Red Earth Farm

~~Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania~~

Offering local produce grown with organic methods

Michael Ahlert, Farmer
More than a Decade of Experience Growing Organic Produce in Pennsylvania
and
Charis Lindrooth
Herbalist and Farmer's Wife, growing culinary and medicinal herbs and flowers.

Membership includes the following benefits:

• Food grown without the use of synthetic chemicals or fertilizers
• Option to select your weekly produce items online
• A wide variety of garden vegetables from early-June to early-November including many heirloom and specialty varieties
• Full Shares or Partial Shares
• Potluck suppers, including the Harvest Barn Dance at the farm
• September Harvest Dance at the Farm
• Newsletters from the farm include information about nutrition, our growing practices, recipes, and updates on upcoming events.
• Optional Fruit Share - alternate week delivery
• Optional Egg Share - alternate week delivery
• Optional Herb Share - alternate week delivery
• Optional Yogurt Share - alternate week delivery
• Other locally produced food items through our Buying Club option

Season:

Cost:

If farm pickup - $525 Full Share, $380 Partial Share

Delivery to locations in Philadelphia:

• Chestnut Hill - Thursday
• Fairmount - Tuesday
• Mount Airy - Thursday
• Queen Village - Tuesday
• Rittenhouse Square - Tuesday
• Roxborough - Thursday
• West Philly - Tuesday

Also deliveries to the following areas:

• Ardmore - Thursday
• Bethlehem - Tuesday
• Bryn Athyn - Tuesday
• Emmaus - Tuesday
• Havertown - Thursday
• Kempton - Tuesday
• Kutztown - Tuesday
• Media - Thursday
• Reading - Thursday
• Swarthmore - Thursday
• Wallingford - Thursday
• West Chester - Saturday
• Wynnewood - Thursday

Or you can pick up your share at the farm:

• Red Earth Farm, Orwigsburg - Tuesday

More About Red Earth Farm

Red Earth Farm is family owned and operated by myself, Michael Ahlert and my wife Charis Lindrooth. Our farm is located near Hawk Mountain in Schuylkill County PA. We are dedicated to bringing our members the freshest chemical-free produce to your table. We never use synthetic, artificial, or chemical substances in our farming practice. Our CSA offers you the opportunity to CHOOSE your produce weekly online from our website

Our CSA provides the opportunity for you to experience local foods as they come into season. Each vegetable, fruit, and herb that comes to your table at its peak of flavor and nutritional value. Seasonal foods bring a natural variation to the diet and establish a rhythm in our eating habits.

We want to meet as many of our members as possible. We believe in the Community part of CSA and feel that making personal connections around this good food is as important as the food itself. We will hold several potluck meals in order to give our members an opportunity to see the farm that produces their food and the faces of those who plant and harvest it. We take great reward from meeting those we are feeding and having the opportunity to put a face on the names.

CSA DETAILS

THE SEASON:

Our CSA season runs for 23 weeks from June into November.

SHARE SIZES:

We offer two share sizes. A Full Share is ten items every week for the 23-week season. A Partial Share is six items every week for the same duration. An item may be a large head of lettuce, a quart of tomatoes, a pint of sugold cherry tomatoes, 3-4 eggplants, or 3-4 large bell peppers. A Full Share is suggested to feed 3-4 people and a Partial Share to feed 2-3. The number of people that can be fed depends greatly however on the amount of produce a family is accustomed to eating.

BOXES:

We pack our produce in waxed cardboard bushel boxes. These cost more than a dollar each so we ask that you return your box each week to your site host for reuse.

STARTUP:

Several weeks before the season begins we will contact you by e-mail with pickup instructions including the finalized pickup time and the exact location of your site. We can arrange other drop off points if they would each serve at least 12 members and are within a reasonable distance of an existing delivery route. Contact if you are interested in hosting a new delivery site in 2010.

OTHER LOCAL FARM PRODUCTS AVAILABLE THROUGH OUR CSA

In addition to our produce share, you can also select a fruit share, an egg share, and order other items - such as local cheese, honey, and extra produce through our Buying Club option. The fruit and egg share are a fixed quantity. The other items you can order what you need. All these items are produced on neighboring farms and are available to both Full Share and Partial Share members. You must order a Full or Partial share if you want the fruit, egg, herb, or yogurt share.

Fruit Share:

A fruit share is freshly picked fruit and cider delivered every other week through the CSA season for a total of 11 deliveries. As the season progresses, members will receive a strawberries, cherries apricots, peaches, plums, apples and pears. Members will also receive fresh pressed cider during the fall months. The fruit is grown with integrated pest management techniques; some organic fruit is available.

Herb Share:

This share offers a variety of fresh culinary and medicinal herbs, delicious herbal honey, organic herbal vinegar and Echinacea tincture, delivery semiweekly.

Egg Share:

In an egg share you will get a dozen free-range brown eggs, every other week throughout the CSA season, 12 dozen in all. The eggs are from pastured chickens raised on Red Earth Farm.

Yogurt Share:

Two quarts for 10 weeks of whole milk yogurt from grass-fed cows, no hormones, no antibiotics. Choose from Variety (10 assorted flavors) or Plain - yogurt from Pequea Valley Farm.

Buying Club:

Members will also have the opportunity to join our buying club and order online. A minimum $25 deposit toward your first purchase is required to open your buying club account. The buying club offers locally made cheeses, eggs, yogurt, honey, and grass-fed meats produced on neighborhing farms.

Coolers will be provided to site hosts to store egg shares and Buying Club orders on pick-up days.

CSA Costs

• Full Share: $575.00 for ten items for 23 weeks
• Partial Share: $415.00 for six items for 23 weeks
• Fruit Share: $115.00 - delivered every other week (total of 11 weeks)
• Egg Share: $42.00 - delivered every other week (total of 12 weeks
• Herb Share: $60 - delivered every other week (total of 11 weeks)
• Yogurt Share: $95 - two quarts delivered every other week for 10 weeks, choose plain or variety

OUR CROPS

Red Earth Farm grows a wide variety of crops, shown in the table below. Items should be available periodically during the season but not throughout. Members can go to our farmtocity.org web page to select 10 items (Full Share) or 6 items (Partial Share) for each delivery from those ready for harvest.

Vegetables - All grown using organic methods and materials
Arugula	Asian greens	Beans
Bok Choi	Broccoli	Carrots
Cauliflower	Celery	Collards
Cucumbers	Eggplant, black and Asian	Garlic
Kale, curly, Lacinato, and red	Leeks	Lettuce, all season
Napa cabbage	Onions	Peas
Peppers – red and green bell, var. hot	Potatoes – red, white, Yukon Gold	Pumpkins
Radishes	Red and green cabbages	Red beets
Salad mix	Spicy mix	Spinach
Sweet potatoes	Swiss chard	Tomatoes, slicers, cheery, heirlooms
Turnips	Winter squash	Zucchini and summer squash
Herbs - All grown using organic methods and materials
Basil	Cilantro	Oregano
Summer Savory	Parsley	Rosemary
Sage

QUESTIONS?

Contact Farm to City:



last updated: 2/16/10 0:14 bp