Our First CSA Member!

Congratulations to Heidi and her son Donovan for becoming our first CSA customers!

A CSA or community supported agriculture is a share of a harvest of the produce that we grow. The member takes some of the risk by paying up front for the produce that will be grown and harvested at a later time. It connects produce consumers with produce growers. It helps link farmers with the home dinner table and gives people an appreciation of where their food comes from. Heidi picked up her first share this past weekend. She found out about us through our local harvest website. I asked her what made her want to sign up and she said that she thought that our produce would be better than store bought produce. She conveyed that you never really know where the produce from the store has come from and how it was produced. I am really glad that she cares so much for where her produce comes from and how it was grown. It is wonderful to meet people that want to make a difference in their lives through what they eat and appreciating who grows the food they eat. Heidi paid $80.00 for four weeks of organically grown and freshly picked produce that she will pick up at the farm on Saturdays. I am glad that the joy and efforts of growing produce in a responsible manner can be appreciated beyond the farm. Donovan also learned where his carrots come from and had a great time pulling them out of the ground.

Strawberry Festival

I volunteered this year to help out at the local Plant City Strawberry Festival. I worked with the Plant City Historical Society. They raise money to help maintain the Historic landmark of the Plant City High School.

Here is a photo of the process of making a mass of strawberry shortcake.

It starts with the flats of berries.

The first step is that the berries get stemmed to remove the leaves.

The berries get placed into five gallon buckets and then moved to the wash room. The berries then get triple rinsed to remove dirt and debris.

Then the berries get strained to remove the water.

Then the get dumped into the strawberry slicer which cuts them into edible bite sizes.

Then the strawberries get sugar added to the bucket, the buckets get numbered and placed in the cooler to go to the festival to make the wonderful strawberry shortcake.

I know this has nothing to do with my farm but I did enjoy the process of moving berries along the production line. Plant City pretty much shuts down for the strawberry festival so I thought that I would join in the fun.