Dear Members,

Welcome to Week 2 of our 2010 Spring season!  We hope you enjoyed your first delivery of vegetables from us.  We’ve heard from many of you over the last week, and it sounds like you have been making some fantastic meals. The season will just get better as we get into warmer weather and some of those summer favorites begin to ripen.  We have some really beautiful produce being gathered from the fields this week, so you are in for another great week of eating!

As you know, your pick-up day is tomorrow, Monday, May 3rd.  Our harvest this week includes kale, mustard greens, lettuces (leaf, butter crunch, and romaine), carrots, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, spring onions, and more delicious, melt in your mouth strawberries! Please keep in mind that your box contents may vary from the above according to share size, ripeness, and availability.  We had some questions about storage tips for the greens we have been providing, so we offer the following suggestion. Greens are made up of about 90% water.  Once they are cut, they begin to dehydrate.  While we take every precaution to keep them cool and hydrated, you can help revive the greens once you receive them by running cold water on them before you put them away in the refrigerator. Since most of our refrigerators don’t come equipped with those handy “misters” you see in the grocery store, we’ve found this simple way to keep our greens happy and crisp.

A friendly reminder regarding this week’s pick up…please remember to return your empty share boxes to your drop sites when you pick up your new delivery.  Successful box rotation will ensure that we are able to operate our program with maximum sustainability and minimum loss. We appreciate your help to this end.

Many of you have been sharing your meals and recipes with others on our Facebook page.  Thank you!  We are working behind the scenes to develop a recipes section on our website, and we need your help.  If you are making extraordinary meals with our farm fresh produce, we’d love to hear about it.  Please send your recipes and preparations toann@pinckneysproduce.com, so we can share them with all of our members.  This recipe section will be a work in progress that will build season after season.  Who knows?  Some day we may have our very own Pinckney’s Produce Cookbook!

We have greatly appreciated your comments and support during the launch of our season and have been particularly pleased to see your enthusiasm in emails and on Facebook. Please keep sending your feedback.  It really helps us to continue to shape our program and reach our goal of being the best CSA in South Carolina. We couldn’t do it without you.

Regards,

Jody

Just a reminder…Pinckney’s Produce is on Facebook! If you’re interested in more frequent news and photos from the farm, please become a fan of our Facebook page.  We are updating this page frequently with the current happenings, and we will also be posting pertinent articles, recipes, and photos throughout the season.

Greetings, Farm Friends!

Today is the first day of our 2010 Spring season, and we couldn’t be more excited!  We have been working through the weekend to prepare for our first delivery day (harvesting, dividing, packing, labeling), and you are the lucky folks who are receiving the first taste of our Spring season.  We know you’ll love it!

That’s right!  You are receiving this email because your pick-up day is today, Monday, April 26th. The contents of the share boxes this week include collards, lettuce, strawberries, broccoli, spring onions, and radishes. I don’t know about you, but it just isn’t Spring to me until I taste those sweet strawberries fresh out of the field.  We hope you’ll all celebrate the beginning of the season with delicious strawberry shortcakes (I sure will be!).

I’d like to review a few reminders here about our basic pick-up protocol. When you arrive at your drop site, inform a member of the staff that you are a member of Pinckney’s Produce and are there to retrieve your share box.  Each box is labeled with your first and last name, your phone number, your share size, and drop site name.  Be sure to double check that the box you are given has your name on it before you hop in the car.

As this is the first week of the season, there may be a few bumps in the road before we get into the swing of things.  If you encounter a problem at your drop site, please give us a call at the office or on my cell (803-682-4901).  The folks managing your drop site will try to help as much as possible, but they are not responsible for any issues that may occur.  We will address any issues or concerns as quickly as possible.

If you are unable to make it to your drop site within the time frame allotted, please arrange for someone else to pick up your share on your behalf.  Make sure your designated pick-up person understands that the share boxes are labeled with member names.  Any shares that are not retrieved within operating hours will be donated at the discretion of the drop site staff.

You will keep your empty share box at your home until the next week when you return to the drop site to pick up your next delivery.  At that time, we need you to return your empty box to the drop site, so they can be recirculated into our delivery system.

In many drop sites, we will be leaving a Swap Box for members.  If you’re hoping for a little more or a little less of one particular item, you can exchange produce in the swap box.  Just make sure you don’t take something without leaving something else out of your box for the next person.  Swap boxes are new to the program this year, and we hope it will help meet the needs of those who like some produce a little more than others.

I think that just about covers it.  If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call or reply to this email.  We will respond as quickly as possible.

I know I’ve said it before, but we are really excited about this season’s program. We greatly appreciate all of your support for our farm and hope you will enjoy the produce as much as we enjoy growing and providing it to you and your families.

Best,

Jody

Just a reminder…Pinckney’s Produce is on Facebook! If you’re interested in more frequent news and photos from the farm, please become a fan of our Facebook page.  We are updating this page frequently with the current happenings, and we will also be posting pertinent articles, recipes, and photos throughout the season.

July Newsletter

Dear Subscriber,

The Spring 2009 season has come to an end, and what an exciting and bustling season it has been! We hit the ground running last winter with great hopes, but uncertain of what to expect, only to watch our membership boom over the last few months, find ourselves benefiting from wonderful press, and become caught up in more excitement surrounding local foods than we could have anticipated. Thank you for being a part of our program—we have so much to look forward to and are glad to have your support!

We believe that our first season with the CSA program met with resounding success, largely from the encouragement of our friends and members. It has certainly been a learning experience, and we thank you for keeping us on our toes! We have strived for the best product and delivery service that we could offer, and we thank you for your patience as we worked to solve issues related to our online ordering system and drop-offs, and for informing us with any problems with your deliveries. Every comment and suggestion—positive feedback and constructive criticism—has been read and taken into consideration, and hopefully everyone has heard back from us at some point via email or phone call. Please continue to stay in touch—this is your CSA program!

The past twelve weeks have flown by, but after the intense period of harvesting and deliveries, plus all the pre-season work and preparation, we are ready for a much-needed recess. The next few weeks offer a bit of a breather for us, as we will not be preparing deliveries, but we will be very busy planting, preparing soil, irrigation, and the like, and brainstorming for the fall. Many fall crops are already growing; we planted corn and pumpkins a few weeks ago, and it is amazing to see how much they have grown already. We just planted several varieties of winter squash—acorn, butternut, and spaghetti—that we are very excited about. We will be sure to tell you more about them and how to enjoy them, come fall. As a reminder, the fall season will start on the week of August 24^th and runs through November 13^th. We have a few items to share about the fall season, as follows.

Many people are writing to request information about the fall produce offerings. We have addressed this for many, but not all, of you in previous communications, but will include a brief summary here. Our website includes information on this as well, on the FAQ, Farm News, and Seasonal Calendar pages. Produce listed below will arrive in deliveries as it is becomes in season and we harvest it. We will again be providing a weekly box contents list to give you our best approximation of what will be in each box.

Expected Fall 2009 Crops

Earlier (late summer-early fall): beets; cucumbers; field peas, Lima beans, string beans, Roma/snap beans; cantaloupe and watermelon; eggplant; green onions; tomatoes; summer squash and zucchini

Later (fall): broccoli; cabbage; greens—chard, collards, lettuces, kale, spinachs; root vegetables and tubers – carrots, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, sweet potatoes; turnips; pumpkins, winter squash

We welcome the newest additions to our delivery pickup locations: Casual Gourmet Market in West Ashley, Grove Park Pharmacy in Orangeburg, and the Cross School in Bluffton. These sites have generously opened their doors to the CSA program and you may choose to pickup from these sites for the Fall 2009 season. Thank you to our Spring 2009 pickup locations, all of which have joined us again for the fall season.

Please spread the word about our CSA program and encourage your family and friends to consider joining us for the best in local, South Carolina produce. We belong to a small group of Lowcountry programs that have started up over the past two years, and are currently one of only two CSA programs serving the Columbia area. The market is growing, but we—and other local farms—are still in need of support to sustain our efforts for coming seasons. We’d like to see you purchase local produce wherever available, but remind you—as you may share with others—that a CSA program offers a reliable, weekly delivery of a variety of produce to a convenient location near you. If you are interested in establishing a new pickup site closer to your neighborhood, please contact us and we will definitely take your idea into consideration. All of our current pickup sites are listed on our online order form and FAQ page at www.pinckneysproduce.com/faq/entry/14/

In the interim between seasons on our farm, we hope that you will enjoy what is available at your local farmers markets and roadside stands—peaches and watermelon are still a-plenty! Please contact us if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions; we look forward to hearing from you!

All the best,

Jody, Pinckney, and Trevor

Pinckney’s Produce CSA Program