New Veggie share shapes for #CSAday 2018
We are excited to present a whole new shape to our Veggie shares in 2018 due to the help of our friends at Harvie. Using their software we are able to offer
- customised Veggie shares according to your preferences
- weekly recipe tips and ideas
- easy to schedule vacation holds
- simply payment plans featuring direct debit
Look for us on Harvie and sign up for a super flexible, super fresh urban CSA farm share!
Below zero, above expectations
Weekly transit to market is a bicycle only affair for Main Street Market Urban Farm this year. Each pedal stroke makes Tim warmer as he hauls 2 trailers of product in “coolers” to keep produce from freezing at -13 to -31 on Sunday mornings.
Yet, as the Whig reports, customers are also warming up to getting weekly doses of farm fresh goodness at Memorial Centre Farmers’ Market. Both literally and figuratively. And, they’re doing so at our current Winter location of 484 Albert St, inside Princess St United church’s rear hall.
From 10am – 2pm we’re set up with fresh produce, sprouts&shoots, ferments, Kombucha, cookies, baked goods, and ready-to-eat okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancakes). And it’s a lively place to be. With Kate Weekes, Fiddle Earth and other local musos playing tunes, the bustle and chatter of marketgoers, and the hustle to keep our big array in a tiny display stocked, it’s a hopping destination.
Haven’t come out yet this year? Or ever? Come visit and take home a taste of what you’ve been missing. Warm up to conversation and farm fresh food. As we always say, “Come for coffee, stay for lunch, and take home dinner!”
Farming and eating: a match made on earth.
Keep your friends close and your farmer closer.
2017 CSA signup Blitz
This week of February has become a North America wide gear up to #CSAday veggie basket sales. We’ve got 99% of our Spring preparation done already
- Field work in Fall
- Desk work in December
- January seed and equipment ordering
- February finding staff and scheduling
Now we need EATERS. Yes!
The best part of farming, arguably (besides working outdoors, rejoicing in weather, excellent exercise, and the thrill of risk and adventure), is EATing.
That’s where you join us. (We hope.) By EATing along with us you join the effort to make our urban farm a go. Your membership in our Community Shared Agriculture weekly produce basket program gets you into a unique relationship with your farmer
AND
the urban land we farm.
Connecting with your food by pledging to pay for it up front guarantees you a share in the Freshest Food from our harvest, uniquely delivered to you by BICYCLE.
Your membership involves you in
- Caring for several swathes of soil in the city of Kingston (LOCAL LANDSCAPE)
- Educating new farmers (LOCAL KNOWLEDGE)
- Providing employment in Kingston (LOCAL ECONOMY)
- Increasing Kingston food sovereignty by reducing dependence on imports
- Reducing food miles, emissions, lost freshness & nutrition, urban truck traffic noise and congestion (LOCAL LIVABILITY)
- Saving your money (because produce in our baskets costs less than our items do at shops or market)
- Saving your time (traipsing through the produce aisles looking for organics)
Join us in the best of farming -EAT with us!
Year-round farm share launch!
Having offered 4-month Winter shares for 5 years, we’ve bridged the seasonal local food-lack gap by adding 2 months to our Winter shares. You can eat urban fresh food year-round because we cool store, can, freeze, dry, ferment and grow fresh food on our urban farm. Along with the food, we offer storage tips and recipes. We’re pleased to offer this option, and invite you to eat year-round with our NEW 6 month Fall-Winter farm share.
How I Became a Farmer
I was a boy visiting a farm in Devon England. Farmer David left me in the silage pit with a tractor and a heap of submerged manure. My job was to move it out. Responsibility grew to inspiration in me, as I shifted the muck.
I didn’t know at the time I wanted to be a farmer. In that moment, desire grew from experience, until, when finally given choice of occupation at age 33, I jumped in. I borrowed land and got to work building soil. I rock-picked, roto-tilled and reduced my income expectations. I became an agronomist-nutritionist-urban-
Seven years, 3 children, and a pocketful of dreams later, I co-run a Community Shared Agriculture and farmers’ market farm, feeding people and offering nutrition and agri-education. From childhood inspiration to present-day occupation. There’s no end in sight, but I’ll sleep well tonight thanks to fresh air, hard work, and the promise of reciprocal care from an earth which has goodness to share.
2016 CSA veggie basket Croplist – Eat up!
Pictured above, the humble CSA basket. What wonder lies within? A realm of taste, texture and colour. Recipes to explore. Laughter with friends over meals. Minerals, vitamins and more, all with a powerful flavour punch. Eat the Freshest Food! in our 2016 CSA. A full share costs approx $7/week per person in an average 4 eater house.
CROPLIST
Arugula, Asian Greens, Basil (Genovese, Thai, Purple), Beets (4 varieties), Bitter Melon, Organic Slicing Beans, French Filet Green Beans & Yellow Beans (2 varieties/ea), Cabbage (red & green), Carrots, Celery, Cilantro, Cucumber (slicing, lemon, pickling), Cut flowers, Dill, Eggplant, Fennel, Garlic, Garlic Greens, Garlic Scapes, Green Onions, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce (several varieties), Mint, Onions, Oregano, Parsley, Peas, Peppers (sweet & hot), Potatoes (early white&red), Radishes, Rhubarb, Rosemary, Sage, Shiitake mushrooms, Spinach, Sprouts (several types), Summer Squash, Sunchokes (red & white), Sunflower shoots, Swiss Chard (several colours), Tarragon, Thyme, Cherry Tomatoes, Heritage Tomatoes, Turnip, Zucchini
December digging & year-round farming.
This year of extended warmth has handily coincided with our extension to year-round farm produce sales.
Founded in 2011 as a Kingston destination for local farm produce procurement, Memorial Centre Farmers’ Market (MCFM) is now open year-round. After a 2 week break, the market opens January 10th 2016 at Princess St United Church hall. The Winter market will operate Jan-April 10am-2pm, dovetailing with the existing May-December market days. As usual, you’ll find Main Street Market there every week.
Unknown to the Farmers’ Market Association of Kingston board (which operates MCFM), winter weather was to hold off until the end of December this year, allowing farmers an extra window to conduct outdoor chores and harvests in preparation for the January re-opening. And, it has helped us demonstrate what farmers have always known: farming is a year-round, not seasonal, occupation.
Watch the clip to see more of how Main Street Market has been using the warmth to our eaters’ advantage. And, visit us at MCFM at 484 Albert Street.
