Red Wiggler Community Farm

How do I subscribe?
Go to our 2008 Commitment Form pdf, (to be posted on January 22 2008) read the letter and then fill out page two and send it in to us with your check. We are happy to offer a simple payment plan outlined on the form. Availaibility is limited. (see below to find out why) If you have reached the Commitment form and it shows that we are sold out then please email us with CSA 2008 in the subject line. Please include your mailing address and and we will do our best to contact you in the winter of 2007/8 with details. We encourage you to get on our mailing list. We send out three mailings a year as a way to communicate about our farm, seek donations and invite you to our Annual Silent Auction. We really try to keep the mailings "newsy" and keep the requests for charitable support "soft".

What crops will be harvested and when?
The best for us to answer this is to have you look over our blog enteries for last harvest season. Click on the "achives" links on the right hand side of the blog and browse by the different months to get a sense of how the seasons harvests unfold. There is also another attempt to answer this question found here on our "list of crops page".

Is the farm "organic"?
Red Wiggler farmers and growers do not use chemically based fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. That said, we have not chosen to certify our farm with the USDA as "organic".
Additionally, in response to requests from CSA participants over the years, we choose to supplement what we grow ourselves with crops grown by some of our neighboring orchards. For strawberry and blueberry season we head across rt27 to Butlers Orchard. For corn, we go to Jean Phillips farm in Germantown just off Clopper Road. And we all love the peaches and apples from Kingsberry Orchard on Peach Tree Road. These farms are not organic but they are locally owned family farms who we trust to use the best practice known as "integrated pest management" (IPM).
Otherwise, we grow more than 100 varieties of crops here at Red Wiggler from seed. 80% of our seed comes from Johnnys Selected Seeds and NONE of our seed are GMO. Finally, a word about our transplants. We will grow over 1800 plants in our office/grow room this season. We also work closely with Deep Grass Ogranic Nusery who grows an additional 1500 plants for us. Once our new building has been built we will have a small green house where we will be able to grow ALL our own plants. As you can see we recognize that we can not do everything ourselves. We use each "partnership" outlined above as a method to more fully include our growers in the community. In this way way deliver on our vision of "creating fertile ground to nurture a healthy and inclusive community."

Well, why don't you just certify with the USDA as organic?
We believe that the organic certification process is great for farmers and consumers who do not know and trust each other. Our CSA is designed to build a relationship between the grower and the customer. We are all participants in this annual process of growing fresh, healthy food. We invite customers to ask questions, walk into the fields, visit with the workers, harvest your own flowers and herbs. When customers and farmers develop this kind of relationship then, we have found, there is no need for a third party to verify our practices.

How do you develop fertility and avoid the "bad bugs"?
We create fertile ground by "feeding the soil" with home made compost, leaf gro and by incorporating green manures (cover crops) into our rotation of crops. We cover many of our young plants with "floating row cover" that keep the bad bugs (particularly flea beatles and cucumber beatles) away from tender young plants. We irrigate our crops with drip tape or with sprinklers. Since we grow over 100 varieties and more than 40 different crops, and we rotate those crops yearly, we manage to foil the bad bugs. Diversity is a great method of ensuring a successful growing season. In short, by keeping the plants healthy we reduce the need for "natural, plant based sprays". And, again, we do not use synthetic, chemically based sprays of any kind.

Do you offer "half shares"?
We do not offer "half shares". In 2008 we are piloting an "Alternate Week" option. Participants will pick up vegetables every other week. This addition in our service is designed to help us meet the rising demand for shares in our CSA by offering more CSA "slots" without expanding our CSA beyond our capacity. Some participants do choose to share their subscription with friends- splitting the cost. This works well for some and is less than satisfying for others. It is up to you.

What if I am unable to pick up my vegetables? Can I change my pick up day or arrive early or late?
There are no pick-up changes for summer vacations. If you are unable to pick-up at any time during the season on the day you are assigned we are unable to accommodate special requests. Many people “give” their share to a friend or neighbor when they are unable to make it. This is a welcome practice. Food that is not picked up is delivered to the Food Bank the next day.

Do you deliver to central locations?
No. We only offer on farm pick up at specific times. If you live further than 15 miles from our location please carefully consider that traffic may make that distance problematic for you. If you do live more than 15 miles from us you might find that shopping in season for fresh local produce at the farmers markets is a better choice for you.

Why do you limit CSA Membership?
We have experienced an overwhelming, positive response to the Red Wiggler CSA program in the past year. Much of this interest has come folks like you who have read news articles, have been browsing websites for local CSA’s, or simply heard about our CSA from friends or family. While the response is positive, exciting, and speaks volumes about people rethinking the way they eat and being conscious of where their food comes from, we cannot accommodate everyone who has shown interest.
A commonly asked question is, "WHY?"
There are several reasons why Red Wiggler has to limit their number of memberships each
year…
1. We have a high retention rate. In the past, we have offered last year’s members an opportunity to sign back on for the coming year first. This is generally how we determine how many open "slots" we will be able to offer to the public. As you can imagine, happy CSA members stay for a while.
2. We grow vegetables, flowers, and herbs on a little less than four acres.(The rest of our land is fallow, resting and regenerating in a system of cover crops that are designed to increase fertility for future years.) You can grow a lot on this amount of land, but the land, water, soil, and human resources that it takes to produce a good crop do have a carrying capacity and we must establish a reasonable number of memberships based on this capacity. Overexerting these resources to accommodate a larger CSA is not an option and defeats much of the purpose of our CSA.
3. Red Wiggler Community Farm is an organization that is dedicated to providing sustainable employment for its staff and growers. We seek to find balance between our abilities and our capacity to better serve the community. In order for us to remain within these philosophical parameters, we limit our CSA membership.