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Waltham Fields Community Farm
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CSA NEWSLETTER - Preseason 2015
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Dear Shareholder,
Welcome to the CSA at Waltham Fields Community Farm! Whether it's your first season or your fifteenth, we are all so excited to see you on the farm next week! While the weather has been tricky this winter and spring, our farmers have been hard at work planting, weeding, and tending to the crops despite it all!
Please read on for information about CSA pickups beginning next week, important shareholder information, and our retail farm stand.
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 CSA PICKUPS BEGIN NEXT WEEK!
COME ONCE EACH WEEK ON ANY OF THESE DAYS
Wednesdays, 2:00-6:30 PM (starts June 10th)
Thursdays, 2:00-6:30 PM (starts June 11th)
Saturdays, 9 AM-2 PM (starts June 13th)
Any shareholder is welcome to pick up on any of the above days! You don't have to let us know when you're coming. Feel free to switch back and forth from week to week if that works best for you, or choose a day and stick to it for most of the season. We'll be happy to see you whatever day you come to the farm.
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MEET YOUR FARM STAFF AND TOUR THE FARM! 
During the first week of pick-ups, we'd love for you to join us for an orientation and tour. This is a chance to meet a staff member, hear more about the work of our nonprofit, learn or be reminded about how our CSA program works, and walk around the fields to see what's growing and talk about our organic farming practices. You don't have to do the tour on the same day as you pick up. Come to any one of these that suits your schedule!
ORIENTATION/TOUR OPTIONS:
4 PM on Wednesday, June 10
5:30 PM on Thursday, June 11
11 AM on Saturday, June 13
WHERE TO MEET: At the Distribution Barn of Waltham Fields Community Farm, 240 Beaver Street, Waltham. The Barn is located behind the red brick UMass building (we lease land and office space from UMass).
BRING: Friends, children, well-behaved pets on leashes, questions, and sturdy shoes to walk around the farm.
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IMPORTANT SHAREHOLDER INFORMATION
What's in the Share
Each week, we'll send out a CSA newsletter on Tuesday letting you know our best guess for what will be in share, for the items we're harvesting for you as well as for pick-your-own crops. All shareholders need to check in with us in the Distribution Barn before picking up their share.
Our first shares will start out smaller and grow with the season. Choice will be more limited in these earlier weeks but we'll start to see more bounty roll in later in the month. We'll send out your first official CSA newsletter next Tuesday with a crop list and more information for you, so watch your email inbox!
If it's your first time picking up a CSA share with WFCF, we strongly encourage you to join us for one of the orientation tours listed in the section above. If you can't make it to any of the three dates/times, let us know when you check in and we'll help guide you through your first pick up. Also, please feel free to ask us questions anytime. We're here to help you!
Bring Your Own Bags or a Box
Please remember to bring your own bags or a box to the farm to pick up your CSA share! We strongly encourage the use of reusable bags/boxes for all vegetables on the farm. If you forget your bags or want some really great ones, we have reusable Waltham Fields Tote Bags for sale in the barn for $4, with proceeds supporting our food assistance and education programs.
Pick-Your-Own Crops
All shareholders are welcome to pick-your-own anytime during daylight hours, and you don't have to do your pick-your-own when you pick up the rest of your share. Like last year, each PYO crop will have a number assigned to it. We'll have a sheet of paper available each week with a map and a list of crops that are available to harvest on it, along with the amount allowed and harvest tips. Then just look for the corresponding number in the field to pick your own! PYO sheets will be available when you pick up as well as during non-pickup hours at the PYO kiosk on the south side of the Distribution Barn. Please respect the quantity limits so that there is enough for everyone!
For flowers, our vegetable shareholders will be able to pick some of the flowering plants in the perennial gardens and there will be two weeks during the 20-week season when shareholder are given access to our annual flowers for picking. If you're a flower lover though and haven't purchased a flower share yet, we still have some left. Flower shares offer 10 weeks of picking two bouquets per week for $100 (just $10/week for a bounty of food for the soul)! Click here to learn more about flower share purchase. If You Need to Miss a Pick Up If you can't pick up a share one week, we are not able to allow you to double up on another week. But you can send friends or neighbors to get your veggies on any week you can't make it yourself. Have them check in under the last name of the primary shareholder for your share. You don't need to let us know they're coming. They will just check in under your name at the CSA barn. If no one picks up your share, the veggies will be included with our weekly donations to hunger relief organizations.
Balances Due
All fees were due by June 1st, including share balances and maintaining current membership with our nonprofit organization. If you're not sure if you still owe money for your CSA share or membership, check your email for a notice from our Bookkeeper and Office Coordinator, Rebekah Lea. Please get your outstanding balance payments to us in advance of the first pick ups next week. Credit card payments are no longer accepted for share payments. Please send in or drop off your check made out to WFCF.
For Those Splitting a Share If you are splitting a share, please remember that you need to pick up the whole share at one time each week. It is NOT acceptable for one partner to come at one time and pick up half of the share and another to get the other half later. You'll need to coordinate with your share partner to figure out how to divide the share up, either by taking alternate weeks, meeting up at the farm to pick up the share together, etc.
Dogs on the Farm
Dogs are welcome on the farm but are not allowed in the CSA barn or in the vegetable fields per health department regulations. Dogs must be leashed and owners must clean up after them.
Share Pick Up Questions
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RETAIL PRODUCTS FOR SALE - OUR FARM STAND
In addition to picking up the produce coming to you in your share (pre-paid), you'll have the opportunity to buy additional farm products and locally made items (such as eggs, cheese, meat, fruit, maple syrup & cold drinks), farm merchandise (t-shirts, totes, perpetual calendars, etc.), and even extra produce when available. All of our retail products are available for sale to the public. This is a nice way to enable volunteers, education program participants, your friends/family tagging along on your share pick up and local residents the chance to access local food products and support local producers.
For our own produce offerings, we prioritize giving shareholders a good return on their investment and meeting our food assistance goals (20% of what we grow - which should amount to $80,000 of produce for low-income households this year). Early in the season, crops for sale to the public will be those that we have an abundance of and later in the season, if production is going well, we hope to operate as a full-fledged farm store with a wide range of vegetables available to the public during our weekly CSA distribution hours.
Cash, check, and credit cards are all accepted for retail items. Our Distribution Coordinator, Lauren Trotogott, looks forward to featuring products in her What's In the Barn column in each week's CSA newsletter.
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Waltham Fields Community Farm Staff
Year-Round Staff:
Seasonal Staff:
Assistant Grower: Anna Kelchlin
Farm Assistants: Tim Cooke, Dan Roberts, Naomi Shea
Farm Stand Assistant: Leo Martinez
Field Crew: Anna Hirson-Sagalyn, Roy Kresge, Jack Leng, Evan Rees
Weed Crew: Anna Blaustein, Leo Martinez, Gina Masciovecchio, Annie Nguyen
Learning Garden Educators: Sadie Brown, Autumn Cutting, Alannah Glickman
4H Club Leader: Kimi Ceridon
Summer Interns: Cassandra Baker, Alisa Feinswog, Ali Rabideau, Jesse Simmons
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