2008 Cost and Information

 

-Old Growth-

Jon Navota & Keith Uridel

Tailored Heritage Produce

 

Our Promise

We will provide our shareholders with high quality vegetables and fruits that we grow from heirloom varieties known for their exquisite flavor.   We will never use genetically modified seed stock, petrochemical pesticides, or chemical fertilizers on any of our food-growing garden beds. 

 

What is a Share

A share in this CSA is more than just vegetables and fruits.  A share of Old Growth also means a share of the effort and reward in maintaining our agricultural heritage.  The majority of the varieties we have selected to grow can not be purchased locally, even at the Farmer’s Market.  Many of these varieties are close to being lost.  As you eat them, they nourish your body, as well as your connection to your ancestors.  Having a share is an active way to stop the accelerating loss of our agricultural genetic diversity.

 

What’s in a Share

A share in Old Growth will be comprised of veggies and fruits that run the gamut of our Indiana growing season, in a proportion that reflects the interest shown in the surveys.  Springtime shares will of course be very green, with splashes of color from root crops.  The majority of the springtime share will be lettuces (of which we are growing 6 different “types”, with many varieties within a type), with bunches of tender kales, spinaches, Asian greens (non-spicy), scallions, broccolis, carrots, crisp radishes and beets.  As summer comes in, the face of your share will blush ripe with the coming of the harvest: tomatoes, early potatoes, cukes, onions (sweet yellow), garlic, green beans (French and Roma), chard, Batavian lettuce, collards, sweet red peppers, and the summer herbs such as sweet Genovese basil.  These will later be joined by red raspberries, sweet blackberries, potatoes (5 different types), sweet potatoes (orange, yellow, red), melons and more.

  

How it Works

The cost of a share averages out to $25 a week, with an estimated 22 harvest weeks, for a season cost of $550.  We are asking shareholders to pay this amount in three installments:  a first upfront payment of $200 (due in early February), followed by a second payment in June ($175) and a final payment in August ($175). 

 

A Shared Commitment

When you become part of the CSA, you dedicate yourself to supporting us as growers, providing us a secure market and a welcome measure of certainty.  We, in turn, dedicate ourselves to being your growers, providing you with nutritious, heirloom vegetables and fruits. 

 

Shared Risk and Shared Reward

We will always strive to bring you a diverse and delicious share each week, but Nature guarantees nothing when it comes to growing.  Some crops have hard years, some pest’s rampage, and it has snowed here in June.  One of the premises of a Community Supported Agriculture program is that the shareholder shares, through the harvest, the growers’ experience of nature’s blessings and mischief.  But don’t worry too much, because we as growers have been through VERY BAD years and between us have over 50 years of experience.  We know how to cope (though we don’t look forward to it) with much of what nature can throw at us.  We plant and plan diversely, and rely on that diversity to help us with nature’s vagaries.

 

No Chemicals

We will not use petrochemical herbicides, fertilizers, or anything else synthetically derived.  We will also refrain from using potent, broad-spectrum botanicals such as rotenone, which is known to cause toxicity in humans.  We will use things like neem oil (squeezed from a seed, used as a repellent) and Surround (potters clay) to deter pests, as well as using intensive crop rotations.  Kelp meal, rock powders, and composted manures comprise our fertilizers. 

 

How to Get Your Share

Right now, we are planning on Wednesdays as the pick-up day, and the location will be at Bloomingfoods East around 11AM (time to be set).  We will also drop to a house on the East side of Bloomington if at least three shareholders will pick-up at that house.  Evening pickup at our farm is also welcome.

 

To Sign Up: