Hello CSA members and friends!

What a time. We hope you are all hanging in there — healthy and safe and sheltered from the winds of all kinds. As you can imagine, things are busy on the farm, with greenhouse plastic going up on a new house (click here for pics) right before the gusts began earlier this week. The other greenhouse is packed with seedlings (here for a pic from last week) and we began transplanting soon as we got past Wednesday’s freezing temperatures. With tens of thousands of seedlings to go in the ground, it’ll be a busy few weeks ahead! 

We’ve had lots of questions about how Covid-19 will impact the CSA this season, and as with everything right now, so much is still unknown. We do know, though, that we will be growing lots of food and getting it into our members’ kitchens. It might look a little different than in years past, because we will be incorporating new food-handling and public-space (and common-sense) guidelines into our pickups. We’ll be making decisions how to do the pickups in the smartest way possible, come the second week of June, when we anticipate the deliveries will begin. 

The CSA is currently sold out, and we now have a long wait-list. For our members, though, we’re thinking how to incorporate new add-on shares to help connect you to as much good food as possible, and to help support our farming friends who need more than ever to sell all of their products. So take a look at the new addition to the list (incredible flowers for the Tuesday Rockland pickup from Swell Farm!) and the other items on the add-on list below, and let us know if you want to add anything to your order. You can add shares by emailing me, or by going into your account online. We will be adding an Apple Share and potentially some other add-ons, too, in the future. The more we can fill your larder and connect you to other local producers, the better we’ll feel about bringing everyone out to get their goodies once a week! 

The following are our currently available add-on shares. Click here to learn about frequency and the providers:

Flowers (Tuesday members only) $175
Organic Tofu $40
Cheese $250
Organic Yogurt $65
Lacto-Ferments $105
Oil & Vinegar $155
Raw Honey $25
Mushrooms $250
Eggs $50
Bread $125
Heirloom Apples $170
Milk is sold out but let me know if you want to be on the waitlist

Please be in touch with any questions, and please remember to pay your next installment (via check, Venmo or PayPal) if you are on a payment plan! We would love to have as many folks as possible paid in full by the time the CSA begins this year.

With appreciation, and gratitude,

Reba, Bill and the HCF family 

Below is a description of the new flower share, and additional details about the bread share: 

Flower Share
Tracey and Chris at Swell Farm in Rockland will offer a weekly mid-season flower CSA to the Tuesday pickup members, from mid-July to mid-September. Each week you will receive a freshly harvested and artfully designed mixed bouquet, wrapped in a paper sleeve. Tracey and Chris love to use a lot of texture – gorgeous flowers, herbs, ornamental grasses, and fragrant, unique foliage. With such fresh, local flowers you’ll also enjoy a longer vase life and extra fragrant blooms! The flower share costs $175 for ten weeks.

Bread Share
Each week, the Brazen Baking add-on share (baked by Lisa and Jeff Dec) typically offers a 1.5 pound loaf of bread which incorporates Maine grown whole grains, flakes, meals, and flours. Occasionally, as time sees fit, Brazen may offer rolls, flatbreads, or crackers. They use traditional methods such as culturing, scalding, soaking, and sprouting, breads are naturally leavened (aka “sourdough”) to provide balanced energy, preservation, nourishment and great flavor. Regular types that you can look forward to include Toasty Oat, Maine Wheat, Maine Spelt, Maine Rye, Volkornbrot (100% rye), Poppy Corn, Multiseed, and Sesame Levain. Seasonal variations may incorporate vegetable and fruit abundance. The cost for a bread share is $125 for 22 weeks.