From our Friends at Blackberry Meadows Farm:
Farm Journal 1/1/23
In the midst of winter are you thinking about fresh vegetables? We are! The seed catalogs arrive on a daily basis – tempting us with future bounty! CSA sign ups are open for 2023! There will be early bird discounts and then we’ll bump up the price a tad. Don’t forget that we do take SNAP benefits for CSA memberships, and for veggies, meats, canned goods, and seedlings.
Garden Share sign up began on January 1st as well. We encourage more and more folks to dabble in a bit of backyard (or front porch) gardening. Grow some cherry tomatoes, try your hand at string beans and peas! The garden share helps you along on a monthly basis to plant a CSA’s worth of veggies all on your own!
Join our Sausage of the Month Club!
Sausage Stuffer Shares are available for 5 months, running December through April. Get the best deal around on a monthly delivery* of 8 pounds of Sausage (4 pounds) and Bacon (4 pounds) with over 15 flavors and styles provided!
Also – we have a new sausage in town! Try out the Cheddarwurst – the classic bratwurst with added cheese!
We’ve opened up for Half Hog Orders! If you’re in the need to stock a freezer – this is the most economical way to go! We’ll help you sort out how to get the most of your money and maximize the use of the “whole (half) of a hog! Half hogs now available for $4.50/pound hanging weight, plus you’ll pay the custom butcher fee from Cunninghams Meats. Our half hogs usually weigh in at 100 – 130 pounds. Typically you’ll get about 90% of your cut weight back from the butcher if you receive the bones (5ish pounds), fat (15ish pounds) and organs, otherwise expect 70% of the hanging weight. We’ll contact you with a form to fill out for your desired cuts.
How to Find Us
• The Farm: For pre-orders only. Wednesdays (3pm – 7pm). Park at the top of the hill, come to the patio at the house and you’ll see your order waiting for you. Check the white cooler for any meat orders.
• Delivery to City – MINIMUM ORDER OF $30, please.
• Northside – Saturdays 11am – 11:15am – meet up across the street from Mayfly Market (Arch St)
• East End – Saturday 4:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Fireman Creative Office (the Engine House No 16 on Penn Ave.): pull onto sidewalk along Lang and look for “Police Officer Entrance” door and look in the red cooler.
We wish you all a Happy New Year!
Greg and I have made a resolution this winter to streamline our operations and work towards creating a community owned and operated farm in the coming years. To this end, we’re getting help from friends, farmers, businesses, and non-profits to improve our bookkeeping, SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), communications, operations (and more); with the intent to clearly communicate to future employees/co-op owners on how this behemoth of a nutrient dense, food producing, farm/eco-system operates smoothly and profitably.
For now – this is great. We’re clearing up old piles of paperwork, recycling old seed catalogs, and discovering old photos of farm adventures from way-back-when. We’ve started using software to create to-do lists for each other, which will help with our reoccurring schedules year after year (like, when to place monthly chick orders, or when to replace new air and oil filters in the tractors). Even if it’s an App, we’re hoping that having a third party there reminding us of the daily tasks will keep us from dropping any (or as many…) balls.
The True Test will come in August, when we’re up to our eyeballs in to-do’s, with limited time, resources, and energy….. will we keep up? Will we burn out? We’ve ridden this seasonal cycle for around 15 years now and know what to expect. Good record keeping, good communication, empathy, compassion and tenacity will see us through! Of course, our support group for the farm is enormous – our parents, friends, and neighbors; lovely CSA members, regular market customers, and work-share members; we appreciate you all and can’t wait to show you what we’re doing in 2023!
Well… here’s to a 2023 full of abundance, peace, and a little extra time to sit down!
