Nosh Pit

A Handy Guide to Seattle Farm Shares

It’s technically spring, which means it’s time to find your CSA soul mate.

Posted by: Anne Larkin on Apr 05, 2012 at 09:00AM 2 Comments

A colorful Oxbow produce box, photo courtesy of their website.

It’s finally that time, when good things start to come to those who have waited (and waited): spring in the Northwest. Rainy mornings turn into brisk sunny afternoons. The ground is speckled with cherry blossom petals. The raincoat gets a little less wear. Patio furniture comes out of hibernation. And CSA (community supported agriculture) shares get snapped up. Springtime means almost-summertime, which means it’s time to start thinking about CSAs, and signing up for a share of the bounty to come.

As more farms offer CSAs, choosing one can be an overwhelming process. Here are a few excellent options.

The Food Nerd’s CSA
The Old Chaser Farm
Vashon Island
$1950 for the season, from mid-May to mid-October
$85 a week
Pick up at the Corson Building or Sitka and Spruce

From the farm that supplies James Beard nominee Matt Dillon’s restaurants, this is the most luxurious CSA. (And we want it.) In the weekly box, members can expect fresh fruits and vegetables, a half-dozen eggs, a dairy product, a loaf of bread, one jar of preserves, and a bottle of wine. Plus there’s an optional $650 meat share: eight chickens, half a pig, and a lamb.

The Restaurateur’s CSA
Oxbow Farm
Carnation
$420-$630 for the season, from mid-June through October, with the option for a winter CSA extension
$20-$30 a week
Pick up at various Seattle locations Thursday through Sunday

Oxbow’s list of restaurants it supplies will clue you in on the quality: Tilth, Walrus and the Carpenter, Café Flora, and Canlis to mention just a few. The 25-acre farm is certified organic and salmon safe, and partners with a collective of eastern Washington farmers to supplement the produce boxes with ripe cherries and peaches at the height of summer.

The City Dweller’s CSA
Amaranth Urban Farm
Rainier Beach and Kent Valley
$784 for the entire summer season, options for 1/2 season shares
$28-$30 a week
Pick up in the city at various locations (including Skelly and the Bean and Pike Brewing)

Amaranth is an urban farm run by Seattleites. The produce in subscribers’ boxes never goes more than 10 miles from where it was grown. (Unless it comes along on a picnic road trip.) Amaranth also serves as a model for other aspiring urban farmers and has opportunities for tours and work shares. (Plus there’s an optional 17-week, $170 flower share.)

The Musician’s CSA
Helsing Junction Farm
Rochester
$360-$666 for the season mid-June to mid-October
$20-$37 a week
Pick up at many Seattle sites as well as in Tacoma, Olympia, Centralia, and Kelso on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays

Helsing Junction farm has been around for twenty years, growing 30 acres of of fruits and vegetables and flowers. The farm sells produce to a few organic markets and restaurants in the northwest and hosts a music festival with an Olympia record company (complete with in-orchard camping) every summer.

The Community Activist’s CSA
Seattle Market Gardens
Seattle
$300-$500 for the season
$15-$25 a week
Pick up at various Seattle locations on Thursdays, Saturdays, or Sundays

Two of the South Seattle P-Patch gardens provide the produce for this CSA, as well as for a weekly farm stand. The gardens are manned by residents, and are part of the P-Patch program that is working to help communities become happier and healthier through the presence of gardens. It’s definitely a feel-good CSA.

The Aspiring Gardener’s CSA
The Root Connection
Woodinville
$692 ($678 if you register by April 15) for the season June-October
$33 a week
There are drop sites in Lynwood and North Seattle on Wednesdays, or pick up at the farm Wednesday through Saturday

Most CSAs proudly advertise that the produce comes to you less than 48 hours after being picked—members can grab their Root Connection share just four hours after its contents were picked. Most members go to the farm to retrieve their share in order to take advantage of the unique Root Connection bonus: free U-picking. This is a more hands-on CSA—no home delivery, no supercentral pick-up spots, but members can go tromp around the farm and harvest their own herbs, flowers, and greens.

The Lazy (but great) CSA-ish CSAs
Full Circle Farms
Year-round, $23-$45 a week
Home delivery

Full Circle is an organic produce delivery service, not a traditional CSA. Full Circle does have farms in Washington, but also sources from warmer places during the winter months. Customizable boxes of produce magically arrive every Friday morning, and subscribers can add in other organic groceries like Essential Baking Co. bread, Theo chocolate, fresh La Pasta fettuccine, and Boat Street pickled figs.

New Roots
Ballard
Year-round, $30-$40 a week
Home delivery

Much like Full Circle, New Roots delivers boxes of organic produce year-round to Seattleites. The company sources primarily from Washington, but also Oregon, California, and Mexico, when the pickings get slim up north. The boxes are somewhat customizable and they get delivered right to the door.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Farmers Markets, Matt Dillon, Sitka and Spruce, Canlis, CSAs, Farms, Full Circle Farm, Tilth, Summer Eating, Farm to Table, Summer Plans, Matthew Dillon

Matt Dillon Launches a CSA

The acclaimed chef’s Old Chaser Farm offers an amped-up farm share this summer.

Posted by: Anne Larkin on Mar 23, 2012 at 11:50AM 0 Comments

Sweet fuzzy things live on Old Chaser Farm. Photo via their website.

This summer, 30 lucky people (lucky and willing to pony up about two grand), will be recipients of an Old Chaser Farm and Larder Share. It’s the first foray into the world of community-supported agriculture, or CSA, programs for local chef, devout locavore, and James Beard nominee Matt Dillon. Situated on Vashon Island, Old Chaser Farm is part of Dillon’s family of restaurants and bars and breadmakers. The farm raises fuzzy creatures like sheep and goats as well as pigs and free-range chickens. And honeybees. And, you know, fruits and vegetables. Old Chaser stocks the kitchens of Sitka and Spruce and The Corson Building, and a farm and larder share gets you in on that same action.

Dillon is offering much more than just produce. Each week the family-sized box will include: a load of fresh produce, six eggs, one dairy product (perhaps some creamy labneh, maybe a touch of creme fraiche), a loaf of Corson bread, a jar of something preserved (whether it be rich stock, something pickled just for you, or a little smidge of jam), and, of course, a bottle of wine. Also, recipes from the Dillon team. An optional meat share includes eight chickens, a fourth of a pig, and a whole lamb. In addition to all this: two workdays on the farm (I have a feeling there won’t be too much work involved) that each end in a family-friendly communal meal. Sans meat, the share costs $1950, which works out to about $85 a week. Which may very well be worth it, for what might be the best farm share on earth.

The shares get delivered weekly to either Sitka and Spruce or the Corson Building. More specifics and sign-up details are right here.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Farms, CSAs, Sitka and Spruce, Matt Dillon

Columbia City Bakery’s CSA for Carb Lovers Now Offered Year Round

Next up: a second delivery day each week, says owner Evan Andres.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 07, 2011 at 09:35AM 0 Comments

Columbia City Bakery: now delivering the loaves all year long.

Photo: Columbia City Bakery via Facebook

About a year ago, Columbia City Bakery owner Evan Andres introduced the CSB program (like a CSA, only you get baked goods instead of vegetables), dropping off breads and desserts to sites around the city on Tuesdays—the bakery’s slowest day.

The service was planned as a way to move bread during the farmers market off-season. But Andres recently started offering year-round delivery and says if the program grows large enough, he’ll deliver on Mondays too.

The CSB costs $17 a week (the minimum commitment is $136 for eight weeks of delivery) and for that members receive two loaves of bread and a sweet baked that very morning. They can hand-pick their orders online or leave the choices up to the bakery. The latter option offers the opportunity to taste the full inventory of Columbia City baked goods, minus those that don’t travel well. Croissants, Andres points out, make poor deliverables.

There are currently about 45 slots open in the CSB. Check out the bakery’s website to learn about drop-off spots and how to join.

Curious, I asked Andres if he knew of any other bakeries following a CSA model. He was aware of a bakery in Vermont doing something similar, he said, as well as a desserts delivery service in Olympia.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Columbia City, Bread, Baking, CSAs, Seattle Food Delivery