Wrapping Up our First CSA Season
We are nearing the end to our first season with our CSA members. I just wanted to gratefully thank those of you who supported this Community Supported Agriculture. As it was our first season, we had many experiments, from which we have formed some positive ideas towards next season’s CSA. Some of these included new experiences with pest management, our greenhouse plans are now in effect, Our crop plan will be formed differently next year taking into account spacing provided by our forestry project. Additionally, we plan to incorporate our CSA with other farms as we experimented with this season to provide an array of local organic products. We will be working up plans for a chicken coop to host Town Farm eggs next season.
This off-season will be spent working locally, connecting to other local like-minded small businesses, creating our stellar 2012 crop plan, ordering seeds, and within a couple of months beginning our seeds indoors! It will fly by quickly and we hope you are all as excited as we are about next season.
Thank you to our friends and farmers in the agricultural community who have acted as mentors toward us. We are forever indebted to you and plan on continuing a supportive relationship with you and your businesses.
We are truly appreciative of our members for their friendship and incredible families, feedback and support throughout this process. It has been such a pleasure to get to know you all and be a part of your lives. We hope you will all join us again in 2012 for a more evolved Town Farm. This upcoming weekend’s potluck and garlic planting will be a great event to celebrate our 2011 season. We could not have done it without you all and we hope to continue to maintain our place in this community and watch our roots continue to grow for years to come.
Yours Truly and With Gratitude,
Amanda Levine and Dylan Williams
Town Farm CSA Memberships
We are filling up quickly! We have decided to extend our intended number of shares available for members, from 20, to 25.
We request that if you are interested, you please e-mail us at townfarmorganic@gmail.com , to enquire about availability. We will begin accepting memberships for next season this Autumn, and look forward to expanding our operation to include more members at that point!
Best Wishes and Thank You for the overwhelming support.
Your Farmers,
Amanda Levine and Dylan Williams
April at Town Farm
We have already broken ground and have a number of seedlings started. This week we planted Peppers, Eggplant, Tomatoes, double dug our pea beds, and took the opportunity with the fantastic weather to plant our peas.
Town Farms Greenhouse Set Up at Aiki Farms
We are off to a great start, and are almost at full capacity for our intended number of members for our CSA. On April 30th, we are planning to have a Potato Planting Day and lunch, with our members. Namely, so that our members can meet one another.
In conjunction with our fellow local farmers, and The Town of Ledyard, we are working to promote The Ledyard Farmer’s Market this season. It is a great group of local farms ranging in product from organic vegetables, herbs, maple syrup, local fish, baked goods, and a number of other products including local artisan crafts. The market will be held from 4-7 on Wednesdays, starting the first week of June. We look forward to this season, and hope to see you all at The Ledyard Farmer’s Market, held at the Ledyard Fairgrounds this season.
Preparing for Spring..
We are now accepting memberships for the Town Farm CSA. We offer different share levels, meaning you would most likely pick up produce once a week or once every other week, depending on your preference and needs. We are working on getting our seed order finalized and will be sending out a copy in the next Town Farm Newsletter. We request that our members e-mail us their thoughts on the seed list.
Artwork by Peter Bragino
For more information on what to expect as a member of our CSA this season, please subscribe to our newsletter . Embedded in the literature is a sign-up/commitment form which will provide you with details of share levels, helping out on the farm, and our goals.
We are looking forward to the Spring and hope you’ll join us this Summer.
Your Farmers,
Amanda Levine and Dylan Williams
Late Summer at Town Farm
We have started breaking down the farm for the Winter. We are applying for grants for next season, making our crop plan, adding the correct nutrients back into the soil and getting ready to plant Garlic in October. Our Fall Harvest will include Butternut Squash, Ornamental Gourds, Carrots and hopefully Beets.. if the deer comply. The Ledyard Farmer’s Market will resume next week until the end of September.
I am now taking e-mails for a mailing list to send out detailed information on the Town Farm CSA for the 2011 season. If you are interested in this information for next season, please e-mail us at townfarmorganic@gmail.com, or through our ‘Contact Us’ page on the website. Thank you, we look forward to building our membership with you all during this Autumn.
Best,
Your Farmers
Radio Interview on Soft Rock 106.5
Thank you to Bob Burns, of Aiki Farms in Ledyard for including us in the radio interview this morning to promote the Ledyard Farmer’s Market. It will be airing tomorrow morning, Tuesday Jul
y 27th, most likely from about 6:30-7 a.m. If you’re an early bird, or happen to be just as excited as we are about Town Farm publicity, please listen to our early morning slot tomorrow, on 106.5, Soft Rock.
And don’t forget to come to the Ledyard Fairgrounds, in Ledyard Center, Wednesdays from 4-7 for a delicious taste of locally grown organic produce!
Your Farmers
First Market Day & News Article
Hello Farm Fans!
We are very proud to say that we finally made it to market this week at the Ledyard Fairgrounds. Also, linked to the bottom of this post is our article in The New London Newspaper ‘The Day’. Reporter Matt Collette discovered our website and felt compelled to write a story on our operation. We are very proud of the article and all of our hard work being recognized. Thank you Matt!
A big thank you to all who contacted us or saw us at the Farmer’s Market and gave us such positive feedback. We truly appreciate hearing how excited many of you are for our endeavor. Over the next week or so I will be posting detailed information on how to sign up for a membership with our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for the 2011 season! Prep work for next season starts now.
We are taking appointments for farm stand, if you cannot make it to our Local Farmer’s Market (Wednesdays 4-7). If there is a time of day that works for you when you would like to come see our harvest and purchase some produce, please e-mail or call us, and we will be sure to let you know what we have available before you come.
Thank you again to all for the feedback. We look forward to forming a beautiful community here, centered around the ideals that this land has always influenced people to strive for- health, happiness and an understanding of, and connectedness to the earth of New England.
Your Farmers,
Amanda & Dylan
Almost Harvest Time..
We are heading into our first harvest at Town Farm, which will start over the next couple of weeks. This weekend we will be putting our pickling and slicing cucumbers in the ground, and seeding carrots, lettuce, beets, summer and winter squash.
This week at Town Farm, Bob Burns of Aiki Farms of Ledyard came by with his bed-shaper and in minutes we had beautiful raised beds. Naturally, farming in a place called “Ledyard” in New England, we run into tons of rocks and must adapt. Shaping or digging raised beds creates room for a crops roots to grow freely. It is important to create the best environment for the plant to receive what it needs. So, a big Thank You to Bob! Also, thank you to Bill and Anita of Hidden Brook Gardens, we truly appreciate the help along the way. We look forward to building a cohesive, organic agricultural community while learning something new everyday.
Please remember to check out our new pictures before you leave!
Support Your Local Farmers
Amanda & Dylan
Breaking Ground
We’d like to officially welcome you to our new website,
We are a small organic vegetable farm in Ledyard, CT. We will be offering memberships to our CSA for the 2011 season. A CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture is centered around the idea of knowing who is growing your food, and knowing that it is fresh. Members will purchase a share or a half share prior to the growing season, which will assure a certain portion of the weekly produce for every member. We will also be working on reaching out to local restaurants who are interested in supporting local organic farms. This season, we are growing 36 different varieties of vegetables and the planting is well underway. Most of our crop will be ready for harvest in early July and onward.
Thank you for taking the time to check out our website. Please feel free to browse our pages and to e-mail for more information or to plan a visit.
