and garlic and fry until sausage is cooked through. Add sweet potatoes and cook fifteen minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes to an hour and a half, or until sweet potatoes start to fall apart. Add spinach and cook until wilted; correct seasonings; serve.

Local Harvest reviews

Local Harvest has something new on their site -- reviews. So if your favorite CSA, farmers' market, farm or restaurant is listed on localharvest.org, go check their listing and give them a nice boost!

Finding an alternative to a 'Local Foods Pledge'

I've been asked by a group of folks who are putting together a local foods directory for Greater Cincinnati to write a 'Local Foods Pledge' to include in the directory. In general, I disagree with the concept, but I do want to help this group. So I'm trying to come up with something.

I'm thinking along the lines of providing a list of steps folks might take in trying to eat more locally, putting them into some general order of easiest and least time-consuming to most challenging, and then inviting folks to choose a point on the local eating scale they're going to aim for this year.

For instance:

Choose local over non-local when offered
Learn what produce is in season when
Switch to local honey & maple syrup
Switch to pastured eggs
Switch to local wines
Visit a farmers' market once a week
Add seasonal recipes to my collection
Freeze a frequently-used item during the season (berries, applesauce, tomatoes, corn, onions, peppers)
Can a frequently-used item during the season (preserves, tomato sauce, tomato paste, enchilada sauce, chile sauce, pickles)
Join a CSA
Purchase a side of grass-fed beef (or half a pastured pig)
Join a herdshare

This is just off the top of my head, and I'm not sure I have them ordered correctly. For instance, is joining a CSA, which requires a weekly trip to pick up the CSA box, more onerous than purchasing half a beef which then must be fitted into the home freezer? Is canning more of a challenge for most people than where I've placed it? Is visiting a farmers' market weekly easier than switching to local wines? I put 'switch to local honey and syrup' ahead of 'switch to pastured eggs' because I figure people only buy honey/syrup every once in a while but many buy eggs weekly, but maybe eggs are easier?

What other steps could folks take? Where would they fit into the scale?

All suggestions and advice gratefully accepted!

Winter CSAs

From the Ithaca Journal comes this story about Winter CSAs, which are much more difficult to find than summer-month CSAs.

From the article:

A recent wintertime distribution had potatoes, kale, carrots, beets, parsnips, cabbage, leeks, rutabagas and salad mix.

Wintertime distributions generally contain less variety than summertime distributions because they include root vegetables that the farms have stored in humid cellars, in addition to freshly harvested produce. Kale grows outside unprotected in the winter because it can survive freezing temperatures, but other items, such as lettuce varieties, are grown inside a greenhouse in tunnels covered by poly-blend fabric.

Around Cincinnati, Turner Farm offers a winter CSA, but that's the only one I'm aware of. (If anyone knows of others, please speak up!)

2008 CSA Updates

Gravel Knolls Farm has updated their CSA page for the 2008 season. Their pickup point is the West Chester FM off I-75 on Union Blvd on Saturday mornings. They're offering a new plan this year whereby members can sign up for five-week blocks rather than the whole season if they prefer, to allow folks to work around vacations and such.

Greensleeves farm has updated their CSA listing for the 2008 season at localharvest.org. Pickups are at the farm in Alexandria KY on Tuesdays 7-8. They offer a reduced share price for those able to come early on pickup days and help with the harvest.