Winter Newsletter

Since we’re experiencing the lowest temperatures of the winter to-date, we thought, what better time to begin sharing our plans for springtime and the upcoming Balanced Harvest Farm & CSA season.  We hope this mention of spring will serve as a “cabin fever reliever!”  Hang in there... spring is coming!

In this newsletter:

1. Balanced Harvest Farm is now Certified Naturally Grown.

3. New CSA Share options for the 2009 Season.

4. New Put-and-Take table.

5. New CSA pick-up location.

6. We encourage you to join Slow Food USA.

1. Balanced Harvest Farm is now a Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) producer. The Certified Naturally Grown Program is a Grassroots Alternative to the USDA's National Organic Program.  It’s an alternative label and certification system that allows small local growers to assure customers that they observe strict growing practices. CNG strives to strengthen the organic movement by removing financial barriers to certification that tend to exclude smaller direct-market farms, like Balanced Harvest Farm & CSA, while preserving high standards for natural production methods. 

2.  Only a limited number of CSA shares available for 2009!

Now is the time to become a shareholder or renew again for next season.  Knowing you're “in” in the winter helps us with our planning and ensures you that you will be receiving a share of the freshest locally grown produce available  -  It’s peace of mind for both of us! : ) Todd has been working on all the crop plans and seed orders for 2009. He's been excitedly poring over stacks of seed catalogues gleaming with colorful pictures of all the vegetable growing possibilities. We’ll be adding a few more “Ark of Taste” crops in our plans for the upcoming harvest season. If you haven’t already, please join our 2009 CSA program now. 

3. New CSA Options for the 2009 Season:

Members spoke; we listened.  Based on 2008 Member Survey results, we're now offering members their choice of a Standard Harvest Share or a Culinarian Harvest Share for the 2009 CSA season. The cost will be the same for either, the contents will be different.

The Standard Harvest Share will include common vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, spinach, lettuces, tomatoes, etc, - no herbs or uncommon "gourmet" vegetables.

The Culinarian Harvest Share will include both common and uncommon “gourmet” vegetables as well as herbs and is truly for the adventurous eater.

Both the Standard and Culinarian Harvest Share will include a similar quantity of produce each week. However, the Standard will have fewer different vegetables in larger quantity while the Culinarian will have a smaller quantity of a wider variety of vegetables plus herbs.

4. New “Put-and-Take” table.

Also, new this year will be a “Put-and-Take” table. This will be a separate table from our Farmer’s Market sales table. Here is where you can “put” something from your share that you don’t want that week and “take” something on the table to replace it.

5.  New CSA pick-up location.

We’re happy to announce that in addition to our pick-up locations at the Carmel, Broad Ripple & 38^th Street Farmer’s Market we have added Apple Family Farm in McCordsville.  Pick-ups at the Apple’s farm will be on Wednesdays after 10am.

6. We encourage you to join Slow Food USA.

Want to have an impact on our food culture in central Indiana, meet other “local food” minded folks, take farm tours, and learn a lot? We strongly encourage you to join Slow Food USA and actively participate in Slow Food Indy, the local chapter. Next upcoming event: Comfort Food Potluck, Sunday Jan 25. You’ll learn about the adventures of Indianapolis Slow Food members who attended the biannual Terre Madre convention in Italy and how they plan to implement what they learned right here in our community. For more information click here. We’ve got some exciting events planned for 2009. Hope you’ll join us!

If you have any questions feel free to contact us at BalancedHarvest@hotmail.com or (317) 815-9863.