2014 Shares Now Available!

2014 CSA and Farm Shares are available now! 

Fresh • Sustainable • Organic methods • Local

:: CSA ::
Full and Half Shares are both available--Full Shares are delivered every week for 18 weeks, and Half Shares for 9 weeks, every-other week. Home or workplace delivery is available. All CSA Shares will be delivered on Mondays and Wednesdays. New this year, we have added a couple of "boosters" to enhance your experience, as optional add-ons to your traditional CSA Share.

CSA Box Week 3, 2013

In 2013 CSA members received 122% of the value invested at sign-up!

For full details head over to our 2014 Shares page.

Note quite sure how CSA works? Check out more information on what CSA is all about.

2014 Order Form

:: Farm Shares ::  

Available in limited quantity, Farm Shares are available in $100 or $150 amounts. Farm Shares are delivered at Monday or Wednesday CSA pick-up and operate sort of like a Farmers' Market that comes to you! We send you a list of available produce, you place an order and we deliver. As an additional perk you can shop at the Saturday Farmers' Market, with no need to bring cash.

For full details go to our 2014 Shares page.

2014 Order Form

:: Other Offerings ::  

Budding Farmers Program :: 10% off Sign-up during January. You sign up with Budding Farmers and ARF simply distributes the materials. This is a great program we are happy to offer to CSA and Farm Share Members for delivery with their Shares, or non-members to pick up at Saturday market. See our blog post for more details.

CSA Home//Workplace Delivery :: Get your CSA Share delivered right to your door--literally! We are happy to make a custom delivery for any CSA member for just $25 Full Share or $13 Half Share.

CSA Boosters :: For CSA members only, a couple options to expand your CSA Share, or enhance your CSA experience. Try the Herb Booster if you are wild about herbs. Choose the Apple Booster if you just can't get enough apples. All CSA Members do get herbs and apples, this simply gives the option of getting larger amounts. See our 2014 Shares information for full details and cost.

Apple Shares :: A few of you participated in our first Apple Shares last year. We will be doing them again for 2014. Sign-up for Apple Shares will be in August. Shares will again be limited.

:: Farmers' Market ::  

You can find us at the Saturday Farmers' Market again this season! We're still waiting for details about the market location, as Runnings has moved, so stay tuned. Saturdays 9-Noon, July-October.

Brooke and John at the New Ulm Farmers' Market

P.S. We are applying for Organic certification this year! Super awesome. It's a three-year transition time and our three years is up in October! It's a very exciting time for our farm, and organic agriculture as a movement.

Budding Farmers Sign Up Open!

Alternative Roots Farm is once again partnering with the Budding Farmers Program for the 2014 season. Materials can be delivered directly with CSA and Farm Share deliveries, or for non-members pick up will be available at the Saturday New Ulm Farmers' Market (no purchase necessary). Our goal is to provide this great program to as many people as possible, regardless if you are a member or not. 

This is a great program to consider for your children, grandchildren, day care kids, classroom and more!

The Budding Farmers program teaches children (Budding Farmers) about the fruits and vegetables we grow. It is perfect for Pre-K through Elementary aged children. For 8 weeks during the season, you will receive take home nutrition information, fun facts, growing guides, science projects, recipes, creative activities, and more with your CSA box, or Farm Share order. Each week features a new seasonal fruit or vegetable that is found in your box that week. The program also includes a “Fun Book” binder where weekly materials can be clipped in and organized and a kids-sized tote bag.

Cost is $48 for the season (just $6 a week!).

It’s never too early to teach your kids about healthy seasonal food- through Budding Farmers they will cook, grow, learn, taste, smell, feel, and get creative with the fruits and vegetables we grow just for you!

You can find more information about the program and sign up at www.buddingfarmers.com. To sign up simply fill out their Program Sign Up form and select “Alternative Roots Farm”.

Feel free to pass this information along to anyone you think would be interested!

-Brooke

{2013 CSA Season @ a Glance}

Early season CSA box packed with spring goodies.

Happy New Year!

Let's take a look back at the entire 2013 CSA Season with pictures of the weekly CSA boxes and the accompanying newsletters.

2013 was our second year on the farm, delivering CSA and Farm Shares, our first year at the Saturday New Ulm Farmers' Market and our second year in transition to Organic certification. We love what we are doing and are looking forward to all that 2014 has to hold for us!

Preseason

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

Week 17

Week 18

Other 2013 Blog Highlights:

Muddy Beans, Muddy Boots  {most viewed post of the year}

Field-to-Table: Swiss Chard Gratin  {most viewed recipe post}

Our Seasonal Chef posts were also highly popular, provided by The Land Connection.

French Breakfast radishes, packed for CSA boxes.

Thank you for your support and following our blog! Cheers!

Garlic Planting

Many people asked me, over the last few weeks, if everything was wrapped up for the season at the farm and were then surprised to hear that we were getting ready to plant garlic and shallots. Yes, in Minnesota we plant garlic and shallots in October, when the soils cool down, with enough time to start rooting, but not sprout.

To get ready for planting we started by "popping" the cloves. Taking the bulbs and separating all the cloves to plant individually.

Bags filled with garlic cloves.

This year we also planted 'Walking Onions' (aka Egyptian Onions) in the kitchen garden--I've been waiting to have those! After popping the garlic I prepared the garlic bed map and was ready to plant.

Cart with garlic, shallots, map and tools.

The dibbler helps us ensure good spacing, more efficiently.

John tilled the bed, which had been resting for about a month (they followed beans this year) and I raked it. We have heavy soils so we used a raised bed to allow for good drainage. Next I used the fancy-schmancy dibbler John made to mark out spacing--6"x6". This makes planting go a lot faster.

Marking spacing with the dibbler.

View a short video of me using the dibbler. After the spacing is marked I laid out the garlic and shallot cloves, then went back and started planting. Garlic is planted 4-6" deep and shallots are planted with the tops even, or just under, the surface of the soil. View a short video of me planting garlic.

Garlic laid out for planting.

Dutch Yellow Shallots ready to plant.

 All of our garlic is organic certified, as we are transitioning to organic. Red Russian garlic, Dutch Yellow shallots and French Gray shallots were planted again; we liked all of these. We also planted some new varieties to trial--German Red and German Extra Hardy, and Inchelium Red (soft neck garlic). In our region we grow hard-neck garlic--these produce those lovely scapes that we all cherish for a few weeks in spring (yum!)--but I wanted to grow a small amount of soft-neck, just to experiment (these are the braiding kind).  We purchase seed from The Maine Potato Lady (great source for garlic, onions and potatoes), and we also got some from Territorial Seeds this year too.

 The last step in the process is to cover with a thick layer of mulch. Mulch provides protection from the elements over winter, and helps to suppress weeds. The pigs helped us with the mulching! Using bales from their pen we are able to add a little fertilizer--perfect since it sits out, breaking down all winter and spring (the minimum requirement is 120 days, and it will be about 240). Also, in anticipation of garlic planting, we threw several bales in there over the last week for them to forage through and clean out the small-grain and weed seeds. We purchased some really seedy straw last spring, hopefully this will reduce the amount of barley growing in the garlic bed, plus we got to nurture the pigs foraging instincts!

 I am already looking forward to next year's garlic and shallot crop!

CSA Week #18

Week #18, the final week of the season, has been delivered--members took home their full-to-the-brim and heavy last boxes yesterday. This was our second CSA season on the farm and it was a good one. A great big thank you to all of our members who supported the farm--we couldn't do it without you!

So here's a look at the last box...

Link to the Week #18 CSA Newsletter

CSA Box Wk #18 • Layer 1 • Oct. 22nd, 2013

 In the boxes: Butternut and acorn squash, beets, 1.25# leeks, 1.5# parsnips, Jonathon apples, 3# Katahdin potatoes, 1/2lb garlic...

CSA Box Wk #18 • Layer 2 • Oct. 22nd, 2013

...green bell peppers, 2# mixed onions, French gray shallots, rosemary, sage, dill seed and tarragon. Plus the EWG (Environmental Working Group) Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 shopping guide and the Seafood Watch guide.

CSA Week #17

It was a cold and rainy delivery day. It makes for muddy harvesting--it's dirty work, but someones got to do it! The parsnips were all dug Monday, in anticipation of the rain. We ended up getting about 1.25". We are loving the rain, but also hoping for an opportunity to get in and till to prepare for garlic and shallot planting. Here's a look at the boxes from this week--regular full shares and the final boxes for our Week half shares.

Link to CSA News Week #17

CSA Week #17 • Oct. 15, 2013 • Full Share

Still holding summery goodness with the peppers and tomatoes!

In the Full Share Boxes: Cherry tomatoes, ground cherries, red and green bell peppers, garlic bulb, Valencia tomato, 1# leeks, butternut squash, 2# Katahdin potatoes, apple mix, 1.25# parsnips, red and yellow onions.

CSA Week #17 Half Shares Final Box • Oct. 15, 2013 

In the Half Shares final box: In addition to our weekly newsletter members also received a copy of the Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 & Seafood Watch reference cards (for health eating off CSA season), parsnips, ground cherries, cherry tomatoes, 4# Katahdin potatoes, 2# red & yellow storage onions, red and green bell peppers, butternut squash, 1# leeks, 2# mixed apples, acorn squash, kale, French Gray shallots, 1/2# garlic, Superschmeltz kohlrabi, Valencia tomato and herb mix--dried tarragon, dried rosemary, dried sage and dill seed.

The apple mix this week included heirloom Northern Spy, Cortland and Regent.

Leeks!

CSA Week #16

Week #16 boxes were tasty looking! We are loving the parsnips and brussel sprouts this time of year!

In the Boxes: Sweet green bell peppers, parsnips, apples, acorn squash, potatoes, pie pumpkin, decorative corn, shallot mix, 1/2 # brussel sprouts, red and yellow onion, kohlrabi, tomato mix.

Link to the Week #16 CSA Newsletter

Week #4 of our Apple Shares was also delivered this week!