Have we got a treat for you!

These are the first potatoes of the summer.  (And how wonderful is this sun??) We dug them up this morning and into the Week 3 shares of the CSA they’ll go!  They’re a little larger than typical new potatoes but just as fresh and delicious.  The skin is delicate and thin, and doesn’t need to be peeled.  They make a wonderful potato salad.  Try tossing the potatoes in a pesto or basil vinaigrette made with the basil from your share!  And consider substituting shaved or finely chopped fennel in place of your normal celery!

If you’re feeling adventurous, try your hand at potato gnocchi.  We made it for the first time last week using this recipe, and topped it with summer squash, diced and then sautéed in brown butter.  It’s not difficult, but it does take some time.  We used one large baking potato and a handful of new potatoes and it was amazing.

This year we’re growing Red Pontiacs, Kennebecs, and Yukon Golds.  We’ll leave most of them in the ground till late summer, but we couldn’t resist digging up a few this week.  Try them!

Hi there!

Just popping in for a moment to remind y’all to pick up your CSA veggies this Wednesday and Saturday.  It’s Week 2!  The cucumbers, fennel, and eggplant are all beginning to come in — you should see at least one of those items in your share this week.

This rain doesn’t seem to be letting up, and we’ve lost some plants to the wet wet fields.  But the rest are looking great.  Remember that your shares will slowly increase in size over the next month or so.  Sometime in July, depending on the weather, the summer vegetables will be in in a big way!

Tomorrow morning we harvest for tomorrow afternoon’s CSA pick-ups.  Other work this week includes stringing tomato plants and weeding the carrots.  We’re glad for our mud boots for both these tasks!

I’d also like to point y’all to The People Who Feed Us, a lovely website with stories and short videos about small scale food producers and artisans.  We’re especially big fans of Nina Planck’s common sense approach to eating tradtional foods — the stuff people have been eating for a very long time, the stuff that tastes good and keeps you strong and healthy.  She’s profiled here.

It’s finally here! Week 1 of the CSA! This week’s share includes some or all of the following (depending on your share size): salad mix, lettuce heads, three varieties of summer squash, scallions, beets, basil, and Swiss chard.  Shares will be small but growing in size most weeks, until the veggies hit their stride in early to mid-July.  Shares should stay pretty large from then through the end of the season.

Are you already wondering what do do with all those vegetables??

Well! Fear not! We have lots of ideas for you. We’ll be posting recipes here on the blog regularly. We’re also hard at work setting up a Recipe Swap discussion board, so y’all can easily share what you’re doing with the vegetables every week. We hope to have that up and running within the next few days.

In the meantime, we’ve discovered a great resource over at Heather’s ‘Cooking Away My CSA’ Challenge.  If you keep a blog, you can join the Challenge by posting about your CSA-based creations once a week.  But even if you don’t, you can find loads of great resources and recipes on the “Cooking Away My CSA’ Google Group.

Leave a comment here to let us know what you did with your CSA veggies this week!  If you don’t, I’ll send Shannon after you.

Howdy again, everyone.  We’ve finalized the times for all the CSA pick-ups, and we sent an email about this earlier today.  It seems that for those shares with multiple email addresses, these group emails are only going to the first email address in the share.  We’re looking into that and will fix it as soon as possible, but in the meantime, we’re reposting that email here.

Thanks so much to all of you for your patience — the veggies are finally here, and we couldn’t be more ready!  And do start checking in here at the blog regularly; we’ve got some great stuff in store.

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Pick-Up Times for Frog Bottom Farm CSA
(copy of a June 9 email)

Hello, everyone!

The pick-up times for this year’s CSA have been finalized, and we really look forward to meeting everyone this week!

All Wednesday pick-ups (here at the farm, Lynchburg, Midlothian, Ginter Park, and Church Hill) will be from 4pm-7pm.  You can find links to directions for most of those sites here.  Folks picking up at the farm or in Lynchburg will receive a separate email shortly with directions.

All Saturday pick-ups will happen at our Richmond farmers markets.  Folks picking up at the Market at St. Stephen’s in the Near West End can pick up from 8am-noon, and folks picking up at the South of the James Market in Forest Hill can pick up from 8am-1pm.

Pick up times are strict.  We especially want to respect the time and other commitments of our CSA members who are hosting the pick-ups in Lynchburg, Midlothian, and Ginter Park.  If you know you can’t make it on a particular day, you are welcome to send a friend or neighbor to pick up for you.  And if you forget or just can’t make it, know that your share that week will be donated to a community organization that will see it gets to people who need some good food.  Please do not arrive at your pick-up spot after the designated time.

We’ve heard from almost everyone about pick-up locations, but if you haven’t let us know yet, please do that tonight.  Fill out the short form here: http://frogbottomfarm.com/csa-pick-up-sites/

Thanks, and we sincerely apologize for getting this information out so very late.  Y’all should not have had to wait this long for the information.

See you this week!

Howdy, all! I’m back from a two-week trip away (In May! Just as things are getting beautifully crazy here at the farm! I promise to stick around from this point forward.) and wanted to touch base with some CSA details. We sent out an email to all CSA members a little over two weeks ago, but we’ve heard from a handful of folks who didn’t get it. So, in the interest of making sure everyone is up to date, I’m reposting that email here on the blog. It would be a great help if you can email us (info AT frogbottomfarm DOT com) to let us know if you didn’t receive this as an email.

We’re also waiting to hear from a few of you about your pick up location. If you haven’t let us know yet, please fill out the short form here. And finally, if you haven’t paid your invoice yet via PayPal, we’d appreciate it if you can do that as soon as possible.

I think that covers things for the moment! We’ve got loads of farm stories to share, and will begin posting two or three times a week here. So check back!

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Details about the First Frog Bottom Farm CSA Veggie Pick Up
(copy of a May 17 email)

After an exciting — but also cold, wet, and long — spring here at Frog Bottom, we’re SO happy to be writing to tell you that your first vegetable delivery is just around the corner!

Things to know now:

An important change: the first delivery will be the second week in June, and the last delivery will be the first week in November. This is a one-week delay from what we’d planned, and it’s because of all the rain we got this spring. Ultimately we’ll be quite glad for it! But what it means in the short term is that our fields were too wet for us to begin planting on schedule, and so we’re a little behind. If you shop at any farmers markets, you may have noticed that fruits and veggies are just beginning to show up on farmers’ tables there as well. It’s very important to us that you get what you paid for — more than what you paid for, in fact! — and we know that final early November share will be MUCH bigger than what we could provide the first week in June.

Most of you know that our on-farm pick-up day is Wednesday, and that we do our CSA deliveries on Wednesdays and Saturdays. So, for you Wednesday folks, you’ll pick up your first share on June 10. Saturday folks will pick up their first share on June 13.

As a reminder, the sites are:

WEDNESDAYS (late afternoon/early evening — we’re still determining the exact pick-up times, but we’ll be sure there’s time to get there after work):

1. ON THE FARM! We’ll email directions to those of y’all who are picking up here.
2. LYNCHBURG: CSA member home on Mt. Olivet Church Road. We’ll email the exact address to you.
3. CHURCH HILL: Central Montessori School, 323 North 20th Street.
4. GINTER PARK: Ginter Park Presbyterian Church, 3601 Seminary Avenue.
5. MIDLOTHIAN: Journey Christian Church, 3505 Old Hundred Road S.

SATURDAYS

1. NEAR WEST END: St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 6000 Grove Avenue. 8am – noon.
2. FOREST HILL: South of the James Market, 42nd Street & Forest Hill Avenue. 8am – 1pm.

As we get the last details ironed out over the next three weeks, we need y’all to let us know where you’ll be picking up your shares. A handful of folks have told us in person, over email, or on their registration forms, but it would be a great help to us if EVERYONE could click on the link below to let us know your pick up site. Be careful to only send only one response per share or half share.

Let us know your pick up site here: http://frogbottomfarm.com/csa-pick-up-sites

Things to know when you pick up your share:

Our CSA pick ups are “market style” — this means your produce will be set out on the table in bins and bunches, along with signs letting you know how much to take of each item. We hope this will provide a little more choice on your end — you pick which kinds of tomatoes you prefer, for example, or you choose between collards and kale. We also hope it will mean a little more time to get to know one another. Each site will also have a “trade-in” spot on the table — that’s a spot where you can leave any items you don’t want, and take any items left by other members. This will give you some more choice each week as well, and will help avoid waste.

Please bring bags or bins for your produce. We will provide plastic bags but would prefer to keep waste to a minimum.

It’s fine to send a friend or neighbor to pick up your share if you can’t make it — you don’t even have to let us know ahead of time. Just ask them to check off your name on the member list!

While we strongly prefer that you pick up your share at the same location every week, we understand that some folks will take vacations, get sick, and so on. Those are situations where we DO need to hear from you ahead of time — please give us at least one week’s notice over phone or email, so we can be sure to get your share to the right spot.

If you miss a pick up one week, you can be assured it will go to folks who can use it. At each of our pick up sites we’re partnering with a community organization who will help get the veggies left at the end of the day to people who need it. We’ll let you know more about those partnerships as they’re formed — and also welcome any suggestions!

To know throughout the season:

We’ll be posting stories from the farm, photos, recipes, and information about what’s in your share on our farm blog every week. It’s a great place to learn more about the food you’re eating and how we grow it! We know that lots of you love to cook and we’re brainstorming about how to share your recipe ideas easily. We’ll probably have guest blog posts, and maybe we’ll put up a discussion board! Let us know if you’re interested in sharing recipes.

Follow us here: http://frogbottomfarm.com/blog

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Well … I think that’s it! We are SO thrilled to meet y’all, and so ready to get these veggies in our own bellies! If we’ve forgotten anything or if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to be in touch by phone or email.

Thanks!!