Clinton Hill CSA is pleased to offer our members pastured eggs from Elihu farms for 2008.

Please note that you must reserve your egg share by May 15.

22 week shares are priced as follows:

One dozen per week . . . . $88.00
Two dozen per week . . . . $170.00
Half dozen per week . . . . $50.00

To reserve your share today, print this form and mail it directly to the Pratts:

Bob & Mary Pratt ~ Elihu Farm
654 Beadle Hill Road
Valley Falls, New York 12185

Dear Clinton Hill CSA members,

Our new hens arrived in March as 17 week old ’started pullets,’ a.k.a. teen aged chickens, and some were already laying very small eggs. The birds’ early arrival will insure that the eggs we’ll be sending the
CSAs starting in June will be large sized, rather than a mixture of larges and mediums.

We’ve been able to keep our price for eggs the same as last year. You endured quite a jump in price between 2006 and 2007. Although our prices have gone up somewhat, they haven’t been as bad so far as
advertised on the TV.

Subscriptions are due by May 15 directly to us, as explained in the flyer. We have room for a total of 12 more dozen eggs per week at Clinton Hill, which can be half dozen ($50/week), full dozen ($88/week), two dozen ($170/week), and even one and a half dozen ($138/week.) Unfortunately this year, any requests we receive after May 15 will be put on a waiting list. We also won’t be offering subscriptions to late comers after Ted starts delivering vegetables.
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The Clinton Hill CSA is a great way to get your veggies. We have only Plan B shares available.

What is a Plan B Share?

CHCSA is a mixed-income CSA—in order to make healthy produce available to families with a less income, 1/3 of our vegetable shares are made available at a lower price to households living on less than $30,000/year (these shares are subsidized by the other 2/3). We are very proud to be the only volunteer-run mixed-income CSA in New York City!

Ready to sign up? Print the registration form and mail it in with your deposit today. We do maintain a waiting list for Plan A shares, but it is already getting long. If you are a neighbor earning more than $30,000 per year and you want to be on our waiting list, send in the registration form without a deposit. We’ll get that from you as we move through the waiting list.

If you sent in an early bird deposit, you should have gotten an email from the Clinton Hill CSA Core confirming your deposit on Friday. If you haven’t heard anything, don’t panic: we’ll be reaching out to our waiting list in another week. We always have a few slots open up at the beginning of the season.

SHARE AND FARM UPDATES

It might seem as though the 2007 CSA year has just ended, but we’re already looking forward to the 2008 season. In preparation for this year’s harvest, Ted has been looking carefully at member surveys from last year’s share. While the surveys reveal a variety of opinions about favorite vegetables, and what CSA members would like to see more or less of, there is one clear consensus request: a bigger share.

Our farmer, Ted Blomgren, has been hearing this from several other CSAs he supplies, so he is increasing the share size for the 2008 season. After careful examination of his capabilities and reducing the number of CSAs he supplies, Ted decided that he can make a larger share happen– one third larger over the course of 22 weeks, in fact. And, even better, he can do this at only a 10% increase in share price. So although the share will be more expensive for the 2008 season, proportionally we’ll be getting considerably more for the money.

These changes mean that the annual cost for a share will be:
$477 for Plan A (previously $424)
$287 for Plan B (previously $261)

Per week, this works out to
$21.68 for Plan A ($2.41 more per week than last season)
$13.05 for Plan B ($1.18 more per week than last season)

Here’s what Ted has to say about upgrades on the farm that will make this larger share possible:

“Farming is risky, and crop losses to hail, prolonged periods of excessive rainfall or drought, and infestations of insects, weeds and diseases are not uncommon. Avoidance is the primary strategy for dealing with these kinds of risk. Although we cannot cover the entire farm, we have greatly expanded our investments in the row covers that protect our crops against pests, heavy rains and hail, and we’ll continue to invest in new covers every year. To address weather-related risk, we have also expanded our greenhouse range with a new high tunnel and several new field tunnels for the coming season. To address drought-related risk, we have invested in a new well and sprinkler irrigation system in recent years and, this year, we’ll expand the system with a new irrigation reel. These investments represent tens of thousands of dollars, and it’s our expectation that they’ll go a long way toward reducing risk on our farm.”

Despite this price increase, you’ll be glad to know that we’re still one of the least expensive CSA’s in the city. So Clinton Hill CSA shareholders can look forward to more wonderful produce at prices that are lower compared not just to supermarkets and health food stores, but to many other CSAs. And our commitment to maintaining a mixed-income membership means that no matter what your finances, the Clinton Hill CSA is for you.

REFUND OF DEPOSIT

We recognize that not everyone may want to sign up for the 2008 season with this cost increase; if you’ve submitted a deposit but don’t want to participate this year, just let us know as soon as possible and we’ll return it. Email treasurer at clintonhillcsa.org.

EXTRA SHARES

By the beginning of April we’ll be getting in touch with you to find out what additional shares you want: fruit, flowers, and eggs. And Nancy and Alan Brown will continue to offer meat, cheese, and other treats through their website www.csapasturedmeatandpoultry.com that you can pick up at distribution once a month.

Looking forward to a bountiful 2008,

The Organizing Core Group of the Clinton Hill CSA

The annual CSA Conference is a great chance for all of these CSA members from across the city to come together to learn more about CSA, to share ideas, to talk to farmers and to learn more about our food system. There is free local wine, beer and food. Contact Paula Lukats at paula at justfood.org

As we gear up for the 2008 season, spaces have opened up on the CHCSA Core. The Core is a group of 10-12 people whose hard work and dedication keeps the CSA running. If you are interested in being more involved in the CSA and possibly joining the Core please contact our Core Coordinator, Seth Orman at sorman3 at yahoo.com. Once we hear from everyone interested we will set up a meeting and see if we can put everyone’s talents to work.

Here are some general descriptions of the Core positions that are opening up….

Special Projects Outreach Coordinator (a part-time role): Help with outreach to find Plan B membership. This is a new role, that is best suited to a long time neighborhood resident who knows local institutions and/or community groups.

Outreach Coordinator: Speak at neighborhood meetings, create or edit flyers, brochures and sign up sheets, hang flyers, network with existing groups to attract new members, follow up with interested potential members, do anything and everything you can to get people to join.

In-Season Membership & Treasurer: from June-November, watch waitlist, price out partial shares when spots open up, fill wait list slots, follow up with July 1 payments and bi-weekly payment folks, budget and reimbursement.

We are writing this reminder for our delivery coming up on Saturday March 8th. The order deadline is on Monday, March 3rd at midnight. We thank you for indulging us these days for preparation of the orders as the number of farms we coordinate with has increased and the number of orders has increased. Thank you for your support, we love our farm life, as busy as it can be at times!

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Winter share pickups are the second Saturday of the month: (1/12, 2/9, 3/8) from 1-3pm at Seth’s house, on the corner of Classon and Greene Aves.

Order form The form is also available in MS Word format.

Please note: we had an old form until today (jan 3) so please make sure you’ve got the right form before you order meat!

See the 2008 enrollment form for details on reserving your spot for next spring.

Clinton Hill CSA Meat Delivery Schedule

Saturday delivery . . . . . . . . Member order deadline
December 8, 2007. . . . . . . . . . December 3, 2007
January 12, 2008 . . . . . . . . . January 7, 2008
February 9, 2008 . . . . . . . . . February 4, 2008
March 8, 2008. . . . . . . . . . . March 3, 2008
April 12, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . April 7, 2008
May 10, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . May 3, 2008
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