This is a copy of the email you should have received Sunday or Monday (May 3rd or 4th).

This is just a hello and some important logistics ahead of the first pick-up, which will be WEDNESDAY, MAY 13. You will receive a “how to pick-up” email next week. Please read these CSA emails since it’s the only way to know what to expect. Please add my email address (erintjohnson AT comcast.net) to your address book so it is not treated as SPAM. If you have partners and have not yet given us their emails, please do that now.

After two weeks of emails, the weekly post will appear here only (no more emails).

Sites and contact information

Pick-up is always on WEDNESDAY, including any holidays that fall on that day.

If you don’t remember where you asked to pick-up, please contact the coordinator for each site below. The shares come pre-packed in boxes and the correct number of shares is delivered to each of our three sites. You must pick-up at the site you selected for the season. If you go to a different site, there will not be a share for you.

The boxes are part of your share price so we ask you to take care of them. If we run low on boxes because you don’t return them or break them apart, then we will have to purchase more and that money will reduce the amount of produce you receive. We will show you how to open and flatten them for storage, without destroying them. Or go to the website to watch an instruction video. Scroll down to the bottom (second video). Each week you should return with your box from the previous week.

Sandy Spring

Hours of pick-up: 1PM to 7PM
Contact: Gene Klinger at gklinger AT verizon.net or 301-260-1635.

Rockville

Hours: 2PM to 7PM
Contact: Vanessa Strunk at vanstrunk AT gmail.com or 301-424-9142.

Kensington

Hours: 3PM to 7PM
Contact: Winnie Holbrooke at winniekh AT aol.com or 301-509-8097.

Setting expectations

Your share will include vegetables and fruit according to when it is harvested in this region. For example, you will not get tomatoes until later in the summer. Early on the share will be smaller and get progressively fuller as the season progresses. And Mother Nature and the weather have the final say as to exactly what gets harvested and when. To view a harvest schedule, please go to harvest schedule. This should help you plan menus.

When you pick up…

Each week you we will post a note here that describes what you are getting that week. The same information will also be posted at pick-up site. If you find something you have never eaten, it is likely that the weekly blog post will contain a recipe for that item. You can also check for recipe ideas at recipes.

Please communicate with your share partner(s) in advance how to handle pick-up. If you go out of town, please send a friend or relative in your place, but fill them in on the process. If you miss your pick-up, your share will get donated. Sandy Spring unclaimed shares are donated to Friends House, a low income retirement home. Unclaimed shares at Rockville are donated to Dorothy Day House, a women’s shelter. Unclaimed shares at Kensington are donated to Crossways Communities, also a women’s shelter.

About our farmer

Our farmers are Pam Stegall Roberts and Paul Roberts of Calvert Farm in Cecil County, MD – at the very top of the state. They are certified organic farmers and grow most of our vegetables. They have been farming for over ten years. When a few of the coordinators toured Pam and Paul’s farm in February, the soil was so rich that it felt like we were walking on a giant sponge.

In addition to what Calvert Farm grows, they also get produce from a network of Amish farmers nearby, with whom they have built a unique partnership. Although it is not a cooperative, the network is made up of a dozen farmers, most of whom are certified organic. This may not seem unique, but it is. The Amish do not easily trust folks outside their culture or transact with them. Pam and Paul have built an exemplary collaboration on many levels. They employ Amish family members as workers on the farm. The Amish women, who handle “home” gardens are even contributing produce to the CSA, which also affords them the chance to earn some independent money. The fruit provider is also Amish and an expert in growing fruit with little or no chemicals, using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and many years of experience. This kind of collaborative network approach provides CSA members a reliable experience throughout the season.

You are doing a really good thing

CSA is just about the best way to support independent, local and, in our case, organic farmers. It maximizes their direct income to plan and plant more than any other market they serve including farmers markets.

You are doing your part to eat locally. That means less fuel is being used to transport your produce. In attempting to reduce my imprint on the Earth’s resources, I am learning ways to buy locally more and more. We have all seen the words “think globally, live locally.”

On behalf of the Sandy Spring CSA volunteer coordinators, we look forward to meeting you all on May 12. Here is a poem to celebrate our choice for Community Supported Agriculture.

To be of the earth is to know

the restlessness of being a seed
the darkness of being planted
the struggle toward the light
the pain of growth into the light
the joy of bursting and bearing fruit
the love of being food for someone
the scattering of your seeds
the decay of the seasons
the mystery of death
and the miracle of birth.

- John Soos
from Earth Prayers From Around the World -365 Prayers, Poems and Invocations for Honoring the Earth

Happy Spring,

Erin Johnson, Winnie Holbrooke, Gene Klinger, Meg Pease-Fye, Vanessa Strunk, Robert True
Sandy Spring CSA
www.sandyspringcsa.com