Rettland Farm Share 2014

 

So we covered the WHY of the new Rettland Farm Farm Share program here.

Now let's talk about the HOW.


1. The Buy In Phase:

Like any CSA, we have to start with the buy in, the price you pay for membership in the farm share.

Unlike most CSAs, however, you decide the price you pay for this one.

That's right, no set CSA fee. You pay what you can based on your budget and food needs.

What we offer you in return for your committment to the farm for the year is a little "thank you" in the form of a bonus on top of your investment.

The Bonuses

 

• For amounts up to $499, we will add 5% to the amount of your investment. 

• For amounts of $500 and up we will add 10% to the amount of your investment.

• For amounts over $1000, we'll simultaneously be impressed and humbled by your dedication to Rettland Farm, we'll give you the 10% bonus, and we'll throw in your choice of a Rettland Farm ballcap or T-Shirt.

• For amounts over $2000, after we get over being gobsmacked by your awesomeness, we'll give you all of the other bonuses, plus a loaf of sourdough bread, made from our own organic wheat flour, baked by yours truly, and delivered, still warm, to your door. (Heck, we'll even make you some butter to go along with it!)

The Timeline

 

You can make your investment anytime between now and April 1, 2014. You can pay it all at once, or make installments as often as you like. The schedule is entirely up to you, but the Buy-In phase closes April 1, 2014 and no funds will be accepted after that date.

Once you have paid your fees, we will issue you a Share Card, which will be modeled after a savings account passbook. The amount on the Share Card will be equal to your dollar investment plus your bonus, whatever that may be. At that point all you need to do is to wait for April 2.

Because beginning April 2, we begin the Share phase.


2. The Share Phase:

After April 2, and until your Share Card balance reaches $0, you are entitled to begin collecting your Farm Share, in the form of ANY of the products that we produce and have available for sale at that time.

You probably know we produce pastured broiler chickens while the grass is green. You can take some of them as your share.

 

And we also raise pigs that ultimately make some pretty tasty pork, from chops to bacon to hams to all manner of sausages. You can claim some of that for your share too.

Aaaaand we are starting to produce some organic grains, and we grind them into flour. Flour can be part of your share too, if you're so inclined.

How 'bout the new goodies we're working on behind the scenes? You know, the stuff that we're 99% sure we're going to have, but are too superstitious to mention?  Yep, that stuff too if we can get them to work out.

In short, you can take ANY Rettland Farm product that we have available throughout the season, in ANY quantity that you'd like to have it in. (*Please read "The Fine Print..."*)

No more set quantities. No more fixed items. And no more mandatory pick up schedule

The idea here is to make your Farm Share more customized to your needs and tastes, and not try to cram everyone into the same mold. To quote one of my wife's and my favorite movie lines:  "I am a peacock, you gotta let me fly!!" 

So fly, my little Peacocks.  Fly!

3. The Point of Sale:

As of now, the main point of sale, where you will be able to collect your Farm Share will be the New Larder at Rettland Farm, set to open soon on Baltimore Pike, south of Gettysburg, PA. The Larder will be open Saturdays, and by appointment if needed.

(For our Members in Baltimore, I am working on putting together a Buyer's Club program for you, with periodic deliveries to Charm City throughout the year. See special instructions for you at the end of this post)

In either location, you will simply select the products that you'd like to buy just like you would do at any farmers' market, and then present them to our Team member at the point of sale along with your Share Card. The retail price of your purchases will be added up, and the total will be deducted from your remaining balance on the Share Card.

You'll repeat this process until your balance reaches $0, at which point you are still welcome to shop with us. You'll just use other forms of payment besides your Share Card.


4. Additional Perks:

In addition to the cash bonus on the Share Card, you'll also receive a few extra perks for being part of the Farm Share.

• To give you the best selection of our available products each week, Share members will be allowed early access to the Larder each day it is open. So if the Larder's posted hours have it opening at 12 noon for the general public, it will be open at 10 am for Share members.

• Share members will also receive early bird tips about special products that we have available in limited quantities, such as holiday hams or Thanksgiving turkeys, before we announce their availability to the general public.

• Finally, we'll give each member one insulated reuseable tote bage that you can use to safely carry your goodies home from your visits to the Larder.

5. The Fine Print:

Please understand that while we're trying maximize your freedom of choice, we're still a small farm, and sometimes our inventories of certain products are low. It's important to know that this is still a CSA of sorts, and by no means a mega supermarket with seemingly endless supplies of everything.

Be aware that we as producers are flying blind here a little bit, the necessary trade off for this new flexible CSA. So gauging demand for each product is going to take a little practice and finesse on our part.

Please know this up front: There will be days that we don't have what you want. But we will always have something awesome for you to eat. CSAs are meant to challenge your thinking when it comes to food, and make you step outside your comfort zone when it comes to cooking it.

So if we don't have bacon on the shelf when you visit, rest assured that we'll have it next week or the week after, and these pork minute steaks will be amazing on your plate until then.

Plan to take 6-8 months to exhaust your share. That's certainly the intention, to allow you to experience as much of the farm's seasonality as possible. If you try to collect your full share in the blink of an eye early in the season, you're going to miss out on some great stuff later in the season. And also make things really stressful for us.


6. How to Join:

Simply send me an email. farmer@rettlandfarm.com. Let me know that you're interested, the approximate dollar amount you'd like to invest, and what payment schedule you're thinking about, if any. I'll take it from there.

(And if you're from the Baltimore area, please let me know that too. We'll give you more info about how we're going to work the Buyer's Club there)

Hopefully you'll consider being a part of our new Farm Share program! 

We are really looking forward to hearing from you!

Share-A-Swine, Month 4 (and Another Recipe!)

So here we are folks, at the fourth and final pick up day for the Rettland Farm Share-A-Swine program. 

Our little group has gone through about 400 lbs of Rettland Farm pork in the last 4 months, the equivalent of about 2 whole animals.  That's pretty impressive!

So to wrap it up, here is what you'll find in your share bag this month:

Loin/Rib Chops:  Eat "High on the Hog" one last time.  Maybe sneak them on the grill one of these warm days!

Shoulder Steak:  We had this once before in a previous month's share.  These do best with slow, low heat.  They would be excellent in a stew or braise, or dry rub them and slow cook them on the grill or in the oven.  Don't let their shape fool you!  They look like a steak, but they need time to tenderize.

Regular Sausage:  For any occasion.  Simply amazing grilled (are you noticing a pattern here?), served on a bun with mustard and cheese.

Sweet Italian Sausage:  Our friend Christine (she of Lard Making Fame) sent out a recipe via email to the group last month using sweet italian sausage.  You can find it again here.

Ground Pork:  I'd mix this with lean grassfed beef and make some killer burgers...you guessed it...on the grill.

Minute Steaks:  Back again, since we love them so.  Stir fry, tacos, or cheesesteak.  Or whatever novel ways you've come to use them.

Thanks for all your support, Share-A Swiners! 

Enjoy!

In My Inbox Today....

This was in my inbox this morning, from J.B, a longtime friend of the farm. 

It made me smile.  Proudly.  The wheels are starting to turn, folks, right here at home.

Hi Beau-

I just wanted you to know that I am spending the year on a research leave in Copenhagen DK. supposedly it is the food hub of Northern Europe, but The Danes are rapidly growing tired of my complaining about their absence of farmers' markets. I knew this all along, but going away from it definitely has reinforced what [a nice] food culture is in place in SC PA. Agri-culture, eh?

Hope all is well and best wishes for continued success. I look forward to getting on the meat share when we get back.

J

The Joint Lard Adventure, Part 2

A few weeks back, you may remember, I mentioned a little partnership we had gotten into with our friend Christine, who had been interested in getting her hands on some lard.

You might also remember that Christine, after learning that we didn't sell lard for several reasons, willingly, innocently, agreed to make her own at home.  And as an added bonus, she agreed to document the process for all of the rest of us.

Confession time.  I have made lard before.  I KNEW it wasn't quite as easy peasy as all the rustic homesteader or the foodie snob websites made it out to be.  And I also knew that it was a little...odiferous.

Stink?  No, not really, at least not to me.  But imagine the most intense musky, meaty, porky smell you've ever experienced.  Now double it.  And NOW you're in the ball park.

Throughout history, lard was probably rendered outside in the summer kitchen of the farmstead or even in the open air, in the dead of winter (cause that's when hogs were butchered), in a big open kettle over an actual fire.  No intense odors in the house while rendering it, or lingering of said odors inside said house for days thereafter.  Trouble is, most folks these days don't have a summer kitchen, or feel the urge to cook pioneer style in a cast iron kettle over open fire.

So I had the idea of modernizing the process and using that ubiquitous household appliance, a slow cooker, to slowly render the lard.  By doing so, we'd be able to put the whole operation and all its' intense eau de porkiness, outside.

I made this suggestion to Christine, and she RAN with it.

And I have to say, I think she has written some of the best Food writing I've ever read. I sincerely hope that this post of hers gets thousands of hits, because it's the real deal when it comes to rendering lard.  Her theme of "Hey, making lard ain't pretty, easy, or fun.  But it's worth it." is spot on, in my humble opinion. 

Check out her full post here. And then add it to your favorites.

And one last note:  I've been playing this as some kind of partnership or joint venture between Christine  and I.  It's not.  She did all of the research and all of the work.  She was the one jarring up liquid pork fat at midnight a few weeks ago, not me.  I'm just some farmer guy who gave up some pork fat.

Thanks Christine!

Chicken CSA, 2013

It's hard to believe, but we are exactly one week away from the first day-old chicks arriving on the farm, which signals the official kick off for the 2013 Chicken crop here at Rettland Farm.

One of many jobs that has to be done to prepare for the season is to roll out and fill up our CSA 2013. You might remember that CSA means "Chicken Subscription Arrangement" here at Rettland Farm. (For the full story of our CSA, check here.) We put the CSA idea together for the 2012 season, and had a nice number of brave souls who gave it a shot. I think I can say that it was an overwhelming success, and that it was a really great experience for both the members and for me.

After getting some feedback from last year's members, I've made a few minor changes for this year. Most notable will be that we will provide the chickens in different forms this year, instead of just a whole bird every week. This should provide a nice little element of suspense, as you pull open the CSA fridge door and see just what form your bird is in this week! 

One thing that DID NOT change is the price per share. We are offering the CSA shares for the same weekly cost as last year, and guaranteeing the same minimum weight. Thought you might like to know that...

So, without further delay, here's the nitty gritty for CSA 2013:

1. Why are we offering our chickens this way? I want to operate a CSA that provides fresh chickens for my members on a weekly basis. It ensures my members a supply of fresh food, and provides me with a stable, known quantity of products that I have to grow every week. I also think that this arrangement will strenghten relationships between farmer and eater, which is something that is important to me.

2. How does it work? Each "share" in the CSA will entitle the member to 1 pastured broiler chicken each week, usually unfrozen, and packaged in plastic bags. The bird may be whole, in parts, halved, or otherwise cut to provide variety in the share. The form every week will be at my discretion, and all shares will be the same.

3. What are the specifics on the chickens? This CSA will produce pastured broiler chickens, weighing approximately 4.0 lbs or more, but not less than 3.5 lbs. These chickens will typically be commercial white broiler chickens. The diet for the chickens, besides pasture, will contain whole grains (excluding corn), oilseeds, and vitamins and minerals. All processing of the chickens will occur on the farm, and be done by the farmer and/or farm employees.

4. When will the CSA begin? End? The CSA will provide fresh food to the members every week from early to mid-May, run for 30 weeks through the summer and end sometime in November.

5. Where is the pick up location? The member will pick up their share at the farm, located outside of Gettysburg, PA once per week, every Saturday from 12pm until 7pm. We are also in discussions to have a drop location in the Baltimore metro area, specifically in or near Hampden. If you are from the Baltimore area and are interested in this location, PLEASE let me know. We will need a minimum number of members to make this location work, so let me know EARLY if you are interested!

6. What is the cost? The cost for 1 share in the CSA for 2013, with the share being picked up at the farm will be $14 per week for a period of 30 weeks, for a total cost of $420. For the Baltimore location, the cost for one share in 2013 will be $16 per week, for 30 weeks, for a grand total of $480. (The extra cost is needed to cover the cost of refrigerated transportation). The total cost of the share will be paid by April 1, 2013, with a minimum 50% deposit due by March 1, 2013. If you are interested in the CSA, but will have trouble complying with this schedule, please contact me. We will consider all offers for alternative payments and payment schedules.

7. One share not enough? So your family eats more than one chicken a week, eh? OR, you are a planner and want to stock up on chickens for the winter while we are actively growing them in the summer? Good for you. Simply order as many shares as fits your needs. If that is TOO many chickens, there will be additional chickens available for purchase at retail prices when available.

8. Other benefits? Some CSAs do cool things like share recipes for harder to cook items. I'd like to teach people how to break down chickens into pieces, as some families prefer. Share tips for making stock (a must when you have access to fresh, flavorful whole chickens). Spend an hour with us on a harvesting day. Get a personalized tour of the chicken pastures. I'd be willing to do any or all of these things, if the interest was there. Anything to build a food community around our humble little chicken enterprise, and a sense of ownership for the members. What ideas do you have??

So what do you think?

Can you dig a fresh, premium, pastured chicken in your oven every week this summer?

Yeah, thought so.

So send me an email and get yourself on the list!

Share-A-Swine Program

I've been thinking all summer about ways to get our pork onto the tables of more home cooks and families. And while our costs of production seem to go in only one direction, I knew that we had to start being mindful of the price of our product. So I started thinking about a way that we could mimic large volume sales that allow us to offer restaurants a lower price, and apply that to a group of smaller buyers.
After I came up with the skeleton of the program a few weeks ago, I asked my page-likers over on the Facebook if there was any interest in a so called "pork share" program.

There was interest. LOTS of it.

So, I came up with the Rettland Farm Share-a-Swine Program.

Basically, this allows home cooks to buy our pastured, heritage breed pork at prices below retail. I wanted to have an affordable up-front cost that didn't strain household budgets, to keep the commitment short and the burden of pickup/delivery low, and to introduce people to cuts beyond bacon and tenderloin.

I think this is a good start towards all of that.

So here's how the Rettland Farm Share-A-Swine (SAS) Progam will work:

1. By becoming a member of the SAS program, you will receive a monthly share of our heritage, seasonally pastured pork. This share will consist of some combination of pork chops, pork steaks, bacon, ham, minute steaks, and fresh sausage. You will receive these different types of cuts in relative proportion to their weight in the animal. (For example, we all wish that a pig was 99% bacon, but tragically it isn't. It is a disappointing 10% bacon, roughly. So therefore, your share will be about 10% bacon, too.) The meat will be either fresh or frozen, at our discretion, and packaged in cryovac plastic or butcher paper, also at our discretion. It will not include any liver, heart, or other organ meats.

2. The share that you receive will be based on weight, not type of cut or price. Each monthly share will be not less than 7lbs in weight.

3. The SAS Program will run for a 4 month trial run through the winter months of December, January, February, and March. If we find it to be successful for both farmer and members, I will very likely renew the program in the spring.

4. The price for EACH MONTHLY SHARE of the SAS program is $55. This includes your monthly share of meat, plus a really groovy insulated, reusuable cooler bag that you can use to haul your porcine bounty home safely. Please note: The total price for the SAS membership is $220. We are just spreading out the payment over 4 months to make it easier on your monthly budgets. You will need to pay for each monthly installment one month in advance of pickup. (For example, the first payment for the late December share pickup will be due by late November, and so on.)

***Please don't join this program if you aren't going to keep up with it for the full 4 months. If you bail on us, you're kicking us right in the pocketbook, and we'll get irritated by that fact and not want to sell you anything ever again and probably say unkind things about you around the family dinner table, and probably teach our kids some really colorful language that they'll later use in situations that are horribly embarassing to us. So if you commit, stick it out please.  It's only four months.***

***On the other hand, if you would like to pay for your membership in one up front payment, we'll offer you a nice discount. Ask me for details.***

5. The SAS shares will be available for pickup one day per month, most likely a Saturday, at Rettland Farm in Gettysburg, PA. In an effort to reach our fans in the big city, we will offer a delivery to Baltimore and Washington DC metro areas. There will be a minimum number of shares required from each area to justify the delivery (tell your friends to sign up), and a delivery surcharge of $10 per share for Baltimore and $20 for Washington DC will be added to the monthly share price.

If you can't make it to pick up your share in a given month, please let us know so we can make other arrangements. We have very limited cold storage space, so any unclaimed shares will have to be donated to the local food bank, unless other arrangements are made in advance.

6. If you are interested, please shoot me an email at farmer@rettlandfarm.com and sign yourself up for the inaugural run of the Share-A-Swine program. The deadline to opt in will be Saturday, December 1, 2012.

What do you think? What did I forget? I think I hit on all the basics, but if I missed something or you have any questions, please leave it in the comment section below so everyone can see it, or contact me at farmer@rettlandfarm.com.

This is gonna be cool! Tell your friends!  Get in on it today!

It's All About Priorities...

There was recently an Op-Ed in the New York Times by my old friend, James McWilliams about local food being “elitist”. While I’ll withhold my opinions on Old Jim and his motives (for now), I’d like to address the “elitist” issue.

Like all farmers, I take great pride in the ability to feed people. I also worry about those who go hungry, which I think is a shameful thing to happen in the wealthiest society in the history of the world.

Unfortunately though, access to food is not a right, despite all of our wishes to the contrary. Food, like shelter, freedom, and anything else in life that we treasure, is only attained through sacrifice and work, and the willingness to exchange that work for the other things that we place value in. The only thing that is truly an inalienable right, the only thing that the human species is guaranteed to acquire with absolutely no effort, is death. Hate to be crude, but that's the way it is. You heard it here first.

Buying real, locally and sustainably produced food is not an issue of economics for most people: it is an issue of priority. We as consumers make a choice when we buy a $4000 flat screen TV and the related goodies, and yet feel pinched when the price of milk tops $3.50 per gallon. We make a choice to build status symbol homes that are twice the size of the houses we were raised in, strap ourselves with mortgages and heating costs and property taxes, instead of focusing some of those financial resources on eating well, or more importantly, feeding our children well.

That said, we have an obligation to help those who really truly cannot access local food because of poverty, and not because of poorly chosen priorities. Slowly, we are making progress in that direction through public assistance programs that recognize the value of local food and enable the recipients of that assistance to shop at farmers markets. As farmers markets expand into more communities, the accessibility for these folks will continue to improve.

From my own experience, the typical farmers market patrons in the booming metropolis of Adams County, Pennsylvania share one common thread. That common denominator is NOT the balance in their checkbooks or the zeros on their balance sheets. It's not their age or ethnicity, or the car they drive, or their political beliefs, or any other characteristic used to stereotype the farmers market shopper by folks like Jim McWilliams.

Instead, they share the sense of value in the food they are buying; the feeling of community from being with other like minded people; and the importance of their patronage to the farmer and his desired way of life.

If those feelings and those values make them elitist, then sign me up.