Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Word on our 2011 Fall CSA

Ben's Produce offers vegetables, strawberries & flowers of the highest quality and taste in the Triangle. Our mission is to strive for healthier people, community, agriculture and planet by growing and sharing the best tasting food we can. Our farming practices may surpass organic guidelines but we choose not to be certified because we are confident the quality and taste of our produce, as well as our direct relationship with you, speak to our commitment to healthy food and holistic agriculture. 2011 will be our second year farming as Ben's Produce, though we have been farming with family and friends for many years.

CSA is a mutually beneficial relationship between us. By making a seasonal investment in our farm with a CSA share, you become a seasonal farm member who shares the rewards and risks of the harvest season with us, your farmers. Your investment allows us to afford annual start-up costs, to pay ourselves fair wages, and to share the many risks in growing food. In return, we provide you and your family with abundant, fresh, healthy and local food. Our food not only tastes better and lasts longer, it's also helps us all nourish local agriculture, economy and environment. Taste the difference!

Is CSA right for your family?

It is good to be aware of the rewards and challenges involved in CSA. If you and your family want to explore the wonderful tastes of our farm-fresh food by eating it straight from your CSA pickup bag or transformed in a delightful dish you cooked, CSA is for you! If you want to expand your taste-bud horizons and strengthen your skills at cooking and preparing fresh food, CSA is for you! If you want to be surprised with new vegetables, CSA is for you! If you want to eat healthily and enjoy eating, CSA is for you!

Please understand that nature's abundance varies. What you receive is based on our harvest schedule which is subject to the weather, pests, disease and a large myriad of influences. Some weeks your CSA share may be less than the retail farmers market value we try to maintain. However, we usually provide more bounty than you could buy at market value. If you find yourself with too many items, do not despair, share the bounty with others! .

Members Receive:

About two grocery bags of at least 7-10 seasonal organic vegetables and herbs (more for large shares).
A weekly newsletter with produce information, cooking and storage tips, recipes and segments about life on and off the farm.
Exclusive access to an online recipe-sharing site.

Members Also Enjoy:

Convenient pick up locations and times throughout the week.
Adds ons including, bread, cheese, coffee, tea, pork, chicken, lamb and beef.
Access to our farm for volunteering, exploring and relaxing.
Invitations to on-farm events, such as our second annual OktoberFEAST.
New friends who share your interest in good food and good farming.

How It Works

Join Ben’s Produce CSA by purchasing a CSA share at the beginning of the season. You then visit the pickup site of your choosing to pack your own vegetables from the harvest table. We will post a guide at the stand explaining what each share contains that week. The Fall 2011 CSA harvest season runs for 10 weeks from early October through December.

Pickup Sites: We have three weekly CSA pickup sites -

Raleigh Five Points CSA - Tuesday evenings from 4:30pm to 6:30pm, 1911 Bernard St., Raleigh 27608.

Please consider signing up with the Raleigh Five Points CSA Yahoo Group through the link above, to access information regarding the pickup site and opportunities to support the other farmers who attend as well as local food events and information.

The Farm, Wednesday evenings from 4pm to 7pm, 1000 McLemore Rd., Clayton 27520

Western Wake Farmers Market, Saturday morning from 8am to 12pm at the1225 Morrisville Carpenter Rd, Cary 27519.

Sharing with others: If you choose to split a share with family or friends, please let us know on your registration so we may avoid confusion.

Flexibility: We know you may miss pickup for many reasons. We prefer 24 hours notice, if possible. You may send friends or family in your place to pickup if you wish. Missed pickup is forfeit of that weeks share but we will try to make other accommodations if possible.

Communication: Our main mode of communication is email. We will send all members weekly emails usually a day or two before pickup. Our emails are meant as pickup reminders and usually include farm updates, a list of that weeks veggies, a link to our latest blog entry and any notifications regarding pickup. Our blog functions as our farm newsletter that includes farm news, anecdotes, reflections, recipes, photographs and more.

COLLABORATIVE CSA ADD ONS

We offer our collaborative CSA service to bring you the best food from farmers and producers who attend Western Wake Farmer's Market with us. We will send you an email detailing this service after you sign up for our Fall CSA. We strongly urge patronizing these folks if you pick up at market instead of using this service.

Fickle Creek Farm, Efland NC – Pork, Chicken, Lamb
Smith Angus Farm, Snow Camp NC – Angus Beef
Funderburk & Pate, Meadow NC – Bread & Baked Goods made with their own grain
Hillsborough Cheese Co., Hillsborough NC – Cheese
Muddy Dog Coffee, Morrisville NC – Coffee, Tea, Grits

Vegetable Availability

October: Scallions, Bok Choi, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Collards, Kale, Kohlrabi, Mustard, Napa Cabbage, Tatsoi, Beets, Carrots, Daikon, Radish, Turnip, Arugula, Chard, Fennel, Lettuce, Spinach, Peas, Herbs

November: Scallions, Bok Choi, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Collards, Kale, Kohlrabi, Mustard, Napa Cabbage, Tatsoi, Beets, Carrots, Daikon, Radish, Turnip, Arugula, Chard, Fennel, Lettuce, Spinach, Herbs

December: Scallions, Bok Choi, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Collards, Kale, Kohlrabi, Mustard, Tatsoi, Beets, Carrots, Daikon, Radish, Turnip, Arugula, Chard, Fennel, Lettuce, Spinach, Herbs

Pricing

Small Share - $125

Our Small Share is the same size as the Regular Share but is distributed every 2 weeks instead of every week.

Regular Share - $200

Our Regular Share is a suitable amount of produce for a small household of 1 to 3 people, or one well eating vegetarian to eat for one week.

Large Share - $300

Our Large Share is a suitable amount of produce for a large household of 4+ people, or a couple of well-eating vegetarians to eat for one week.

Payment Options

Our CSA is first come, first serve. You must send payment to secure a share. We prefer you send us Full Payment but our Payment Plan of a deposit and consecutive payments are accepted for your flexibility.We will use your CSA share payments to purchase much needed materials for building three high tunnels. These high tunnels cost about $800 a piece and we will construct them ourselves. They will serve as unheated greenhouses and will allow us to provide you with nutritious, wholesome food throughout the year. It will also allow us to provide you with early spring and summer crops. Please consider paying for your CSA share in full as soon as possible, if this is feasible for you. We thank you for your support!

Full Payment - Enclose a check for the total due.

Payment Plan - Enclose a deposit to secure your share. Please send the amounts listed below 30 days and 60 days after the date of your deposit.

Due Date	Small Share	Regular Share	Large Share
Deposit	$50	$75	$100
30 days	$50	$75	$100
60 days	$25	$50	$100

You can find our Fall 2011 CSA brochure here. Please use the brochure to sign up with us. Please enclose a copy with your information and payment. We hope you will afford us the honor of being your farmers in 2011 and we are looking forward to a great year. We wouldn’t be able to be farmers without you and your support!

Sincerely,

Benjamin Shields & Patricia Parker

Friday, June 17, 2011

Up to your ears in squash and zucchini?

Eating seasonally can be a challenge. Summer squash season is upon us and it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the bounty. Whether you're growing your own garden, a member of a CSA, or a regular market visitor, you are probably faced with the daunting task of incorporating all of that squash into your meals - while at the same time trying not to tire of it. Well, I hope I can share some resources with you that you will find to be helpful.

First, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an excellent resource for folks thinking about or already eating seasonally. Kingsolver is a phenomenal writer and her family is pretty talented too. If you haven't read this book yet, please pick it up this summer! It's a worthwhile read. In the meantime, you can access some of the resources contained within the book (but not the stories). One of the most relevant resources for this particular squash-inspired post is the Zucchini Season Meal Plan. The site also includes some, but not all, of the recipes mentioned in the meal plan including, a recipe for Grilled Vegetable Panini (it calls for eggplant and peppers, but I say work with what you've got), a recipe for Disappearing Zucchini Orzo, and a recipe for Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies (a friend suggests margarine instead of butter to make the cookies more moist).

Folks have been posting various squash and zucchini recipes either on our Facebook site or on their sites and then I re-post them to our site. I'll link a few of these resources here too. Here's another zucchini bread recipe called "Mom's Zucchini Bread Recipe." And then there's Yellow Squash Patties. Then we also have All Zucchini Recipes that includes an exhaustive guide to all things zucchini, including recipes, of course. And finally, here's a site with links to 15 squash and zucchini recipes, including potato, squash and goat cheese gratin, zucchini potato frittata, and squash ribbons.

I hope some of these resources do help you to better enjoy and handle the bounty of squash season. If you have any other suggestions, please post comments here or at our Facebook site. We would love it if you shared some of your favorites with us!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Farm It Forward Update - Change Ain't Easy, But It Sure is Possible!

Hi folks,

I wanted to post an update about the latest and greatest goings on with the Farm It Forward efforts. Since Michele McKinley, of Advocates for Health in Action, already posted an introduction and my letter to the Farm It Forward members on the AHA site, I'm going to go ahead and "lift" it to post here (you can view the original here).

Change Ain’t Easy, But It Sure Is Possible!

Wed, 06/08/2011 - 10:00am — mmckinley

Thanks to guest blogger Patricia Parker of Ben’s Produce for sharing excerpts of a letter to Farm It Forward recipients on June 7, the first day they received their community shared agriculture (CSA) shares of healthy, locally grown produce. Ben Shields and Patricia Parker of Ben’s Produce approached AHA early this year about an idea to provide shares of locally grown, healthy produce to people in need in Wake County. Through a collaboration with AHA, New Grass Gardens, WakeMed’s Energize! program for kids at risk of type 2 diabetes and the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle (IFFS), Farm It Forward was born.

Farm It Forward will enable a small group of Energize participants to receive free shares of local fruits and veggies from Ben’s Produce and New Grass Gardens for eight weeks this summer, and also to participate in a free Cooking Matters class from IFFS so that they can learn to make educated choices about growing, cooking and eating the best food possible. This program was born out of the generosity of the farmers, support from the community and from our partners.

AHA expects to see this program grow! Stay tuned and feel free to contact Michele McKinley at AHA if you would like to support Farm It Forward.

Since Ben and I have been farming, we’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people we’ve met along the way. When we try to do something in return for those, many of them express that they already feel like we’ve been generous enough. It never really occurred to me that what we do for a living and for fun is something that other people would find rewarding. When folks come out to the farm, they get wholesome, nutritious food, knowledge about farming, a chance to get away from the city and enjoy a little company and sunshine. Truly, those things are beyond monetary value.

So, Ben and I have been thinking for quite some time that we would really like to put out there what we’re receiving. We can’t hold in all of the positivity that we’re getting – we just don’t have enough room for it between the two of us. That’s why we approached the folks at Advocates for Health in Action with a proposal. That proposal has turned into Farm It Forward. Who knew you could get things done just by saying you want to do it and then going out there and doing it? I mean really. It sounds simple, but not a whole lot of people are able to take that first step, and the rest of the steps don’t come so easily either. Somehow, though, we’ve managed to build a program that includes so many amazing people, representing so many great programs in the area. Sometimes I almost don’t believe this is really happening! Most of all, none of us could do this without you.

It takes a lot of courage, persistence, and effort to face a task or a big goal and then work toward it. And the more obstacles we have in life for achieving those tasks, the harder it is. I am truly inspired by you! So much so, that I am vowing to change my own eating habits and increase my levels of physical activity. As a PhD student and teacher, I spend a lot of time sitting in front of the computer. As a farmer, I actually also spend a lot of time in front of the computer (working on recipe cards, returning emails, writing newsletters, getting informed, etc.)

I also spend a lot of time outside working. Even though it’s physical labor and hard work, the kind of work I do doesn’t really get my heart rate going. It’s fairly slow and steady. Anyway, having what are basically two full-time jobs (one academic and one as a farmer) can be a little stressful – and when I’m stressed, I like to eat – and not good food either. In fact, since we’ve lived in Raleigh (it’s been three years), I’ve gained 40 pounds (and the majority of that weight certainly hasn’t been muscle!). The extra fat is not good for my health – and neither is my retreat to empty calories when I’m feeling a little stressed.

So, in line with the program, and what we’re doing here, I want to join you in your efforts to change your relationship with food to one that is healthy – one that is nourishing for the mind and the body. I want to thank you for being the inspiration and the catalyst that I need to live a happier and healthier life. I hope that we can embark on this journey together and that it will make the task at hand easier – and even fun! Change won’t come easily, but with this strong network of support and positivity, I know it’s possible! (Photos: shares of food ready for the cooking class and to go home with Farm It Forward recipients; bottom, AHA and NC Cooperative Extenson Intern Meghan Malka and Ben Shields loading produce for the program.)

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
– James Baldwin

Monday, May 30, 2011

Goodbye May

Howdy do, folks? I took a few pictures around the farm yesterday and thought I'd share a few with you. Here we have bolted lettuce. This is what lettuce looks like when it goes to seed. It's kind of pretty, isn't it?

Here's a bee in vetch. Vetch is a legume and fixes nitrogen to the soil. It's good for the soil and good for the bees. It's pretty much win-win.

This is broccoli of course. It's awfully pretty. We'll see how long it lasts in this heat. We're going to keep it good and watered and hope we have some to bring to market by Saturday.

Purple cabbage. I can't wait for these beauties to be ready for the pickin. I love making slaw with this cabbage and carrots. It's absolutely gorgeous...and tasty too!

Green cabbage.

Chard.

Carrot tops. Did you know you can eat them? They're a little dry fresh, but you can chop them up and toss them in a stir fry or you can dry them and use them like you would parsley (a relative of the carrot). We also had someone at market tell us that he'd heard of carrot top tea. If anyone knows of some other uses, please let us know

A sea of potatoes.

And tomatoes.

More tomatoes!

Ben in the sun.

Pepper plant.

Nappa cabbage.

Our porch.

Ben in the shade on the swing.

The gnome.

Well, that's all folks! I had more pictures to share, but for some reason the server won't accept them for the time being. There will be more to post tomorrow after we pick CSA shares for Tuesday pick up. In the meantime, we hope you're enjoying the long weekend. See you around.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Life on the Farm

These pictures are about a week old, but I thought I'd share them with y'all anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to get out there with the camera in the next day or so and post more pictures so y'all can see how quickly things are growing out here. In the meantime, enjoy.

Here are potato flowers. Pretty, huh?

bee in a squash flower

Ben picking carrots

squash plants

Ben picking strawberries

lettuce, scallions, broccoli, tatsoi, bok choy, rainbow chard

more greens

Ben

broccoli

cabbage

marvel the four seasons lettuce

green oak leaf lettuce

bok choy

tatsoi

mesclun

corn

sour cherries

blue berries

fig trees

the birds are great for bug control

That's all folks! Thanks for stopping by - see you Saturday at market :)

Week 5, CSA share contents

Hi folks! Here's the run down of this week's share. The summer squash are coming on in full force, so be ready for it! We're at that good place right now where we have the last of the spring goods (e.g., carrots, beets, and greens) and then we're coming into the summer goods (e.g., zucchini, squash, cucumbers). Look at this beautiful spread (this is an example of a regular sized share).

strawberries, zucchini, dill and parsley, and zephyr squash