Greater Hartford Farm Scene: Part 2
Welcome back to part 2 of our round-up of the Greater Hartford Farm Scene. Yesterday we focused on Farmers Markets, Farm Stands, and U-Pick, which are common ways to get fresh, local, vegetables. They don’t require a commitment – you can stop in if your schedule matches up with their hours. It just takes a little bit of travel time, and perhaps some sweat, to get delicious produce for dinner and dessert. Today we’re covering Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Shares and Delivery Options, which do require a bit more of a commitment, but can be much more convenient.
Community Supported Agriculture Shares
For those of you that are interested in a one stop shopping type of method of obtaining locally grown fruits and vegetables, a Connecticut CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) operation may be worthy of consideration. The basic model with a CSA is that you purchase a share, sometimes sold in whole or half shares, at the beginning of the growing season. The farmer then uses your upfront payment as capital towards the growing season, to purchase seeds, labor, etc. Sometimes, you can pay for a portion of your share by volunteering on the farm. Then, you will receive a weekly distribution from the share over a set period of weeks. This is your dividend from the upfront payment. Buyers of the share assume some risk; if the growing season is plentiful, then the weekly distribution will be equally bountiful. However, if there are weather issues, such as the CT tomato and potato blight of 2009, the result is a smaller offering of produce.
Based on my readings and knowledge of local CSA operations, it appears that most CSA’s in the Hartford region require the weekly share to be picked up at the farming location. Farm share opportunities such as Holcomb Farm in East Granby, Rosedale Farm in Simsbury, Oxen Hill Farm in Suffield, and the George Hall Farm in Simsbury offer this type of CSA model. Local pickup makes it difficult to participate if you don’t live in an area that offers a CSA, although the Grow Hartford CSA is an up and coming urban farm model, along with the Urban Oaks Organic Farm of New Britain. Many of these CSA options have sold out for the 2010 growing season, so if you are interested in purchasing a share next summer, make sure to start the process in the late winter/early spring. CSA listings for the Hartford area can be found here on Buy CT Grown and here at CTNOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association).
Delivery
A final option, which my wife and I just tried for the first time, is the recently launched delivery service Connecticut Farm Fresh Express. CTFFE delivers once a week on a year round basis. You can select from all kinds of Connecticut grown and produced products. Their online store opens Thursday evening, and closes on Monday at Noon. Orders are processed on Wednesday and delivered to your door for a fee that ranges between $5.00 and $15.00. For delivery to Glastonbury, it was $9.50. There is no minimum order, and the products available change each week, so be sure to check back frequently. This service runs throughout the winter, so it would be especially helpful to track down those Connecticut grown root vegetables to keep the stream of fresh produce flowing throughout the winter months (see photo of crazy carrots). We ordered some baby gourmet carrots, flounder and cod freshly caught off the Connecticut coast, as well as locally-raised beef, pork sausage and ground bison. Also, locally roasted organic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe coffee from Ashlawn Farm Coffee will be sampled for the first time tomorrow morning. The Hartford Courant had a nice write-up of the CTFFE operation and its founder, Deb Marsden, and we were pleased to support such an entrepreneurial start-up business.
Well, that blog entry has about exhausted this correspondent. Keep your eyes peeled for the next entry on one of the most important factors when examining towns for a potential homes purchase, namely, the type of garbage collection services provided!
Thanks for the update, Farm Boy, we’ll look forward to your next report.
Greater Hartford Farm Scene: Part 1
Greetings! My name is Farm Boy, and I’ve been offered the opportunity to write about all things environmental for the Greater Hartford Real Estate Blog. I’m very excited about exploring topics such as local agriculture, recycling, composting, etc.
As the summer season creeps into August, it seems to be as good a time as any to discuss the local farm scene in the Hartford area. The Connecticut Department of Agriculture website offers a wide array of information on options for buying local products. In the Hartford area, there are primarily three methods for purchasing local produce and other foodstuffs, with a startup delivery option also available. Today we’ll focus on the first two, Farmers Markets and Farm Stands & U-Pick.
Farmers Markets
There are several farmers markets that operate in Greater Hartford. In fact, with a visit to the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s Farmers’ Market website, you can find a market pretty much every day of the week during the peak growing season from mid-June through early October.
Some of the more notable markets include the Coventry Regional Farmers Market on Sundays, and the Hartford Regional Market on Reserve Road, which operates year round in the wee hours of the morning from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Although I have never been, a representative of CT Grown told me, “Bring a Wagon and a Flashlight!” A web search on the Buy CT Grown website lists 63 Farmers Markets within a 25 miles radius of the 06106 zip code. Farmers Markets offer a wide selection of seasonal products at fair prices.
Farm Stands and U-Pick
Another popular initiative of the state’s Department of Agriculture has been the Connecticut Grown program. This has resulted in a great website, Buy CT Grown, which is an extremely helpful resource to locate all types of Connecticut grown and produced products, ranging from the standard fruits and vegetables to the more eclectic listings for distilled spirits and fish markets. This is also a great tool for locating Farm Stands and Pick Your Own/U-Pick opportunities.
The primary advantage to Farm Stands and U-Pick is that the prices tend to be more reasonable than Farmers’ Markets or other purchasing opportunities, because you are saving the producer the time and effort necessary to bring his or her products to market.
While there are many great farm stands in the area, South Glastonbury stands out for its U-Pick opportunities when it comes to fruit, especially berries (Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry and Blackberry) and tree bearing fruit (several varieties of Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Nectarines and Cherries). Several of my favorites include Belltown Orchards, Dondero Orchards and Carini’s Berry Farm, although a trip to Rose’s Berry Farm for weekend breakfast is most likely in order for the first time visitor. Come fall, be sure to visit Woodland Farm for fresh pressed, unpasteurized apple cider.
Come back tomorrow for more on the Greater Hartford Farm Scene, including Community Supported Agriculture Shares and Delivery!
How Many Neighbors Do You Know?
Rick Green posted a link to this nifty little study recently released by the Pew Research Center.
For those of you that don’t want to read the study, the gist of it was that only 43% of American adults know “all” or “most” of their neighbors by name. Twenty nine percent know “some” of their neighbors and surprisingly (to me) 28% claimed they knew “none” of their neighbors.
Really, how is it possible that more than a quarter of the adult population in this country doesn’t know the name of at least one of their neighbors?
Let’s take a look at this pictorially, shall we? Let’s say you live in the neighborhood pictured below. And let’s say that you need to provide at least the first name of one of the people in the 11 homes nearest to you. Can you do it? How many of your 11 closest neighbors can you name?
I understand that not all of us live in walkable neighborhoods with sidewalks and .25 acre lots- which realistically makes it a lot easier to know the names of our neighbors. But come on. Even if you live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, wouldn’t you know the name of your nearest neighbor? Simply because there might be an emergency. For example:
Erma: Hi Mildred, it’s Erma. Fred fell off the tractor again and it looks like he broke his leg. Can you come over and watch the kids while I take him to the county hospital?
Mildred: Sure Erma, I’ll be right over, just need to fire up the tractor…
See? Even people that live in the boonies need to know their neighbors and interact with them from time to time. [NOTE: Kyle and I both grew up in the boonies and we knew the names of our neighbors, so we are allowed to poke fun.]
So, my take on this survey? If you know the names of your neighbors, great! Maybe make an additional effort to go out and learn more. And if you know the names of none of your neighbors? Stop being such a recluse and, unless you’re agoraphobic, go out and learn your neighbors’ names. They don’t need to know your business, just your name. Because you never know when they could help you…