Welcome to our CSA! Here’s lots of helpful information about our CSA program.
Thank you for your support of our farm.
-Grace Debbeler, CSA Manager and Farmer
Week 21 of 53 - Help Mountain Bounty become a Forever Farm
Many thanks to all who have already contributed so generously!!! We need to raise $250,000 for the BYLT to buy the property. As I write this, 237 amazing people have contributed a total of $32,395 over the 5 days since we started this phase of the project. That’s about $137 per person on average. If all of our 800 CSA members gave $137 each, that would add up to almost $110,000, getting us within striking range of our goal. Of course not everyone can contribute that much, and some can contribute much more. Please help us, and do what you can.
CSA Newsletter 25 - End of Winter CSA!
Well here we are, in the 25th and final week of the Winter CSA share. What a roller coaster it’s been. We are so incredibly grateful to all of you for supporting us as a farm, and for believing in the food we grow and the people who grow it! This has certainly been a year like no other, and is only the beginning of what has been shaping up to be our biggest season thus far. Whatever challenges we might meet, it’s certainly bound to be an adventure.
CSA Newsletter Week 24 - Hope and Strength in our Community
This week, our crew has been going about the task of mowing down our swaths of grass and cover-crop that flourish on-farm throughout the winter. The soil moisture that tends to keep us out of our soggiest fields until later in the year is not long for this world. Meanwhile, around the farm, and all over the ridge, our many amazing neighbors have been hard at work clearing brush and pushing it back from the roadways. The hum of chainsaws and weed-whackers has never sounded so sweet! Their effort has been inspiring, and reminds me of what I realize constantly when working with a big crew of people - that the breadth of what we can accomplish when we work together is truly incredible. Thank you to everyone out there for building renewed hope and strength into our community in whatever way you can. We hope you enjoy this week’s box and all it has to offer - happy eating!
CSA Newsletter Week 23 - Spring has sprung!
Looking at our fields right now feels a little bit like bending time. For the past two months, we’ve seeded, planted, weeded, watered, and dreamed fervently of this moment - when lettuce would fatten and peas would stretch. And here we are, on top of it all, with a mountainous season still laid out before us. This is the oh-so exciting moment when we finally begin to harvest food from our fields for all of you, and as a result, you’ll find more and more Mountain Bounty produce in your boxes with every passing week. We sincerely hope that you can taste all the love and care that goes into it! How lucky we are that, despite the state of the world, our planet just keeps on turning. Here’s hoping that this week finds you well, with very full hearts and bellies!
CSA Newsletter Week 22 - Mountain Bounty Radishes
There is an art to assembling the perfect bunch of radishes. A trick really, of swift decisions and balance, that transforms five green rows stretched across a field into piles of rubies stacked end to end in crates. On harvest day, our crew spreads out down the bed, kneeling, each set of hands manipulating their bunch into a five point star, a triangle, or perhaps an oddly shaped cluster that retains its form only by the grace of small miracles. The sought after result, radishes held perfectly in place by the snap of elastic, never fails to feel like true accomplishment. How strange that the radish never seems to be the star of the show when they are so simple to grow, a treat to harvest, and a joy to eat. This week, we’re proud to offer you these tiny works of art, the first Mountain Bounty radish bunches of the season! Whatever they may lack in practice, they are bound to make up for with spice and crunch.
CSA Newsletter Week 21 - Thank you!
I want to start with a wholehearted ‘thank you!’ to all of you for the overwhelming support you’ve shown us over the last few weeks. We are proud and honored to be your chosen source of produce during this time. Thank you for telling your friends and family about us, for sharing photos of your boxes, and for sharing recipes you’re enjoying with your family as you reconnect around the dinner table. We appreciate you all so much!
CSA Newsletter Week 20 - Love for the land we farm
This yearly ritual of cleaning up and caring for the less utilitarian parts of the farm is deeply gratifying. Physically challenging, even frustrating at times, but also quite intentional and filled with love for this land that gives so much of itself to us. It’s a moment to think about responsibility and stewardship, and to reflect on the ways in which we work outside of our immediate purpose to respond to the needs of a bigger picture.
Here’s hoping this week finds you all safe and well! Wherever we might be, home or otherwise, there is always good work to be done.
CSA Newsletter Week 19 - 5 New Farmers!
So there it is, one of the most amazing things we do at Mountain Bounty - we grow incredible farmers. I’ll admit that the vegetables are pretty good too. All the food we grow, and all of the CSA boxes we pack for our members also nourish a steady succession of farmers at different stages in their lives and careers. Our country needs more young farmers to help secure our access to a thriving food system, a fact that has become clearer now than ever. We’re excited to have a part in educating this future generation, and are dedicated to giving them the tools to succeed. Thank you, as always, to all of you for supporting our efforts!
CSA Newsletter Week 18 - Agriculture is Essential
As California shelters in place, we’re all struggling to contend with the harsh realities of a flawed system. Folks are out of work, kids are home from school, many small businesses are closed indefinitely - so much is at stake for our community and country right now. In this moment, it’s more important than ever that we hold each other up, protect those who are most vulnerable, and stay buoyant in the face of adversity. We are powerful and resilient, and we’ve got this.
A message from John Tecklin
CSA Newsletter Week 17 - COVID-19 Farm Updates
It seems pertinent to offer an update on how things at the farm have been progressing in the midst of so much chaos. We know many folks are avoiding grocery stores and crowded spaces, and hope that a CSA box offers you some degree of respite and flexibility. We aim to be a reliable source of produce, no matter what. We will continue to plant and grow food for our community. We believe that our CSA model which connects local farmers directly with our local community is now more relevant than ever. We know that some of our drop sites may have to close and we're committed to finding temporary alternatives, so we can continue delivering your food through these uncertain times.
How to resubscribe for Current Members
CSA Newsletter Week 16 - The value in a CSA
So what is a CSA? For one, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. And in the simplest iteration, yes, it implies that you pay up front to receive a box of veggies each week. But really, signing up to be part of a CSA means investing in a relationship with your farm. You’re providing your CSA farmers with funding early on in the season to pay for the overhead expenses that are implicit to growing food - seeds, supplies, infrastructure, labor - that occur long before that food is ready to sell. You’re also supporting the growing resilience of a small farm community and healthy food system by putting your dollars towards a living wage for our crew members, organic practices, and local economy.
CSA Newsletter Week 15 - Eat Like a Farmer
One of the biggest perks of being a farmer, is eating like a farmer. With constant access to the best ingredients you could ask for, it should be no secret that after a long day of hard work, we sit down and eat the kinds of meals that most folks only dream of (although in the summer, some of us do occasionally just eat half a watermelon and then fall asleep). Which brings me to reason #2 of our ‘five reasons why Community Supported Agriculture is awesome’ - you get to eat like a farmer! Each week we dream up a well-rounded box that offers equal parts consistency and variation. We intentionally grow the best-tasting vegetable varieties we can find, and make a point of experimenting with the new and unique. Because whether you’re sitting down to share a meal with friends, prepping a week of work lunches ahead of time, or feeding your kids, it feels incredibly good to cook with incredible produce.
CSA Newsletter Week 14 - Celebrating CSA Day!
This warm spring weather we find ourselves in the midst of is hard not to love. Beneath blue skies, with wild plum trees blooming all along Birchville road, the farm is bustling and humming to life in anticipation of an early season. And as nice as it’s been to live and work unburdened by the inconvenience of weather, the reality of a February without rain is deeply troubling. As farmers, we worry about the consequences of drought and the constant threat that fire danger brings to our land and community. We are intimately acquainted with climate change, always working to adapt to whatever curveballs it might throw our way.
CSA Newsletter Week 13 - Partnership with Bear Yuba Land Trust
I have some more good news! The Bear Yuba Land Trust, with support from Briarpatch and Sierra Harvest, are working to purchase our main farm site on Birchville Road. This coalition of nonprofits is launching a new endeavor called “Forever Farms,” to begin protecting the scarce and precious farm land that sustains our local food movement. And they are starting with Mountain Bounty. Their plan is to raise the money to buy the property and then lease it to us and to future farmers so that the land remains as a long term community asset. This is one of the most exciting things that has happened in my farming career.
CSA Newsletter Week 12 - Changes to the CSA!
Letter from John - Help us sustain Mountain Bounty Farm
MOUNTAIN BOUNTY FARM NEWS
Winter 2019-20, Week 9 of 25
Dear Farm Members,
I hope you all are enjoying the slower pace and cozier times of these dark winter days. I’m wondering if you would be willing to help us with an important new farm initiative. We need to recruit some additional CSA members. The farm is thriving in so many ways, and for a variety of reasons, we are starting to see a small but significant decrease in our CSA membership. We continue to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into farming and we think it shows:
What we have to offer is better than ever:
We hear from many sources that our produce is the cleanest, freshest, tastiest, and most beautiful around.
We are switching to new web signup software that will make CSA membership easier and more flexible than in the past. For example, members will have the option to sign up in 4 week increments as well as the traditional 6 month seasons. Also, you will be able to easily put your box temporarily on hold if you go out of town.
We believe that connecting directly to your local farm, where a strong team of real people are working hard to make a difference, is more important than ever in this age of convenience and instant-everything.
So here’s what we are going to do:
We are going to call all of you to ask you if you will reach out to your friends and encourage them to join the CSA. For each member you gather, we will give you one additional veggie box week on your subscription, or $25 cash, whichever you wish. All you have to do is tell your friends to mention your name when they sign up. We’ll email you and you can choose if you would like box credits or cash.
We know that our CSA members are our strongest advocates. And we also know that word of mouth is how this CSA has always gotten the job done. Please take a few minutes to connect with your community and help keep the farm going strong into the new year!
Thanks,
Your farmer,
John Tecklin