We are planning for gardens and orchards full of fresh produce in the season ahead. Our hope is that both the food and your involvement in this venture will nourish you, bringing health and well being to us all, and to our Planet.
The early spring salad garden is planted to make available freshly harvested, spring salad crops to shareholders throughout the shorter, cooler days of the early season. Most of these spring crops are raised under cold frame, hoop house, and low tunnel field conditions. There is only one share size.
Beginning early April, our early mixed salad greens begin (12 varieties in all), along with fresh sunflower and pea shoots. April brings tender lettuces, wonderful spinach, kale, and chard. As the ground warms, we pull radishes, turnips, green onions, and green garlic, also adding last of the storage potatoes. Several early herbs always lend great flavors. Delivery and pickup day is Thursday. Spring Season includes six pack outs. Several of the early ones are every other week.
The summer season brings to fruition all of the planning, planting, harvest, and distribution that keeps us busy from Valentine’s Day until Thanksgiving. It is our largest Season in terms of member and farmers market shares. About three fourths of our total acreage is dedicated to summer season production.
The first week's bags are light, with mostly salad items, cooking greens, root crops, and strawberries. As the season proceeds, we add peas, summer squash, beets, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, snap beans, corn, and more. Orchard shares add cherries, apricots, peaches, apples, pears, and plums, plus cider.
So the early bags turn to boxes and amounts get heavier. June is our lightest month, while July increases in volume and variety. Our largest amounts of produce make their way to your table in August and September. October usually features crops that survive frost and store well. Amounts of summer crops diminish and the shares again size down.
Summer garden (vegetables) and summer orchard (fruit) shares are offered separately, as well as sold in half share and full share sizes. Getting both fruits and vegetables is always our recommendation for the most diversified taste of the entire season.
The winter storage season begins where the late summer season ends. The shorter days and cold nights limit the fresh items that we are able to produce in the field, but we do as much as the season and weather will allow. There is only one share size. Share pack outs and deliveries are once per month.
Late season field greens, lettuces, and spinach are harvested as long as weather will allow. Later December we add freshsunflower and pea shoots.
Also included are many varieties of carrots, sweet onions, beets, turnips, garlic and potatoes, along with winter squash and pie pumpkins. Herbs consist more of the hearty winter types: parsley, cilantro, sage, rosemary among other perennials.
Orchard crops include winter pears, and mixed apples along with fresh and frozen cider. Organic citrus from Arizona is included by late December.
CSA shares are mostly doorstep delivery. Delivery day is usually Thursday to upper Roaring Fork Valley (Carbondale to Aspen). Delivery to Glenwood and Farm Pickup shares (in the walk-in cooler) are accomplished / available on Saturdays.
These greens follow the season, both in varieties and flavors. Early and later season are smaller, milder, perhaps more juicy. Main summer greens are larger and stronger flavored. These greens are in addition to leafy greens regularly found in the share, meant for those wishing to bolster total share greens.
Herbal flower bouquet shares usually begin by the first of July. They are a refreshing mix of colorful flowers, medicinal and culinary herbs, flowering grains, and grasses. They follow the seasons, beginning with cold hardy flowers in the early summer, larger, brighter colors of the main summer to the hardy everlastings and their fall colors.
Farm fresh, flavorful and colorful eggs will be available throughout the year. A combination of six heritage breeds, these birds are raised with tender care , clean water, fresh air, pasture, and sunshine. they receive no GMO feeds, no antibiotics, etc.