Start Winter off well with local farm veggies!

Winter farm membership runs November 10 through December 19

~~~~~that’s 6 weeks of on-farm fresh veggie pickups ~~~~

(returning members ready to sign up, feel free to jump to the form below)

Summary: The Winter Farm Membership offers 6 weeks of SweetRoot Farm produce to help you eat healthy local food long past the end of market and home-garden season. Weekly shares picked up at the farm include freshly-harvested cold hardy greens like spinach, kale, chard, mustards, baby boc choi, tatsoi and salad mixes, along with storage crops like winter squash, potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage, onions, and garlic.

We strive for a balanced, varied offering of veggies each week for fresh raw eating as well as cooking, and provide a suite of meal ideas and recipes suggestions. We grow all of it right here at SweetRoot following organic growing practices with an emphasis on soil health.

Winter membership is more structured than our fill-the-bag market season memberships, but we also give members a lot of choice so no one has to take home the veggies they don’t like. For example, you might take your choice of 3 greens options from a selection including salad, spinach, spicy mix, kale, chard, and cooking mix. Similarly, you’ll often take your choice of a few bags of roots, selecting from carrots, beets, radishes, turnips or potatoes.

Dates: November 10 - December 19

Cost: $180 *financial assistance available*

Location/ timing: You can pick up your share at the farm, any day of the week. We’ll stock the farmstore and post the list for the week each Tuesday, and create a “reserved for members” space in the cooler if there are items that would be in danger of selling out to the general public, but you’re welcome to pick up whenever works.

How much food? For those familiar with our main-season “feedbag” membership, you can expect a weekly pickup that will generously fill one feedbag, often with an additional item like a large squash or cabbage carried by hand. We shoot for $35 or more in weekly value, enough to fill a hefty grocery bag.

Much of the produce can store for weeks or months at home in case you don’t get through it all that week. Larger households can sign up for a two shares, or top up as needed with their favorite veggies by purchasing additional items at the farmstore with a member discount.

Directions for a typical week’s share will look something like this: pick out 2 salad-type greens (choices: spinach, spicy mix, winter salad mix, or lettuce mix). take 1 cooking green (choices: kale bunch, chard bunch, or boc choi head). choose 2 roots bags (choices: carrots, beets, potatoes, radishes, salad turnips, or mixed snacking roots). choose either a large cabbage head or a winter squash. take 1-2 onions, 1 garlic head, and one flavor-booster (choices: fresh dill, fresh cilantro, dried hot pepper, or dried basil)

What are the risks? A key part of farm membership (or community supported agriculture) philosophy is that the farmers and the eaters each take on a portion of the risk and the reward of this wild ride of farming. What that means for members is mostly being willing to be flexible and understanding of what is available; we may have some weeks with more greens than others, or weeks when we recommend a cabbage and carrot salad because the fresh greens have taken a hard hit from sub-zero temps. You take a risk by trusting that we can actually deliver winter food as promised, and share in the reward of farm success. For us as farmers it means committing to learning and improving our techniques, and anticipating changes and inclement weather. We might harvest extra greens in advance of a deep cold spell, and will communicate as best we can about the status of the farm. We take a risk when planting and storing all of these crops, that people will actually show up to eat buy them at the right time. But your advance payment helps mitigate that risk, while also helping ensure the steady supply of food to you by helping us hire winter crew and retain team members year-round. It is also key to our investment in on-farm storage space and good systems for harvesting, washing, and storing produce. Farm member investments help make more local food available for everyone in our community and help make farming a more viable career choice for our whole team.

How is this possible? Our winter growing uses very low-tech and low-input techniques, no artificial heat or supplemental light. All our greens are grown in real soil in unheated high tunnels, planted early enough the summer and fall to reach mature size before the days get too short for growth. For the winter, we keep them alive by covering with row cover at night and uncovering during the day to allow sunlight to heat the plants and soil. We select cold-hardy varieties for winter harvest; you won’t find any tomatoes or cucumbers in your winter share, but we can all enjoy fresh crunchy salads through the cold season. We harvest our storage crops at their peak (including making sure carrots get a few of those good hard frosts to sweeten them up) and store in walk-in coolers to parcel out through the cold months for all of you.

Ready to try it out? Just fill out the simple form below, and we’ll be in touch with more details. Payment by check, mailed or dropped at the first pickup is ideal. We do not have a card or electronic payment option at this time.