Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Early Bird Savings For CSA Sign Ups & A New Recipe To Try!

SIGN UP FOR THE 2023 CSA HAS BEGUN!

Early Bird Savings for January & February Sign Ups.

Download, print, fill out, and email or mail your agreement to the farm. richsiwveggies@gmail.com

Full Share $875.00/Half Share is $480.00.

Please note there is a 3% service fee for PayPal, credit card, and Venmo payments

CSA Full Share Payment in January or February - Click Here

CSA Half Share Payment in January or February - Click Here
(please note there is a 3% service fee for PayPal, credit cards, and Venmo)

Checks can be mailed to the address below.

SIW Vegetables, 4311 S. Creek Rd, Chadds Ford, PA 19317

January or February Payment

Please submit $901.25 for Full Share or $494.40 for a Half Share

if using Venmo to account for the service fees. Please put your name and email address in the notes so we can contact you. Thank you!

CSA Agreement

SIW Bucks

If you aren't quite prepared to pull the trigger on a CSA share (but you should try even a half share!) or would like to save some dough on other purchases throughout the season, SIW Bucks are for you.

Here's how it works...

You pay in advance for the products you purchase which helps our Farmer pay for the seeds and preparations for the season. For this prepayment you receive 10% off your purchases! It's a win-win for all. You can sign up at any time! $400 is the minimum amount to participate, however you can send more if you wish.

Questions? email us or call: richsiwveggies@gmail.com 610-388-7491

Download, print, fill out, and email or deliver your agreement to the farm.

Please mail your agreement to:

Hill Girt Farm

4311 S. Creek Road

Chadds Ford, PA 19317

PAYPAL LINK - Pay for SIW Bucks

(Note there is a 3% service fee for PayPal, credit cards, and Venmo)

Checks can be mailed to the address above.

Please submit $412.00 if using Venmo to account for the service fees. Thank you!

Please note your phone number and email address in the notes in case we need to reach you.

SIW Bucks Agreement

Try Some New Recipes

We have 2 great ways to find new ways to cook all of the veggies you will be getting at the stand!

Our SIW Recipe Group on Facebook is an interactive place where friends post what they are inspired to cook from the stand.

Our new recipe page, right here on our website, will provide new ideas for preparing vegetables from our farm.

Both are great ways to introduce you to new creations and hopefully inspire you to try new vegetables that you may not normally prepare.

Here is a recipe shared by Chef Justin Rumsey, of the Millstone Cafe at the Brandywine River Museum of Art.

Eggplant Ragout

serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 pound heirloom baby eggplants

½ (8 ounces) large eggplant, peeled

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 shallots, peeled and quartered

2 Fresh Bell Peppers, red or green

1 cup olive oil, divided

¼ cup red wine

14 ounces fresh tomatoes

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons basil leaves, chiffonade

1 tablespoon parsley leaves, chiffonade

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Slice the heirloom baby eggplants into ½-inch-thick coins, and then roughly chop the large eggplant. Place the peeled eggplant in a food processor along with the garlic, peppers and shallots, and purée until smooth.

In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add ¼ cup of the olive oil. Once the olive oil is hot and the pan is just below smoking, add the coins of baby eggplant. Sear cut-sides down until deep golden brown, 5 minutes on each side. Remove from the heat and reserve for later use.

In the same sauté pan, heat ½ cup of the olive oil over low heat, add the eggplant purée and sweat until all the moisture has evaporated, 15 to 18 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and simmer until the wine has completely reduced, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the tomatoes and break up the large tomato chunks with a wooden spoon. Mix in the reserved seared eggplant, lemon juice and honey, and simmer for another 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the chiffonade of basil and parsley, the remaining ¼ cup of olive oil, and season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

It's Time for 2023 CSA Sign Ups!

If you have never been a part of our CSA you need to read this! We operate a little

differently than other CSAs.

What is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)? Historically, CSA’s charged you money in the winter and gave you whatever they had (their choice) every week throughout the growing season. In addition, members had to work a certain number of hours on the farm to share in the experience. This helped to educate the members about what it takes to produce their vegetables and why some crops failed and others didn’t. It also helped the farmer to get some work done too! Some people even like

that kind of thing! We the people are much lazier now though some CSA’s still require 50-100 hrs a year of labor. We don’t.

We do charge you in the winter and we do give you stuff in the summer. That is where we part paths with the Fundamentalists. We don’t require you to work on the farm in the summer though we would welcome you with open arms. Summer camp for the kids? Ha! I encourage you to at least come to see that we really are growing fruits and veggies on the farm.

We do not grow everything organically. We do grow a lot of things without man-made chemicals. We are very careful about what we do use to control problems that arise from time to time. Some crops are more susceptible to insects and diseases and we recognize that and treat accordingly IF we think the economic threshold has been passed. This is called Integrated Pest Management or IPM and we have been practicing it for 33 years (the beginning of SIW time). It requires a lot more management and a lot fewer chemicals (organic or synthetic).

You select your own produce, get a discount on items we don’t grow, and can have all the free compost you want (actually we have a 100-ton limit. Sorry). If you don’t have a truck we would be glad to lend you one. If you want me to deliver it is $45 per load (3 yards) and I can dump it wherever you want. We post the CSA list Monday morning and you pick up your goodies any day of the week that works for you (although we encourage weekday pickups so you can beat the Saturday and Sunday crowds). If you decide you need more for your big shindig on Saturday night you get a discount on that too.

If you agree to become a member you pay me in the winter and I give you fruits and vegetables that I grow once a week throughout the growing season, (Every other week for a Half Share). Typically we start to get a few things in mid-June, most things in July through early October and decrease in October as the month wears on. Except for pumpkins and all the fall decorating stuff, of course. The idea is that you help us when we don’t have any money coming in and eat healthy all summer! Our canned goods are not included though you do get a discount on them. You also share in the ups and downs of the growing season. If we have a crop failure you are out of luck. But conversely, if we have a bumper crop you get extra. We are at Mother Nature’s mercy.

We try to keep an updated board with what you are entitled to each week. If you are confused by something or notice an omitted product on display PLEASE ASK FOR HELP. This works much like the honor system. You can come ANY DAY OF THE WEEK (though we encourage you to come on weekdays to beat the weekend rush). You select your veggies from this list. There are no substitutions and we ask that you please honor this. If you take extra someone else may get short-changed. We are picking and selling fresh things constantly so if something's not there that's on the board just let us know and we'll offer you a substitute. We don’t pick many items by the truckload and store them in huge quantities to have them available all the time. Grocery stores do that. In order for them to do that they have to pick things less ripe so they will last. Not so with SIW. We do store some things, but the majority of the items are sold the day they are

picked. Betcha didn’t know that!

Corn is the exception. We usually keep that for two weeks or more. If anyone believed that they are not allowed to join. We pick our corn multiple times daily and feed it to the pigs if it’s leftover at the end of the day. But we don’t have pigs so it goes to a good home or the compost pile. Are you cornfused yet?

If you have any questions at all please e-mail me or call. Your satisfaction is truly important to me!

SIGN UP FOR THE 2023 CSA HAS BEGUN AND YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR SIW BUCKS ANY TIME OF YEAR! Just go to the SIW Bucks page here on our website for additional information.

Download, print, fill out, and email or deliver your agreement to the farm. richsiwveggies@gmail.com

CSA AGREEMENT