JOIN the 2010 Schoolhouse Farms C.S.A!
How would you like to enjoy the freshness and flavor of food grown in your backyard without all the labor involved in maintaining a garden? Well, this is what many small farms across the country are offering their communities through Community Supported Agriculture or, C.S.A. memberships. In the Skaneateles and Otisco Lake region Schoolhouse Farms is the garden in your backyard!

What Is a C.S.A.?
C.S.A. programs are designed to build a relationship between the farmer and the community. Members buy a share that assists the farmer in production costs and in return members receive a weekly portion of the harvest. This is much like the idea of buying a share in a company – just as shareholder’s dividends vary with the companies’ productivity, C.S.A portions vary according to the season and the success of each crop. Members enjoy the taste and freshness of food grown locally picked just for them! There are other benefits to supporting your local farm. Consumers have become accustomed to buying fruits and vegetables shipped from all over the world – regardless of the season. This is an obvious waste of energy. This also means food is harvested before it has ripened in order to make the journey – sacrificing flavor. Eating locally grown foods often means eating thousands of miles fresher.

Local Food Movement
Supporting local farms also helps to keep open spaces open. Many in our community are constantly fighting to keep the Finger Lakes from being over-developed. Farmers and ranchers are being pushed out. One way to preserve the rural parts of our area is to help farms stay in business.

Information About This Year’s CSA
Why should I join? CSA programs are for people who want to eat fresh, locally grown foods. Many, like ours, also grow organically (though, we are not certified). Our members are folks who want to support local, small farms. They are also people who are willing to try new foods and to eat seasonally.

When can I sign up? We begin our schedule offering shares beginning in June. Email us to sign up or for more information at finanmorel@windstream.net

When will I start getting my share? Once you have signed up, we will email you the specific anticipated date for this seasons beginning session.

How long will I receive shares? 4 months and you will receive a total of 16 shares.

How much does it cost? The cost is $550 for the season.

How much will I get in my share? This is a tough one to answer, as it varies week to week. In spring/summer/early fall shares, we try to include 4-6 kinds of veggies per week each at a quantity for one meal for example large enough for a family of 4 to enjoy, or a couple to have for a couple of meals.

Sample early season
1 bag mixed greens
1 bag spinach
arugula
Peas
Mint
other

Sample later season
3 cucumbers
3 – 4 yellow summer squash
2 – 3 zucchini
Beans
Herbs
Potatoes
Tomatoes

Based on all we have planted the scope and variety will change as the season progresses to include greater variety and quantity.

Where can I get my share? This year we are hoping that people pick up at the farm on Tuesdays or Thursdays. (We believe it is important that you see where the shares are grown and harvested!) We encourage people to net-work and share in the transportation responsibility. We also use the Skaneateles Farmers Market located at the Skaneateles Community Center on Thursdays 3:30- 6:30 PM

Do I need to harvest my own? No. However we encourage you to come out to the farm and get dirty once and a while!

What will I get in my share? CSA shares will consist of a variety of peas, lettuces, greens, eggplants, beans, spinach and kale, turnips, sun flowers, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, arugula, onions, potatoes, basil, mint, garlic, chard, winters squash plus additional items and multiple varieties in numerous categories.

Do I need to work on the farm? No! We do the work you simply need to channel the karma required to make it all happen without issue.

What if there is a problem with a crop? We are a real farm. We do not buy from other growers to fill shares – everything in your share comes from Schoolhouse Farms. This means that this is the real CSA experience – food that is grown on a family farm that you can visit and know all about. This also means that if we have a problem – insect infestation, hail, flood, etc., we take a hit and so do our members. We cannot guarantee the success of any crop.

Links for Schoolhouse Farms:

http://schoolhousefarms.blogspot.com/
http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M15378

Contributed by Christine Briel / Skaneateles Design

Early in the summer I rode my bike with my daughter out to Borodino Market (our first trip to see the family farm for this season) and blogged on here about our great purchase of blackberry jam.

About a month later a nice lady from the local periodical FamilyTimes called me on the phone to inquire about my families habits of buying local, how important it was to us and how we emphasized it with our children (she came across the aforementioned blog post about the jam). She did a really nice write up on buying local in the August 2008 copy of Family Times in the article titled “Livin’ La Vida Local” – below is an excerpt of our conversation and the mention of our families favorite local treasure Borodino Market.

“… Skaneateles mother Christine Briel was initially driven to go local by the quality of produce grown around her home. “Freshness is the biggest thing,” says Briel, who has one child in college and one in high school, “but the connection with people who actually grew the stuff is really important, too.”

She doesn’t always find time in her busy schedule to stop at the weekly farmers’ market in her town. “If I miss the market, I will go to a local farm foods store like the Borodino Market,” Briel says. “Especially with our long winters, I find it really valuable to get fresh produce during the summer months.”

What they don’t buy from local farmers, the Briels grow in their back yard. This year, they will get radishes, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, beans and peas from their garden …”

Read the entire article at www.familytimes.biz

Below is an article originally published in the Marcellus Observer, I obtained it from the writer Ann Ferro as it can not be found on the web anywhere. Here is the original article for your reading pleasure…

- When we were kids we celebrated the Fourth of July in the back yard of my grandmother’s bungalow in Carmel. It was a simple affair, casually done around a a pile of stones that served as a fireplace and an old 1935 Ford that died after a trip down from my Aunt Lucy’s who lived in Cocksakie. The black Ford sat there, gathering moss, mold and a hefty collection of spider webs and their ominous architects. My mother had set rows of potted geraniums as guards along each running boards in order to dissuade her curious children from trying to enter the derelict vehicle. How can I say this? OK … You would never find a picture of this yard in any country magazine. I am not saying that back yard was less than chic, but it had a certain Appalachian joie de vivre and we loved it. My mother was less enthusiastic.

We would toast marshmallows, drink home made root beer and watch my father put on a fireworks display with background “music” provided by my mother who was sure that someone was going to lose a body part. Each year we heard stories of someone we knew or someone that she had read about in the Daily News who was disfigured by fireworks, and, if they were lucky, facing life with only one of something that ordinarily came in pairs. I don’t think anyone ever mentioned Thomas Jefferson, although they should have.

This year, after years of not doing too much and thinking about what the anniversary of our country’s Independence means, we will find something more appropriate to do. Given things as they are, this is the year to celebrate some of the good things that we have … like each other, friends and family, a stable internet connection, enough gas to get out to camp and back, etc.

By Christine Briel / Skaneateles Design

There is still time to plant tomatoes if you would like to see these right outside your house in a couple of months. I haven’t planted a vegetable garden in a couple of years. I’ve either been too busy, or more to the point … too lazy. With all of the recent economic changes this past year (gas especially) my cheapness inspired me this year to actually get down and dirty (literally, because I had to break new ground). I’m starting to see some progress as the radishes, cucs, lettuce, peas, and beans have broken ground and sprouted. The tomatoes are taking a little longer. My cheapness extended out to buying tomato seeds this year instead of plants. I figured I had time to fail with the seeds and plant the actual plants if I had to.

This long introduction is meant to let you all know that Borodino Market at Schoolhouse Farms is selling Heirloom tomato plants for the next couple of weekends. I believe Rebecca has 7 varieties for sale. These tomato plants were grown from seeds that were collected from their own plants that they grew at the Schoolhouse Farms right here in Skaneateles, NY. They think these particular plants may be even better acclimated to the area than their parents. Makes sense right? Well I am giving my tomatoes one more day to perform then I will be shooting up to Rebecca and Richard’s for a few plants.
They are only a few minutes South of the village:

Richard & Rebecca Muir-Malcolm
1852 Rose Hill Road
Borodino, NY 13152

A quote from Richard Malcolm:

As the song goes …

” the only 2 things that make life worth a living, are true love and homegrown tomatoes! “

Cheers,
Richard

By Christine Briel / Skaneateles Design

This past weekend my daughter and I had some energy to burn and were feeling adventurous, so we dusted off our bikes. We headed out with the intention of going a little further than we usually travel via bike – about 10 miles round trip. Our destination was Borodino Market at Schoolhouse Farms. The ride was a little more than we bargained for and actually about 12 miles round trip. We had a few sore muscles and ate everything but the kitchen sink when we returned home.

Three things made the trip worth it:

1. Spending the day with my daughter – nice and doesn’t happen that often

2. AMAZING blackberry jam purchased at Borodino Market at Schoolhouse Farms

3. Boomberry ice cream at Vernak Country Store – fuel for the return trip home

By Christine Briel / Skaneateles Design

Last summer I was hit or miss at remembering to go to the Farmer’s Market on Thursdays. I’m self-employed and sometimes lose track of what day it is … or maybe just getting older and losing my mind

Either way, it was a Friday and I had missed the Farmer’s Market and needed produce for the week. In the growing season in CNY I consider it a crime to purchase produce that isn’t local. I know some of the grocery stores work closely with our local farmers (and that’s great) but nothing beats buying it straight from the farmer (whether at the Farmer’s Market or at their roadside stand). That being said I happened across a double treat last summer, Borodino Market at Schoolhouse Farms (wiki). Initially I spied the sign, then I noticed the fresh produce at the roadside stand. That caught me so I pulled in their driveway (they have room for several cars to park too). After perusing the vegie stand – and picking up beans and tomatoes (several varieties of each) – I walked up the driveway and went exploring in the store that they also have on the premises. They carry an amazing array of products in the store – honey, tea, herbs, spices and a variety of specialty foods. The Borodino Market at Schoolhouse Farms is a seasonal Market. It is located in a one room Schoolhouse listed on the National Register of Historic Places.