Produce Notes:

Asparagus – Asparagus production is in full swing so hopefully it can stand up to providing you a weekly bounty.  It loves this type of otherwise aggravating weather – hot humid days and occasional drenching showers.

Carrots – Full shares are getting the last of our sweet overwintered carrots – a perfect mid-afternoon snack or salad fixing.

Chard or Kale– Full shares are getting rainbow-colored chard greens, with a sweet and slightly sour taste, like a strong spinach, that can be cooked down like any other green in a little bit of butter or olive oil.  Medium shares are getting kale, a slightly mustardy-flavored green that can be cooked just the same.

Endive – This bitter green needs a little bit of cooking to really be delicious on its own, although if you mix it with lettuce it’ll be good raw too.  See the classic bacon dressing recipe on the back for one idea.

Herbs – Spring is high time for herbs and while we usually think of them as a supplement, when they come in abundance they can really hold a dish together all on their own.  Spaghetti dressed with a little olive oil, a dash of vinegar, and lots of chopped herbs makes a delicious  ten-minute meal.

Lettuce Heads – There are a couple different lettuces you might get today – the falsely-named Magenta (more of a reddish green), the bright red Oscarde, or the lime-green Simpson.

Rhubarb – Rhubarb season is winding to a close, so if you haven’t used last week’s yet, combine it with this portion and make up a couple pies or three.  Or check out farm intern Meghan’s discovery: a website positively obsessed with rhubarb – www.rhubarbinfo.com – where there are hundreds of interesting and novel rhubarb recipes, including chutneys, stews, snack bars, beverages, and the curry recipe below.

Recipes

Curly Endive Salad with Bacon Dressing

Lentil Curry with Rhubarb and Sweet Potatoes

      The farm is speeding up every day as May moves past us.  We thought we were in good shape in late March, with dry hot weather draining our fields of all that moisture left over from last year, but the rainy, windy, chilly weather of late April slowed down lots of our March plantings and made weeds spring up all over the farm.  It can be hard to get ahead of the game in farming with all the different things that get thrown our way, but we’ll be doing our best to fill your boxes with tasty spring greens, as well as some asparagus and rhubarb, while the strawberries spend their “sweet” time ripening in the field.  Summer seems to be rushing towards us at breakneck speed! 

In the box this Tuesday: Arugula (full shares only - a few are getting radishes instead), asparagus, bok choy, herbs, scallions, lettuce heads, radishes, rhubarb, and spinach.

Recipes: 

Linguine with Asparagus, Lemon, and Spring Herbs

Rhubarb-Apple Crisp

Download a pdf of this week's newsletter

Wednesday, May 17 

Silvopasture Workshop with DCNR and PSU

Saturday, May 26

Live Music featuring singer/guitarist Mike Bratt

Saturday, June 2

First Saturday Farmer's Market, 9am - 12pm

(this'll be the one for strawberries!)

May 1/2 - 11th Winter Distribution

April 17/18 - 10th Winter Distribution

April 3/4 - 9th Winter Distribution

March 20/21st - 8th Winter Distribution

March 6/7 - 7th Winter Distribution

February 21/22 - 6th Winter Distribution

February 7/8 - 5th Winter Distribution

January 24/25 - 4th Winter Distribution

January 10/11 - 3rd Winter Distribution

December 20/21 - 2nd Winter Distribution

December 6/7 - 1st Winter Distribution

Looking for old Veggie Voices?

Ordering Information for Extras: 

1.  Under the "Recipes and Extra's" tab, Click on either Friday's CSA Extra (Harrisburg/Selingsgrove/Lewisburg ) or Tuesday's CSA Extras (On Farm/State College/Burnham) 

2.  Click an item for more details

3.  To select an item, click "Add to Cart"

4.  When done selecting items, click "View Cart" in green caption at the top of the page.  Adjust quanties, as desired.

5.  Click "Continue to Checkout"

6.  There's no need for a password, just enter your name and email address.

7.  If you have a comment/question about your order, please enter it in the box towards the bottom of the page.

8.  Click "Complete Checkout"

9.  You will receive an email confirmation of your order.  If you ordered poultry, the total price in the email will NOT be correct, since we won't know the weight until delivered to you on Tuesday.

Any questions or issues with the online ordering, please let us know.

As always, anyone interested in a CSA share should visit our website, email us at info@villageacresfarm.com or call the farm: 717-436-9477.

Don't forget: If a new shareholder signs up and mentions you as having referred them, it's your choice of a flower bouquet or honey!

“FoodShed” also expresses another idea that is equally important to the farmers at Village Acres.  A food shed, like a watershed, recognizes the connectivity of life in a geographical region.  We hope you will allow your imagination to play with the name, consider for a moment what or where your food shed is, and what impact our food choices make not only our regional food shed, but on the far larger food shed we share with the rest of the world. 

So what is the FoodShed at Village Acres?   It is a vision in process in a lovely timber frame structure that is home to a PDA licensed kitchen with space for dining or just gathering on an ever-evolving, organic fruit and vegetable farm in the Juniata River valley.   We invite you to share in the fun, exploration, and process as the FoodShed at Village Acres becomes the place it is intended to be.

Thank you for your interest in our 2012 Summer CSA! 

(Jump to: Share Description Schedule and Prices Payment Details Registration)

We're excited to be providing fresh, organic, and locally-grown vegetables and fruit to our members this year, and we're as excited as you are for the bountiful harvest that Pennsylvania gives us during the growing season.    Please check out the information below before registering through the links on the bottom of this page.

Share Description

The Summer CSA at Village Acres is made up primarily of our own certified-organic produce, supplemented occasionally with produce from nearby farmers who are either also certified organic or use natural methods but are not certified.  Last year our summer CSA members received approximately 55 different types of produce throughout the season. 

Spring is greens season in every CSA, and we're no exception: spring shares include plenty of salad items, including lettuce heads, mesclun mix, arugula, and spinach, as well as scallions, cooking greens like swiss chard and collards, and two of our favorite perennial crops, asparagus and rhubarb.  June generally heralds the start of strawberry season, an eagerly anticipated event on our farm marked by our first festival of the year.  As the days warm up, other summer crops such as cucumbers and zucchini arrive, as do peas, new potatoes, and the first beets and carrots of the year.  July replaces strawberries with blueberries, and by August summer is in full swing with tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, garlic, and melons all arriving on our plates.  August also marks the peak of sweet corn and green bean season - and as the blueberries fade the raspberries are ready to take their place.  September looks much the same as August in our box, but at the farm fall greens - kale, spinach, and bok choy, as well as broccoli and cauliflower - are starting to develop, and by October they'll be on the menu along with winter squash and sweet potatoes.  By November, with snow starting to arrive, root crops, cabbages, and the start of our winter greenhouse salad will make up most of your box.

Share Size & Splitting:  We offer two share sizes: full and medium.  Full shares aim to provide enough food for two vegetable-loving adults or a family that eats one or two vegetable side dishes a day.  Medium shares are about 60% of the size of fulls (due to both smaller portions and fewer items) and are designed for one vegetable-loving adult or a couple that doesn't cook quite as much.  Full shares have priority when it comes to produce that might be rare that week (i.e., melons that are just starting to ripen, or those times we only have a hundred mature heads of broccoli) although we try our best to make sure everyone gets a taste of everything throughout the year.

Members are also welcome to split shares among households however they'd like.  This is a great way to build community and to customize your share, too (especially if you can find someone who loves what you hate and hates what you love!). Please note that the responsibility of managing the split shares lies with the persons splitting, not the farm.  We also appreciate a single person to be the payer to simplify our bookkeeping.  On the "Member Signup" page you will have the option of entering an additional 2 parties that you may be splitting with.  Entering their information there will join them to our mailing list and assign them as "splitting" with you.  Please note the first name entered should be the primary member.  If you cannot find a share partner, please contact the farm.

Our Egg Share consists of a dozen eggs each week from our own chickens.  Our hens are pasture-raised during most of the year; in the winter they are free to roam our barnyard in all but the coldest weather or to take shelter in our barn.  They are not certified organic (due to the price of organic feed) but eat plenty of organically-grown bugs, seeds, and compost-ready produce and you're welcome to stop by any time and check on them! 

We also offer a Flower Share: 16 or more country bouquets, hand-picked and arranged by Hope Brubaker and delivered to you at distribution.  Flower shares make a great way to brighten up your house or cheer up your friends and family.

Our Community Fund exists to make sure that good, local, organic produce is available to everyone, regardless of economic means.  Our Community Fund provides reduced cost shares for those on limited budgets who want to be a part of the CSA.  If you would like to contribute to the Community Fund as part of your signup, you'll be given the opportunity to do so.  All donations made during registration are matched by the farm. If you are interested in receiving financial assistance from the Community Fund, please sign up online as usual, and then contact the farm with "Community Fund Request" in the subject line, or call us at (717) 436-9477.

Schedule and Pricing

Summer CSA distributions in State College, Burnham, and Mifflintown are held every Tuesday from May 15, 2012 to November 20, 2012, for 28 weeks of produce.  Selinsgrove and Harrisburg distributions are the Friday prior to those dates.

2012 Summer CSA Prices
Share Size                                     ____ Amount
Full Share                                                  $680
Medium Share                                           $450
Farm Pickup Only: Full Share               $605
Farm Pickup Only: Medium Share         $390
Egg Share                                                    $84
Flower Share                                             $125

Pickup Locations: 
1.  State College: Friends Meeting House, 611 E. Prospect Ave., State College, PA 16801

2.  At the farm: 229 Cuba Mills Rd., Mifflintown, PA 17059

3.  Burnham: The Healthy Food Store, 135 Nolan Dr., Lewistown, PA 17044

4. Selinsgrove: In Winfield (at a member's house) and at Emma's Food for Life in Selinsgrove.

5. Harrisburg: Unitarian Church, Clover Lane, Swatara Township; Private home, Uptown (just off the Front Street exit of Rt81).

Payment Details

Please send a $100 deposit, up to the full amount to the farm's address, payable to "Village Acres."  In the memo field, please write "Summer Share '12" and your member #, which will be in your confirmation email.  Finally, if your name is not on the check, please write it in the memo field.  Please note that your deposit is the only way to hold your spot.  (We are not set up to accept online or credit card payments.)

Farm's Address:
Village Acres
229 Cuba Mills Rd.
Mifflintown, PA 17059

Registration

If you have previously been a member of any Village Acres CSA since 2008, click here to sign up for the '12 Summer CSA.

If you're a new member, click here to sign up for the '12 Summer CSA.

Thank you for your interest and support.  If you have any questions/comments, please call (717-436-9477) or email us (villageacres@gmail.com).