Thank you for your interest in local, beyond organic, real food from the Parker Family Farm Winter Club.
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| Harvest day footprints - Winter Club 2010 |
At Parker Family Farm, Home of Parker Produce, we don't think our members should be forced to give up local food at the end of the summer. Just because the snow flies, doesn't mean your food should! That's why we designed the Winter Club.
Membership in the Parker Family Farm Winter Club gives you access to local, fresh, real food from our beyond organic gardens and root cellar - all through the fall, winter and spring. And new this year, we've instituted at prepay program so our members won't have to worry about remembering to bring cash or check when picking up produce.
Here's how it works. You visit http://www.parkerproduce.org/id46.html and click on the 'Parker Produce Membership Agreement' link. Print, complete and sign the form. Then mail your completed form and your initial, non-refundable investment of $20 to us at:
Parker Produce
17 Burgess Road
Newport, ME 04953
We will apply $19 worth of credit to your account and $1 for your membership fee to validate the Membership Agreement Form.
Then, you're only job is to enjoy the local, beyond organic produce all winter long. Each week, you will receive an email listing what we have available that week, along with the price for each item. You simply respond to the email with the amount of each that you would like and we will deliver your produce to one of several convenient pick-up locations. We will deduct the total from your account. A simple, convenient and wonderful way to continue participating in a local food chain and avoid the industrial 'food' system.
Once our Winter Club Members have spent down their initial $19 credit, they can send further payment in any amount (minimum $20 each time) and we will reapply it to the account. And of course, once the initial deposit of $19 is spent, our members are free to pay cash or check on delivery each week.
We're also offering a special deal for our Winter Club Members. For every $100 you apply to your account (single payment), we will credit you $110! This is our way of saying thank you for your up front commitment to our local, beyond organic food chain.
Remember, there is no obligation to purchase anything on a weekly basis. Your membership entitles you to receive our weekly emails. If, on any given week, you do not wish to purchase any produce, simply do not respond to the email. You'll receive another email the following week.
What kind of produce can you expect in from the Winter Club? We include freshly harvested greens and other vegetables for as long as possible from our passive solar heated hoop houses and low tunnels, as well as storage items from our root cellar, all the bounty of summer, saved for the cold months! Below is an example of the type of email you can expect to receive each week.
Thank you again for your interest in our local food chain and beyond organic produce from Parker Family Farm. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me here at ryan@parkerproduce.org, or by phone at 207.356.6577. I hope to be able to serve you and your family with the bounty from our small family farm this winter.
Example Winter Club Email
Hi all:
I thought it was cold last week! Thank you all for your participation in our local food chain.
Check out our new website listing all of our local food options for the coming season! http://www.parkerproduce.org/
Here is the list for this Tuesday. Please remember, if you aren't sure what something looks like, you can check our blog variety page to see if there is a photo. http://parkerproduce.blogspot.com/p/variety-photo-album.html
Also, pick-up location/time information is located at the bottom of the emails. Thank you.
Please have all orders into me by 5am Tuesday morning.
Eggs:
All eggs
Produce:
Baby Spinach
Spinach
Red Salad Bowl Lettuce
Australe Head Lettuce
Merveille des Quatre Saison Head Lettuce
Scallions
Carrots (Storage)
Baby Carrots (freshly harvested)
Butte Potatoes (Russet)
Austrian Crescent Potatoes (Fingerling)
Red Potatoes
White Potatoes
Shallots
Individual Sized Winter Squash (See below for choices)
All squash is beyond organic as are all of our vegetables in the Winter Club
Buttercup
Blue Hubbard
Delicata
Herbs:
Bagged Meals:
Prepared Squash/Pumpkin:
(A new, convenient way to enjoy squash/pumpkin with less mess and less cooking time-you will receive the squash already peeled and cubed (pumpkin is halved and seeded. Just put in a pot of boiling water or steam until tender throughout.)
Butternut
Blue Hubbard
Long Pie Pumpkin
A note about washing produce/eggs:
Please remember that our CSA policy on washing produce applies to the Winter Club as well. Specifically, I don't wash the produce. For folks who were not part of the CSA who have questions about this policy, please contact me or visit our website at http://parkerproduce.org/id34.html. Washing produce damages it so it won't store well and looses its freshness. You should wash it just prior to use. This also applies to our eggs. Standard 'food safety' propaganda states that all eggs should be washed in hot, soapy water by handlers. While this may be true for factory eggs produced in horrible environments, real eggs are different. Hens put a protective coating on the egg shells as they lay the eggs. This coating is a natural defense for the egg as it keeps bacteria from getting through the shell. Wash the egg with hot water and you basically open it up to bacteria. Therefore, we only use a dry cloth to get nesting material (sawdust, leaves, grass, whatever we're using that week) off the eggs. If it rains and the hens get really wet and they get their nesting material wet, it sticks to the eggs and looks gross. In those instances we might wash the eggs in cold water for a moment to loosen the stuff but that's it. Please wash your eggs just prior to cracking if you feel the need to wash them!
Pick-up information:
Newport - At the farm in the milk house- Anytime after 12 pm Tuesday. You may pick-up on Wednesday. Produce will be in a bag with your name on it on the floor of the milk house. Please leave payment on the metal tray that is labeled for payment.
Winterport - At my home 31 Deans St.(address ommitted for privacy, members will learn locations of Winterport pick-up) Anytime after 6pm Tuesday. You may pick-up on Wednesday. Produce will be in a bag with your name on it in a cooler by the front porch steps. Please leave payment on the round white table on the porch.
Bangor - 487 Union Street - House of David Salon. (address ommitted for privacy, members will learn locations of Bangor pick-up) Anytime after 5pm Tuesday. Produce will be in a bag with your name on it in a cooler by the entrance to the salon. Please leave payment inside the plastic ziploc bag inside the cooler.
