Questions answered
- What Are 'Subscription Vegetables'?
- A Subscription Vegetable program allows you to get fresh, local and in-season vegetables, herbs, and flowers, straight from our garden, each week throughout the growing season.
- How Does It Work?
- In the spring you order your 'share' of the vegetables from our garden. Each week you pick up your share of the vegetables that have ripened on our farm that week.
- What Vegetables will I get?
- We usually plant about 50 different vegetables, herbs, and flowers (see chart). We usually plant seeds for about 120 varieties, including 20 varieties of tomatoes. You receive the vegetables and herbs as they come ripe.
- How many vegetables will I get?
- Because of the vagaries of farming we can't guarantee the exact number of vegetables you will receive, but we plant more than enough vegetables to feed our shareholders. Each week we plan to provide on average 8 different vegetables and enough of each vegetable for one or two servings per person. Sometimes this will be more and sometimes this will be less depending on the time of year and the season. Our goal, of course, is to make this a minimum amount in each share. To get an idea of what vegetables you will be getting see the chart of vegetables delivered in past years.
- Will I get the same varieties and amounts of vegetables each week?
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The short answer is no. In June, in the Washington area you will get a lot of greens (lettuce, pac choi, arugula, mizuna, tatsoi, etc). The vegetables most people are accustomed to eating (tomatoes, peppers, squash, string beans, eggplant, etc) start ripening in mid-July. So, in June and early July you will get mostly greens, in late July, all of August and the first part of September you will get an abundance of the traditional American vegetables. And from mid-September through October you will receive a lessor amount of the summertime vegetables, plus the greens that grew in the spring, as well as fall crops like sweet potatoes, winter squash and pumpkins (when vegetables are usually ripe on our farm).
Each week, though, throughout the season, we strive to deliver each subscriber at least a serving or two of 8 different types of vegetables plus herbs. (this means we plan to give a one person share a serving or two of eight different vegetables each week, a two person share should be twice that, four person, twice that again). - Negatives?
- A CSA or subscription vegetable program is not for everyone. There are several reasons why.
Most Americans plan their meals then buy their food.
With this type of program it is the other way around - you get the food that is ripe and then plan your meals around what is available. This means no tomatoes in June or October but all the tomatoes you can eat in late July through early September. It means no salad in August (this might change with some of the new warm weather varieties of lettuce -we do not use genetically modified seeds) but plenty of greens in June and October.
In other words, with a CSA you are getting vegetables and fruit as they are locally in season. You are getting vegetables, herbs and fruits that grow in this climate and you are getting them when they come ripe in this area.
This a radical departure from the international food distribution system that most Americans have become accustomed too. Remember, the average distance that the food in your grocery store has traveled is well over 2000 miles. With us, the vegetables travel less than 40 miles from our farm to your table. - Other negatives?
- This might be a positive for some, but you will be receiving a number of vegetables that you aren't accustomed to eating. We provide the vegetable and post recipes on our webpage but cooking and eating them is up to you.
- Prices?
- We have several different prices depending on the number of people you are feeding. You pay once in the spring and you receive vegetables all season long.
See How to reserve a share for a complete price list.
Since people have widely differing eating practices, these share sizes do not fit everyone. (A vegetarian who cooks at home every night obviously eats more vegetables than an omnivore who eats at restaurants three nights a week.) What we strive to do with the size of the shares if give you a good value of fresh, local, chemical free vegetables for the money..
Fruit share costs $75 and consists of 8-12 pieces of fruit from early July until the end of the season. We do our best to mix up the fruit share but remember, local fruit in Virginia in the fall means apples. The season willing, there will be peaches, plums, pears, and nectarines but these come ripe July through early September. This share is really a apple lovers taste treat. You will get to snack on over a dozen types of fresh, local, tasty, apples, many of whiich you never see in the grocery store.
Additionally, we have a time payment plan which, as you suspect, costs slightly more. - Where Do I Pick Up My Vegetables?
- See Delivery schedule for a complete listing of our drop-off locations.
- Fruit Share
- Our orchard has not started full production yet, so right now we buy fruit from several growers in the mountains west of us. This fruit is not chemical free but we buy from orchards who use mimimal amounts of chemicals.
The price will be $75 for 8-12 pieces of fruit . Be aware that local fruit in Virginia means apples in late September and October. Our fruit subscribers, besides eating peaches, nectarines, pears and plums in July and August, sample over a dozen different types of apples. If you don't like apples (and I'm not talking about those things you get in the grocery store, but I mean real, fresh, local, non commercial - don't sign up for this share. In 2006, besides the standard Delicous, Granny Smith and Golden, we ate Ozark Black, Ida Red, Larry, York, Empire, Lodi, Summer Mac, Gala, Winesap, Macintosh, Rome, Jonagold and several I can't recall. - Eggs
- We have a limited number of half dozen egg shares. This means that for $40 subscribers receive half a dozen eggs each week for the duration of our season. We have a flock of pullets that we pasture. Our chickens live in a hen houses on wheels that is rotated from field to field naturally raising each field's fertility. Our chickens have free access to the outdoors and are protected from the local preditors (fox, raccoon, bobcats, bear, coyote, stray dogs) by a mobile anti-preditor electric fence. Our chickens eat regular non-organic laying mash from the local farmers coop, but we make sure their feed does not contain any antibiotics or hormones.
- How Long Do I Get Vegetables?
- Deliveries run 19 weeks. Beginning the first week of June and ending in October around the time the first frost traditionally occurs. Besides having vegetables delivered, our subscribers can also come to the farm before the deliveries begin in May and get early greens and they can again come after our deliveries stop in October and help glean our fields. Basically, though, you get each vegetable while they are locally in season.
- Can I order for just part of the year?
- Our season goes from the second week of June until mid-October. At this time we do not have subscriptions for part seasons (say, for just August). You can always check, though, and see if there is an open subscription. In Washington, DC people are always moving, and sometimes with little notice.
- Refunds?
- A subscription program is a commitment for the entire year. The tomatoes that are ripe in August were started in the greenhouse in March. This means that we plan and work to grow a specific amount of vegetables months before the vegetables are eaten. If you subscribe in April but find out in July you are moving, your vegetables are still out in the field growing.
So, if for some reason you subscribe and find that you can not pick up your vegetables for the entire season, it is your responsibility to find someone to take over the remainder of your share. We will help find a replacement (we often have a long waiting list) but we can't guarantee it.
What if I can't pick up my vegetables that week? I am on vacation, or have a business trip and I miss my vegetables? This is a good question. People ask, well, can I just double up on vegetables the next week? The short answer is, no. The reason is, first, the week you missed, your vegetables are still there and the next week there aren't extra vegetables. We grow a certain amount of shares for each week all season long. And anyway, if you are getting a two person share, if you doubled up one week you would get more vegetables than you could eat and they would go to waste. What we recommend is if you are going away, have a neighbor or friend come and get your vegertables. That way the vegetables won't go to waste and your neighbor will appreciate it. - Previous Year's vegetables?
- To get an idea of what you will get each week here is a
list of the vegetables delivered each week:
2007 season
2006 season
2005 season
2004 season
2003 season
2002 season
2001 season
2000 season
1999 season - Does the weather affect the vegetables I get?
- Yes. Rain, temperature, insects, animals, hail, snow and probably a thousand other variables have affected farming since the first humans began to plant seeds. And, despite visionary worlds created by bad science fiction writers, these variables will probably continue to affect the outcome of each growing season. With a subscription vegetable program you are, to a degree, gambling. When the growing conditions are good, you receive more vegetables, when unforeseen conditions occur (like an early frost) you receive less vegetables. That said, we are experienced farmers and we strive to minimize the affect these variables have on your vegetables. Our fields are irrigated, we use a variety of chemical free, sustainable methods to combat crop eating insects and plant diseases. In 2004 we erected a costly 10 foot high fence around all our fields which kept deer out of the vegetables and reduced major crop damage.
- What questions should I ask when choosing a CSA?
- All CSA's are not equal. The length of the season, variety of vegetables, size of share, price. These are some of the comparisons that come right off the top. We also think that there are others, more important, ways of judging CSA's.
First, you want a CSA that works. Do they actually succeed in growing what they plan to grow? With the vagaries of farming there always will be differences from one year to the next however there are variablies that you can research.
Ask about the experience of the grower. How many years have they been working at the same farm? An experienced farmer is more likely to produce than someone who is new at the business.
Is the farmer the owner? A farmer/owner program is more likely to be consistent from one year to the next. With some CSA's, the farmer is a salaried employee. In this business, salaried farmers come and salaried farmers go. Meaning - the program changes from year to year. Some years, it will be well run, other years nothing works. You want a CSA with an experienced farmer who has a continuing committment to the farm.
Also, ask whether the farm also sells to market. Farms that sell to market and have a CSA have split allegences. Not only do they grow vegetables for their subscribers but they go to market and sell their best produce. This, in our view, penalizes the CSA customers. The farmer is under pressure to grow vegetables that sell at market as well as taking the best vegetables and selling at the market where they receive more money. The CSA shareholder of a farm that also sells to market, we believe, tends to get less variety and poorer quality vegetables than a CSA shareholder of a strictly CSA farm.
Finally, when in doubt, get references. Ask to hear from customers from previous years. - How do I subscribe?
- See How to reserve a share for information on how to subscribe.
- Are the vegetables organic?
- This, you might not realize, is a loaded question, so before giving you the long answer, here's our short answer:
We do not use chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. We take care of our land in a sustainable manner. We pay our help a liveable wage. We do not knowingly use and to the best of our knowledge we do not use genetically modified seeds (sometimes it is very difficult to know for sure because seed companies aren't always forthcoming with this information). The majority of our vegetables are grown on our farm. Occasonally we suppliment our vegetables with those of other local farmers who adhere to our philosophy of growing sustainably and chemical free. We are open with our shareholders about the nature of what they are getting. Our vegetables are local.
The longer answer: The word 'Organic' has gone through a considerable amount of evolution over the last two decades from a loose term implying chemical free to one defined by private certifiers until several years ago when it became a legal term with constantly changing regulations and an enforcement regime that defined it. See "USDA Certified Organic" To certify or not to certify 'USDA organic' for our longer answer.
For more answers to your questions we can be reached at farm@bullrunfarm.com or 703-754-4005