Community Supported Agriculture consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production.
Typically, members or “share-holders” of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. By direct sales to community members, who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing. Read more
What was formerly known as the Geneva Winter Market is now the Community Winter Market sponsored by the Geneva Green Market, NFP. The Community Winter Market will feature fresh, local food throughout the winter and is scheduled to be open from 9 am through 1 pm on Saturdays, beginning November 7. It will be located at Inglenook Pantry, 11 N 5th St, Geneva IL 60134.
On Saturday, November 21st, the Community Winter Market will be hosting its annual Thanksgiving Localvore Challenge. Participating vendors will have the majority of the ingredients you will need to eat an entirely local Thanksgiving dinner. Sign up early for local free-range turkeys.
For the months of November and December the market will be held every Saturday for the first three weeks of each month. Check out the web site for future days in 2010.
Featured farmers/producers: Curd and Whey Cheese Shop, Erehwon Farm Esther’s Place, Farm direct Black Angus, Grandma’s Farm Fresh Eggs, Hasselmann Family Farm, Inglenook Panty, Robinson Family Farm, Stojan’s Vegetables, Tomato Mountain Farm, Twin Gardens, and Webb Family Farm.
Our aim at Erehwon Farm is to bring you the freshest, most natural, and most nutritious produce that we can. Although we are not certified organic, our growing practices are in line with the organic guidelines. We amend our soil with compost, fish oil, kelp, soy meal, and alfalfa meal. In addition we use cover crops to add nutrients to the soil over the winter and in land that is not being planted.
We use floating row covers to help control pests and to reduce the frequency of watering seeds and young plants. Row covers also protect the crops from wind, heavy rains, and bright sunlight. Areas between rows are mulched or mowed to control the weeds. We encourage volunteers – especially children – to come out and remove insect pests by hand.
We are also striving to be more earth friendly by reusing, re-purposing, and recycling as much as we can. Our subscribers and customers often bring us their compost-able yard and kitchen waste rather than putting these in the garbage, helping us and them to be more earth friendly. We use their old newspapers and cardboard for mulching.
For refrigeration we use units that would have otherwise been thrown out. Two of them are old freezers that we have re-purposed with temperature controllers to hold produce at near-freezing temperatures. We are working to reduce the use of plastics and other fossil-fuel products. Those we do use, we recycle.
We are endeavoring to incorporate some permaculture practices. This includes companion planting, using plants to deter pests, sheet mulching to control weeds, and planting perennial crops.
Tour the Field’s and hear the Farmer! Garfield Farm Museum has invited Farmer Tim Fuller to give a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm lecture. The talk will be centered around organic and CSA farming and what it means today.
- Who: Farmer Tim Fuller, of Erehwon Farm
- What: Organic Farming & Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA)
- When: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 2:00 p.m.
- Where: Garfield Farm Museum, 3N016 Garfield Road, LaFox, IL 60175
It will be an open forum for anyone with questions or for those just curious about this new trend in food production. For those wishing to hear and see more, the lecture will conclude with an invitation to see the farming in action with a short tour of Mr. Fuller’s CSA fields and what steps he takes to keep his produce as organic as possible. Tim Fuller farms his CSA farm, Erehwon Farm, on leased land from Garfield Farm Museum and sells at the Geneva Green Market; a local farmer’s market and GGM,NFP group that is devoted to education of the health-giving nature of locally grown food, sustainability and conservation of resources.
Garfield Farm Museum is located 5 miles west of Geneva, IL, off of Illinois Rt. 38 on Garfield Road. Garfield Farm is a former historically intact 1840s prairie farmstead and teamster inn that is being restored as a working 1840s farm. There is a $6 donation for the lecture and refreshments are included.
For other lecture information or to R.S.V.P. please contact (630) 584-8485 or email at info [at] garfieldfarm [dot] org. Seats are limited, please respond promptly.
Garfield Farm Museum
3N016 Garfield Road
LaFox, IL 60175
(630) 584-8485
www.garfieldfarm.org
What: Earth Day Event
When: Saturday, April 19th, 2008 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Where: City of Geneva Public Works Facility, 1800 South Street, Geneva, IL
Sponsor: City of Geneva
The City of Geneva, Illinois will host its first Earth Day celebration this year will mark the 39th annual observance of Earth Day, founded in 1970. Organizers of the event, led by the city’s Natural Resources Committee, plan to host a variety of events for Geneva residents. Attendees will have the opportunity to drop off paperwork to be shredded on-site at no charge. Free fluorescent light bulbs will available and the sale of compost bins and rain barrels as well. The committee is planning several other events and invites the entire community to attend and participate. The Pure Gardener, Geneva Green Market (NFP), Erehwon Farm, Inglenook Pantry, and Grandma’s Farm-Fresh Eggs will also be a part of the day’s festivities. Geneva Earth Day is a day of education, celebration and action for a healthier, cleaner world.
Hoop houses and greenhouses are making it possible to have local food when the ground is still too early to plant. Erehwon Farm, Majestic Nursery and Farm are local farmers bringing herbs, spinach, mixed greens, chard, and container tomatoes to market.
