Chicama Run Family Farm

Believe it or not this was asked this past week.  Do we actually do what we say we do...... well - look around and I think you'll see animals and such..... so yep we do.   If you go to a farm and there are no animals or gardens you might want to think twice.  But also ask the farmer - some contract farm, some lease land etc.

This brought on a thought - probably because I had CSA stuff on the mind today.... and while waiting for the cows to milk sometimes its quiet and I get to think - nothing to do but watch the milking machine :)

There is a HUGE difference in a CSA and a CO-OP.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  You are taking a risk by buying a share in the farm.  When we first started - neither of us was comfortable with offering that type of risk to people by doing a vegetable CSA.  Joe's lettuce has never tasted "right" and we don't know why - but it's not a product we would have been comfortable offering to a customer.  We chose to do the meat csa - because unless we have a very serious disaster happen - we will have beef & pork.  We took down the chicken option because last year we felt bad.  We had weeks where there was no chicken - 40 birds died within a 3 hour time frame because of the 100 degree weather - it was awful and sudden.  It was part of the risk people took - which meant they should have gone without chicken - however we felt bad about it and extended it and added some extra chickens.  We aren't able to do that, so we took off that option so we can be a little less stressed about that.  Just to put it in a money perspective - 40 chickens averaging 5 lbs each at $3.99/pound = $798... which covers the feed cost.  See why we took it off?  Anyways, back on track..... a CSA is supposed to be provided by that farm alone - that farm grows it, raises it....whatever.... and provides it to you, the customer.

Now - onto a CO-OP.... this CAN, and frequently does, have items grown and produced by the farmer running it..... HOWEVER the biggest difference is that they incorporate other farmers and their products plus sometimes even buying off the big truck to supply you with certain things each week consistently.  Nothing wrong with this at all.... as long as they are saying CSA... it's misleading to quite a few people.

This all turns back around on knowing your farmer.  Talk to us farmers - believe it or not, we know what we are talking about and are usually thrilled to talk (if we have the time right then) - we LIKE to talk about what we raise and grow - we are proud of this.  Don't be put off if we are dirty and messy - heck I know I usually get up and don't get to take a shower until 10 or 11..... or even only at night..... we do clean up pretty well - but we don't usually chose to do that every day (could you imagine milking a cow in a skirt??)