2017 CSA

Back by popular demand! Registration is now open for the 2017 season!

Our CSA will operate very similar to that of last summer.  Pick up times will remain from 4-6pm on Friday afternoons here at our house, or 7am-noon on Saturdays at our booth at the Gettysburg Farmers' Market on The Pub quadrant.

The first pickup will be on May 27th this year, and it will end on August 26.  As with last year, the program will run for 14 weeks, of which, you can choose any 13 to receive your share.This is done so that, if you need to be away on vacation, you will not pay for a week that you won't be available to pick up your share.

We grow over 40 varieties of fresh vegetables, plus strawberries, black raspberries, peaches and apples for your family to enjoy.

We will also continue to offer 2 sizes of shares again this year ... the smaller one designed for a household of 2 -3 people, and the large share designed for families of 4-6. We have several "small" families who opt for the larger share, then freeze their extras during the summer to enjoy during the winter. And, as before, we will also have available larger quantities of produce for additional purchase if you would like to do any preserving.

Share prices for this season are $285.00 for the small share, and $310.00 for the large share.  Please note there will be a $10/share discount if payment is received by May 15th.

If you should have any questions ... please feel free to contact us ..
      home phone ... 677-0831
      message through Facebook, or
      message through website www. swartzspumpkinpatch@gmail.com
   

CSA for summer 2016

Spring is springing here at Swartz's!  We've been getting seeds started for our spring crops and plan to get started planting in the high tunnels this week, hoping to get carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, radishes and pak choi seeds in the ground.

As part of our plans for this year, we are once again offering a CSA for those interested in getting fresh produce each week throughout the summer.

This year, our program will begin with the first pick up on Friday, May 27th and run through Friday, August 26th. As a convenience for our customers, you may choose any 13 of the 14 weeks for your pick up.  This allows you to miss one week in the event you are on vacation.  All we ask is that you let us know at least one week in advance of the week you would need to miss.

Shares may be picked up at our farm on Friday's from 4-6pm, or Saturday's at our booth at the Gettysburg Farmers' Market on The Pub quadrant.

We also would like to continue offering the opportunity for you to use your share value to purchase larger quantities of produce for freezing or canning.  For example, last year we offered  members the option to use their share value to get several dozen ears of sweet corn instead of receiving their regular share, and another week to get black raspberries (when they were in the peak of the season), instead of the usual assortment of vegetables.  

Black Raspberry harvest at the peak

                     

Tomato harvest in full swing

The cost for the CSA will remain the same as last year .. small shares, recommended for 2-4 people, are $275.00 and large shares, recommended for 4-6 people, are $300.00

New and exciting this year, we should be harvesting peaches from our own trees, so we are planning to be able to offer them in the shares.

And, as it was last year, any CSA members who shops with us at the Gettysburg Farmers' Market on the square on Saturday mornings will receive 10% off their purchases (only at our stand.)

We would appreciate your commitment by April 15th, which allows time for us to finalize our planting schedules.

If you should have any questions about our program, please feel free to contact us, or check out our website at www.swartzspumpkinpatch.com

I spent some time this past winter thinking about starting a CSA.  What, you might ask, is a CSA?  It stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  In a nutshell, you as a participant purchase a "share" which is a weekly pick up of a pre-made box of  produce grown by us, that you will get for 13 weeks.

Our goal is have participants committed to the CSA by May 15th and the actual program will begin the first week of June and run through the end of August.

Here is our 2015 CSA information:

 The summer CSA will be a 13 week program and will run from the first week of June through the last week of August.

           (There may be a second option of doing a mini-fall 8 week  CSA.)

      

      Pick up is available at our house in Arendtsville Fridays from 3-6pm, or at the Gettysburg Farmers’ Market on the square (Saturday mornings 7am-noon on the PUB quadrant.)  Please let us know what your preferred pick up location will be.

          All produce offerings will be grown by us.  Though we are not certified organic, we do use organically approved products in our fields.

           Fruits we have to offer this year are strawberries, black raspberries, watermelon and cantaloupe.

         Small share is geared for a 2-4 person household.  Large share is geared towards a 5-6 person household.

         Payments are appreciated by May 15^th.  Special consideration will be available for those wishing to do monthly payments.

         Every effort will be made to provide you with a nice variety (5-6 items) of high quality vegetables, herbs, (& fruits in season) each week.  Large shares will have the same number of items, just a larger portion of each.

         Our goal is customer satisfaction.  Please provide us with feedback on your experience at any time during the program.  If there are vegetables you don’t like, please let us know so we can make a substitute (pending availability.)  We grow 35-40 different kinds of produce throughout the year.  This should allow you to have a nice variety in your share.

        As a courtesy to our CSA members, we will offer you 10% off any additional purchases made while shopping with us at the Gettysburg Farmers’ Market.

       The total cost of a small “share” will be $275.00.  Large “shares” will cost $300.00

Gator-ing along

We are very fortunate to have not just one, but two "Gators" on our farm.  They are both true work horses.  The older one, purchased 12 years ago, does all of our "dirty work."  Anything that needs moved that is not food related gets hauled on this gator.  This includes firewood, shovels, rakes, chainsaws, gas cans, straw, etc.  It has 1,200 hours logged on the engine and still runs great.  We've had to replace the tires, not because they were worn out, rather they kept getting thorns in them from young locust trees.  Other than that, we've only had routine maintenance expenses.

After a lot of thinking, planning and number crunching, we decided it was in our best interest to purchase a second Gator.  Our newer Gator, purchased spring of 2014, only hauls produce harvested from the fields.  Therefore there is no chance of contamination to the produce.

We are very grateful for having both of these gators.  They save us a lot of time and work!

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The Market Season.....

As the end October came to a close, it marked the end of the market season for 2014.  No more 4:30 am wake up alarms, no more late nights the night before market tying up loose ends - washing, bagging, or weighing produce, no more lugging canopies, tables and crates of freshly harvested produce.

 And no more steady income..... 

 However, there is still a lot of work to be done on the farm.

The fields need cleaned up ... rows of plastic need gathered,  irrigation lines need taken up, fields need mowed, the strawberries need covered before freezing weather sets in, and, the entire irrigation system needs drained and the fertilizer injector needs removed and stored in the basement for the winter.  All of these jobs need to be done before the ground freezes.  

And, it's time to start planning for 2015.  The seed catalogs should start arriving in the mail boasting of new varieties to try, we have to figure out a crop rotation for the fields, and I am still hoping to get an annual rye cover crop established on the open ground.  There are still a few things in the field yet to harvest.

We have tomatoes, romaine lettuce, kale, red beets, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli growing in the high tunnels.  We are experimenting with growing the romaine over the winter.  If this winter is not as brutal as last winter, we should be able to have some most of the winter.  Our experiment is to see how long it will take to mature since the amount of daylight is much lower over the next few months than during the summer.

And while we will miss seeing our regular customers, it is nice to get a break from the demanding growing season.  However, we do look forward to seeing you again when we start our 2015 markets!