Looking forward to farm fresh vegetables on a snowy morning

Posted on March 21, 2017 by Connie

Looking out the window in the middle of March 2017 – this is what we see … a beautiful snowy day at the farm.

But it’s almost Spring, the days are lasting longer and we are dreaming of warmer days and the farm’s first early vegetables – asparagus, peas, young lettuces and tender radishes.

After the carb fest called Saint Patrick’s day (so tasty as our bodies crave carbs this time of year) we yearn for fresh vegetables and are frustrated; they aren’t especially fresh having been trucked in from Florida and Georgia and then sitting on grocery shelves a little too long. We’re hoping those of you who were members last year, managed to get a few items in your freezer to remind you of the deliciousness of farm fresh organic produce. I know when John and I open a container of my homemade garlic scape pesto or squash, pepper and tomato soup base we are transported back to the warmth & sunshine of last summer.

Healthy eating is a big benefit of CSA membership in our USDA certified organic farm and a primary reason for the creation of our CSA five years ago. We wanted to share farm fresh organic food with the local community. CSA means Community Supported Agriculture. Shareholders join before the start of the season so farmers can plan what & how much to grow – ordering seeds is a big project as there are many choices, and it helps with the cost of seeds and labor to get the season started. CSA members are later rewarded with the fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers of our labor. Our CSA is set up to run for 20 weeks beginning the week of June 7, 2017 (weather permitting) and ending in October. Two options are available – an Every Week Share for $650 and an Every Other Week Share for $450.00.

Members pick up their share at the on-farm market style distribution area, where that week’s produce, picked fresh for them at the peak of ripeness, is arrayed in bins for shareholders to select from. Each week’s produce is accompanied by recipes, nutritional information and preparation suggestions customized to that week’s unique share. An added bonus are Pick-Your-Own crops such as peas, cherry tomatoes and beans not to mention the beautiful flowers and aromatic herbs included with every CSA membership.

We carefully balance each weekly share to provide a variety of vegetables and field fruits to support a healthy diet for you and your family. You’ll receive coveted items such as asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb, corn, garlic scapes, delicate lettuces, juicy melons and a myriad of tomatoes. If you receive too much in one week, you can always freeze or can it for that distant winter day when you’re craving a summer treat.

Here are the specifics for Yellow Stonehouse Farm’s Spring/Summer CSA 2017

New shareholders are being accepted until the program is filled
Season runs from early June through October 2017
You select your preferred pick-up date: Wed., Thurs., or Friday from 3:00 pm to 6:30 pm or Saturdays from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
You can elect to “share” a share with another family. See details on shareholder application.
If you cannot pick up your share, you can make arrangements to pick up at another time or have someone else pick up for you — if you send us an email a few days in advance.

Stay warm and Happy Spring. I know that’s a contradiction … do enjoy this picture of Spring daffodils.

Best,

Connie

Looking foward to Spring

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Connie

Farming Matters March 11, 2017 Looking forward to Spring

A blog by Connie Adams – co-owner, with husband John, of Yellow Stonehouse Farm, an USDA Certified Organic Vegetable CSA located in Westfield, MA.

I hope this picture of our farm from last May helps ward off the persistant winter chill we are experiencing in New England this March. It’s unsatisfactory after the warm weather teased in February. It’s true what they say about New England weather – the only thing you can count on is it’s unpredicatability.

Thankfully, most farm activities this time of year happen in-doors. We’re getting ready for the growing season, deciding what to plant, laying out the rows and deciding where we are going to grow the different crops, figuring out how much of any one thing to grow, and studying dozens of catalogs to pick new and different, as well as tried and true, varieties of vegetables, flowers and herbs. We are even starting seeds for plants that have a long propogation time – like leeks and kohlrabi.

This is also the time of year for members to sign up for our Spring/Summer CSA. CSA members are the ones we are planting for, and we try very hard to make sure that we have enough variety to satisfy the most adventuresome of eaters. If there is a vegetable (or flower or herb) you would like us to grow for you as part of your membership, please email us to let us know.

Regarding Yellow Stonehouse Farm CSA memberships – we are delighted to welcome a number of new CSA members! Welcome all, we are very happy to have your join our farm family. We look forward to sharing the bounty of our harvest and the beauty of our farm with you and yours.

Many of these new CSA shareholders were referred to us by our present members – thanks to all for being so supportive. Providing the best experience possible to our members is our primary mission – and your recommendations validate our efforts.

For those considering 2017 CSA membership in our farm, we urge you to sign up soon. Some popular pick-up days (Wednesday and Saturday) are fast becoming fully subscribed, and we only have a fixed number of shares available.

Providing fresh, local, and USDA certified organic vegetables to the local community is something that John and I are both committed to – but it’s the CSA community that we’ve become a part of that makes the work so rewarding for us and our members. We look forward to expanding our farm family to include many more neighbors and friends from Westfield, Southampton, the Hill Towns and surrounding area during the upcoming 2017 season.

For more information call the farm at 413-562-2164 or email us at yellowstonehousefarmcsa@gmail.com. You can also get membership information and applciations at our website at www.yellowstonehousefarmcsa.com/

Answering your questions – why join Yellow Stonehouse Farm’s organic CSA

Posted on January 28, 2017 by Connie

1. CSAs connect consumers to local farmers and fresh food CSAs or Consumer Supported Agriculture, is a model for connecting consumers to local farms, originally started in nearby Great Barrington, MA in the 1980’s. CSAs offer consumers the opportunity to become shareholders in their local farm; in turn, the farm provides fresh, locally grown – and in Yellow Stonehouse Farm’s case – organic vegetables, in exchange for your membership.

2. CSAs are thrifty Yellow Stonehouse Farm’s CSA is a very good value. For about the price of dinner for two, or $33 a week, you receive a generous amount of organic produce of the highest quality, nutrition, and freshest flavor. Buying directly from the farm, instead of the grocer, skips the middleman, and gets you a better deal.

Yellow Stonehouse Farm is also an all-inclusive CSA – your membership entitles you a vegetable share plus access to the farm’s extensive cutting gardens, popular pick-your-own vegetable patches plus access to the back acreages extensive walking trails and picnic areas.

3. CSAs are healthy Joining a CSA improves your health by adding vegetable nutrition to your family’s diet on a consistent basis – plus cooking fresh vegetables eliminates many of the additives and extra ingredients of processed food. Locally grown vegetables are fresher and retain their nutrients versus produce transported thousands of miles. Organic farmers don’t use pesticides and chemical fertilizers, not to mention organic food tastes better and has more nutrients since they are grown in healthy soils.

4. CSAs are friendly Perhaps one of the best things about joining a CSA is the wonderful community you become a member of – sharing a love of food, nature, and cooking. Belonging to Yellow Stonehouse Farm’s CSA is fun! We encourage everyone to engage with the farm by picking vegetables and flowers and experiencing the beauty of nature; we have community events such as potlucks and harvest celebrations; we have members who are photographers, bird watchers, herbalists and walkers; experienced cooks and those who are just learning. You’ll get delicious recipes to prepare your vegetables and you’ll get to know your farmer’s face to face, who are happy to see you and to answer any questions you may have.

5. CSAs are green Community supported agriculture encourages non-polluting farming practices such as organic growing methods. This type of farming also minimizes food waste by producing just the amount of food members need, with minimal unused surplus – and any surplus we have is donated to charitable food pantries and kitchens. Supporting your local farm also helps to conserve the land, agricultural heritage and beautiful natural resources of a historic farming legacy in Westfield.

6. CSAs are a win-win For both CSA members and farmers! As a shareholder, members are entitled to a wide variety of nutritious, freshly picked vegetables over an extended season (June – October) at an affordable price. For the farmer, knowing how many people to grow for permits efficient planning, seed ordering and harvest scheduling. All of this helps sustain the farm as an agricultural enterprise so that future generations will also be able to enjoy fresh, locally grown food!

Farm 2017 goals & pledges

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Connie

John and I just finished the first 2017 share distribution consisting of many root vegetables plus several recipes. A Yellow Stonehouse Farm CSA member, Melissa, made my coq aux vin recipe & posted a terrific picture of the dish on our Facebook page – see picture left. We are lucky – our CSA has many supporters & involved members – which brings me to our farm goals for 2017.

The foundation of our farm goals for 2017 is gratitude – which we will express by showing gratitude and returning kindness to members and supporters. We have much to be thankful for and will keep this top of mind in 2017 – and demonstrate by doubling down on appreciation for our members! So – Melissa, thank you for making the recipe and sharing it with us.

We also are excited and thankful to the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAP) for awarding us a matching enterprise grant of $10,000 for barn repairs and improvements. Not only are they helping us repair our 1840’s timber built barn, they are providing us with technical farm planning assistance.

Food trends are important to us so we were fascinated to see 2017 being touted as “vegetable-centric” and featured by many chefs, restaurants and cookbooks. Multi-colored vegetables are a big trend, with radishes usurping kale as the new favorite and squashes becoming the new favorite staple! All reasons for us to feel rather smug as last summer we anticipated these trends by growing many radishes, lots of colored vegetables and many types of squash – which we plan to duplicate in 2017!

Two more 2017 themes are Nourish and Nurture — realized through recipes encouraging health & wellness through food & herbalism. This is a labor of love, combining many interests and simultaneously enhancing the membership experience for the farm’s shareholders. We’re going to provide seasonal herbs as well along with information on health benefits and daily use as part of a healthy diet.

As an organic farm, we’re environmentally focused, and realize 2016’s drought was partly a result of the changing climate. In response, we have decided to become advocates for the protection of a scarce and precious resource – water. We are fortunate to have ample and accessible water – however, this can change anytime – so we’ll assert ourselves as stewards of these vulnerable resources. Westfield’s own water troubles are a red flag and we will be vigilant to protect the farm against contamination, pollution and climate impacts.

New research shows that organic farming – through crop diversity, cover cropping and low till practices – is one of the best ways agriculture can counter lack of rainfall versus monoculture’s susceptibility to drought. We will continue learning best practices to ensure our crops stay bountiful, delicious and healthy – despite droughts and other adverse conditions. And because we take our job of providing local organic food to our neighbors and members seriously, we plan to implement new ways of providing vegetables to more CSA members in 2017.

Finally, we pledge to share our farm – and the chance to relax and enjoy the lovely fields, hills and dales, smell the newly turned soil and mowed grass, watch the bees, birds & butterflies, revel in the beauty of the flowers, grasses and trees, and taste a freshly picked tomato or snap pea. We invite you to slow down and be mindful of the miracle of our planet, the farm’s place on it and how wonderfully amazing nature is.

Practicing mindfulness – being aware of your thoughts, emotions, & experiences on a moment-to-moment basis – is something you can do anywhere, but we invite you to do so here, at Yellow Stonehouse Farm.

Thanksgiving Thoughts & Thanks

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Connie

Farming Matters Blog November 22, 2016

Thanksgiving thoughts & thanks from the farm

John and I just finished distributing this year’s Thanksgiving Feast. It’s such fun to hand out tons of produce and watch a member’s face light up she sees her favorite squash or root vegetable in the bins. This year we were very fortunate to be able to provide 18 different items – everything from acorn squash, apples, yellow & boiling onions (gotta love those creamed onions), HUGE butternut squash, Brussel’s sprouts, carrots, cranberries, garlic, horseradish, parsnips, shallots, sweet potatoes and turnips!

We also sold Thanksgiving feast baskets to a few new farm friends – who seemed very happy with their basket’s variety & amount of vegetables as well as the special touches like YSF’s special Thanksgiving book of twelve recipes, YSF’s custom poultry seasoning, and the heirloom Howe’s cranberries.

Here’s a picture of the basket we gave out.

We have a lot to be thankful for at the Yellow Stonehouse farm:

We are thankful to farm beautiful, fertile land blessed with abundant water. We are thankful we could successfully sow & reap an abundance of vegetables this summer despite the drought.
We are thankful that John’s family were such great stewards of the farm. They made sure the farm continued as an agricultural enterprise and not developed, a practice we are privileged to continue today.
We are thankful for the children who come to the farm – it is a delight to positively impact the next generation. We love the adorable antics of babies & children, which is surely helping to keep us young.
We are thankful to have settled full-time on the farm – where we are engaged & productive; continuously learning new things while giving back to our community – all things that give meaning to our lives.
We are thankful to have so many wonderful members of the farm, who share their pleasure in the farm with us and make our work so rewarding. Your membership is what makes this all work.

Happy Thanksgiving to all from your organic farm & CSA – Yellow Stonehouse Farm and your farmers – John & Connie

Dressing up as a farmer

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Connie

Dressing up as a farmer for Halloween

Today is Halloween – amazing what a big event it’s become.

It’s a great excuse to dress up as your favorite character – whether it’s a super hero or future vocation. I expect we’ll see a few of each tonight – superman, wonder woman, fireman, ballerina, various celebrities and sports figures. And it’s not just the kids who get into dressing up – as I can attest to after attending a costume party last weekend and dressing up as a 1920’s flapper – great fun!

What I don’t expect to see is a child dressed up as a farmer – much to my sorrow. I don’t know many kids today who want to be a farmer when they grow up – or parents who chose farming as a career for their children. This is a problem for us all – especially in New England where we are losing our family farms at an alarming rate. If the farms disappear and there aren’t any new, young farmers who want to get into the business – who is going to grow our food in the future?

One of the major barriers to entering farming, is the cost of acquiring the farm. Very low commodity prices also make it hard to earn a decent living to support a family on farms less than 1000 acres. Not to mention the physical hard work farming requires – not attractive to many nowadays – though our physical health might benefit. A more recent problem is the industrialization of farming dependent on expensive chemicals and GMO seed that lock farmers into methods of farming susceptible to plant diseases and invasive insects. Changing weather patterns make our lovely temperate New England climate dryer and hotter – increasing the risk and cost of farming even more, and pushing more farmers out of business.

A positive farming trend is the growth of CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) which connects community members and local farms. Community members buy shares in their local farm for a set price and then enjoy the bounty of the farm for a season: The Summer Share from June to October and/or the Winter Share from November to February. CSA’s work by providing the farmer with a reasonable & reliable income source and the ability to plan how much to grow based on the number of members, and in turn provides shareholders with reasonably priced, delicious, abundant, fresh, and in our case, certified organic produce. Yellow Stonehouse Farm is Hamden County’s only USDA Certified organic CSA and has a growing membership in Westfield and the surrounding area in the Pioneer Valley.

An organic CSA is our way to keep Yellow Stonehouse Farm an agricultural property so we don’t have to cash it in for commercial development. We also are more resistant to drought, pests, and diseases and importantly, we aren’t afraid of poisoning ourselves, the local flora and fauna, or our shareholders with pesticides and harmful chemicals. Kids picking cherry tomatoes can sample them off the vine in the field without worry!

There are other less tangible benefits of CSAs. First, many of our shareholders have children and we are exposing those children to the farm, our joy in sustainable farming, and the glories of nature. Maybe we can inspire a child or two to consider farming as a future career. Second, we are working hard to establish the farm as a self-sustaining business. Capable of earning enough income to support a farm family – so that someday, we can sell the farm to a new farm family and make sure the farm stays a farm.

In the meantime, maybe one of our trick-or-treaters will come dressed up as a farmer.

If you’d like to get your own Winter CSA Share so you can enjoy our certified organic produce, we have a few remaining winter shares available. Check out our website at www.yellowstonehousefarmcsa.com/ Call us at 413-562-2164 or email us at yellowstonehousefarmcsa@yahoo.com

The Lovely Month of June

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Connie

June is when I celebrate my birthday and also when Summer starts – so of course, June is a favorite month of mine! You can’t blame me – there are the fabulous flowers of June: irises (my favorite!), peonies, roses and wisteria (which unfortunately didn’t bloom well this year due to that nasty freeze in March); Spring fruits: strawberries and rhubarb for sauces and pies (which can replace birthday cake anytime for me); and the first luscious vegetables: asparagus, tender lettuces, sweet peas and the mint the flourishes at just the right time, along with the spicy radishes that add a special crunch to salads.

For our CSA members in June, we also grow bok choi aka Chinese cabbage, dandelion greens, Spring turnips, kohlrabi (which didn’t make it due to a great wave of flea beetles, we think because of the warm winter), kale, mizuna and Spring raab (bitter greens that are so good for us), Swiss chard, and tatsoi – a type of oriental spinach.

What’s interesting to me, is most of these vegetables are packed with nutrients we all need to stay healthy. Take rhubarb, for instance – did you know that it’s been used medicinally for thousands of years? Folklore credits Benjamin Franklin for first importing rhubarb to America in the 1700’s, but it originated in Asia over 5000 years ago. Its’ roots and rhizomes were used in Chinese medicine to treat everything from liver complaints to senility. More recently, rhubarb’s beneficial qualities have been validated by modern science who’ve found a slew of compounds that may prevent and fight cancer & senility, anti-oxidants, anti-inflammatories, vitamins such as C, K, and B-complex plus the minerals calcium, potassium and manganese.

This brings me to an idea that at first may not seem appetizing – food as medicine! My herbalism teacher Jade Alicandro Mace, of Milk & Honey Herbs, recently introduced me to the concept that what we eat not only provides us our day to day sustenance, but can also actively support our good health. I am so enthusiastic about this idea. In future columns, I plan to start introducing some of the power house vegetables that we can all eat to protect and improve our health!

We still have a couple EOW shares available for a couple of pick-up days even though the season has started! Please call us or stop by the farm Tuesday through Saturday.

The Summer Season is Starting!

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Connie

Now the fun begins! We start distributing vegetable shares this week to our many members – both new & old. We are working hard to gather vegetables, make the distribution area sparkle, fine-tune just the right recipes, and generally get ready for our members to come to the farm. We can’t wait to see everyone.

Every CSA is a little bit different….at Yellow Stonehouse Farm’s CSA, we are trying to accomplish several goals in addition to providing really fresh and delicious organic produce. As I’ve written before, we are trying to keep the farm a farm in perpetuity. There’s a lot of reasons for this – the primary one being that America is losing family farms at an alarming rate, and we think small farms are better for the planet than industrial farms. Plus, we think our farm is a particularly beautiful and productive farm: we have great soil, plentiful water, a healthy and robust ecosystem, gorgeous fields and a consistent breeze, all isolated from other farms protecting us from diseases and pests. Quite frankly, this farm is so perfect for farming it would be a crime to sacrifice it to any other use!

But it’s the members that make our CSA work. CSA members are the lifeblood of the whole thing – helping us make the farm successful by joining our farm and sharing our farming enterprise. Our members share our goals – they want to support local farming, to know where their food comes from – and who is growing it.

Our members encourage us! It is so rewarding to grow for others and see the joy it provides: the small child tasting young peas for the first time or picking a juicy cherry tomato in the sunny fields; the oncology patient eating organic vegetables as part of their treatment; the member who just loves getting his hands in the dirt, weeding, as he picks beans; the member who shares her favorite recipe and brings in a sample for all to taste! Members provide us feedback, give us new ideas, and let us know when we get it right (and wrong) so that we can improve. So thank you YSF CSA members – see you soon!

Why CSAs are so Great!

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Connie

CSA or Consumer Supported Agriculture, a model for connecting consumers to local farms, originally started in nearby Great Barrington, MA in the 1980’s. CSAs invite consumers to share the risks and rewards of their local farm who in turn provides fresh, and in our case, organically grown vegetables in exchange for an upfront membership pledge & payment.

CSAs are truly a win-win arrangement for both consumers and farmers! Consumers conveniently obtain a wide variety of freshly picked vegetables over an extended season (June – October) at an affordable price, know where their produce is coming from and how it was raised; while the farmer knows how much to grow to deliver the right amount directly to her customers, while cutting out the middleman to make a reasonable profit! This allows the farm to continue being a farm – rather than becoming just another tract of houses!

Today, there are over 13,000 CSAs nationwide which has led to a resurgence of small family owned farms throughout North America, reversing a decades long trend of decreasing farm ownership. CSAs also lead as producers of more nutritious, organic and sustainably raised food, as opposed to industrially raised food lower in nutrients and laden with pesticides and insecticides.

Yellow Stonehouse Farm CSA members not only receive an abundant share of many types of vegetables (we may have over 15 different items in a share) they also get access to the farms Pick Your Own (PYO) vegetable, flower and herb gardens. This includes vegetables such as peas, cherry tomatoes, beans, flowers, and herbs such as basil and parsley! We also grow garlic, ginger, turmeric & horseradish as part of our healthy food activities.

Some CSAs provide additional benefits. At Yellow Stonehouse Farm, for example, we find that connecting families & children with the land, demonstrating how food is grown and how delicious it is when it’s really fresh, is an important part of our mission. We host school groups for on-farm learning and lead nature walks to our certified Vernal Pool and Turtle Nesting area. We also make sure our members know what to do with all the different vegetables they receive by providing weekly recipes.

We still have a few Every Other Week Shares available for most pick-up days – but the sign-up period is closing soon. Please call us or stop by the farm Tuesday through Saturday. We also are selling fresh organic Asparagus!

On Being Organic – What it takes to get USDA Certified Organic

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Connie

In the last two columns I’ve laid out the reasons why Yellow Stonehouse Farm became a USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Certified Organic Farm and CSA. This week I’m writing about what it takes to become certified! You see, being USDA Certified Organic is a lot more than just saying your farm is organic.

To become USDA certified Organic, farms have to prove they have been following organic practices for 3 years. For that entire time, we had to maintain records on everything purchased and used at the farm as evidence it was either approved by the USDA or certified organic itself (i.e. seeds, compost, fertilizers, etc.), so that our crops in turn could become a certified organic product. In order for our vegetables to be organic, our entire supply chain has to be organic. Then – to get the certification – we have to complete a series of forms and affidavits attesting that our operation conforms to USDA organic regulations and prove everything we used was organic, and finally, submit to an examination by a “Certifier”, in our case Baystate Organic Certifiers.

If you think this sounds like a paperwork nightmare, you’re right! Becoming USDA Certified Organic is a painstaking process, requiring detailed paperwork and bookkeeping on top of working to find organic suppliers, and not using chemical short cuts to increase productivity (herbicides) and eliminate pests and disease (pesticides and fungicides).

Perhaps the most exasperating component of the process is the fee to become certified! In addition to the many hours of labor required for documentation and filing (which we figure is worth around $2000.00), we also had to pay an initial certification fee of over $1000.00 and then an annual re-certification fee every year thereafter. Isn’t it ironic that the farmers using healthy and sustainable practices have to pay a fee – while those who are using pesticides, insecticides and farm without regard for sustainability, don’t have to pay anything.

Despite the cost and time, being USDA Certified Organic is something we are proud of. Our certification provides our customers confidence that the vegetables we grow meet a set of organic criteria confirmed by an outside agency. We want a farm safe for us, our workers, members and the bees, butterflies, birds and animals we share the land with. We think the USDA Organic certification process provides the assurance that our vegetables are safe and healthy – not to mention delicious.

Yellow Stonehouse Farm CSA

Coexisting Harmoniously with the Native Wildlife

Tag Archives: csa

Thanksgiving Thoughts & Thanks

Dressing up as a farmer

The Lovely Month of June

The Summer Season is Starting!