FARM HARVEST EVENTS

Defying the notion of common sense and  being totally unique to a typical CSA, the harvest events are a massive giveaway from our farm to you.  It is a celebration of connecting YOU, our valued member, with the place where your food is grown!  As the Bluebird Gardens CSA evolves in the enjoyment of making your journey of healthful eating a vibrant memory, we are making a number of exciting changes.  The majority of harvest events will all be held in the wind turbine field instead of across our entire farm.  That means you can easily park along the sides of our driveway and suffer no worry over where the event is.  It should ease the management of the harvest events for us so the chance of harvest event windows being wide open should increase dramatically.  We will have a sign in kiosk at the entrance to the field along with a box to put in your harvest event coupon.  And since the harvest event crops are planted separately from where we harvest for the boxes, it will not compete with the box and will be totally for your harvest events!!  Fun, huh??!!  In this age of rapidly rise food prices, being self-sufficient and stocked up for winter by fall is a mighty fulfilling feeling! 

Another change...Some FREE harvest events over the whole summer!!

In addition to the many events listed below that require a coupon, we will have a number of free ones that you can take part in all summer.  They will be closest to the driveway in the wind turbine field with completely easy access.  Anytime you are in the area, feel free to stop and gather these from your farm.  Right beside the driveway will be the cut flowers that will fill your house with the rich color from your farm.  They are a free pick to you.  Some members want  more of our great cucumbers than come in the box.  So the long burpless cucumbers are also a free pick whenever you like.  Maybe you just want more for salads.  Maybe you want to make a batch of regrigerator pickles.  Kale is a growing favorite and there will be rows of kale that will be a free pick all summer.  Brussel Sprouts and basil will also be free picks as they become ready.  Grape tomatoes will also be along the driveway hosting a free pick.  We ordered the sweetest, most expensive ones for you to enjoy anytime you come.  Zucchini is also a free harvest all summer.  We have quite a variety of zucchini planned for the boxes.  We will add that same array of varieties to the harvest event field so you can seek the one that suits you best for that zucchini bread or hot dish you are planning that needs extra zucchini.

The traditional harvest events will continue...

If you desire a real connection to our farm, you are invited to take part in ten of the following events as part of your Family share and five harvest events with your share. It is the best way we can say, "Our farm is YOUR farm!! You will get to meet us and harvest vegetables for yourself! You will have a great opportunity to fill your canning jars, freezer or pantry at the same time you experience life on our farm. You will get to bond with other CSA members ! The harvest events hinge on the bounty of the farm. However, we plant so we have enough to cover harvest events.  And this year, they will be planted on your special harvest event field. The bounty is no accident.  Occasionally, there is a crop that doesn't do as well in a particular season. In that case, there might not be a harvest event of that crop. But the instance of that is rare and generally bounty reigns!

To cut down on your driving, we will be combining harvest events as much as possible. For example, in the fall of 2011, squash, potatoes, pumpkins, fall decoratives, beets, carrots, spinach and kale all the first weeks of October. Our CSA members made one trip to take in many harvest events. It was a celebration of bounty and our farm was host to hundreds of our CSA members. Plan to take time to picnic in the magic woods. Some from last year plan to make the experience in the woods a yearly tradition!! Following are the picks you can choose from. We continue to add more. If you are really into a certain vegetable, you can do multiple harvest events of that vegetable. In other words, you can do thirty dozen corn and have it count as three harvest events. We also let people do half of one event and half of another to equal one harvest event.

When all the harvest events were completed by mid-October in 2011, we still had much left so we had a grand finale free harvest event to celebrate the bounty of Bluebird Gardens!

• Pea Pick in mid-July. I will let you know the exact date in plenty of time for you to plan. Come with your family and pick peas to eat fresh and/or can or freeze. You can pick shelling peas, pea pods and sugar snap peas. Last year this harvest event was unlimited picking! Make sure you take time to sit in the field, soak up the sounds and scenery and munch on peas fresh from the field! We will have an awesome time! Stay as long as you like!
• The Green Bean pick occurs any time in the season when we have extra. You will find our Jade green beans are amazing for freezing or canning. You will be able to savor the flavor of summer from Bluebird Gardens ALL WINTER LONG when you come to pick beans at the bean pick! ! We are adding other varieties as well that should be terrific for freezing, including yellow beans. You will get two five gallon pails of beans although in 2011, it was unlimited picking because the harvest was so great.
• Broccoli Pick- With your own patches in the wind turbine field, you will have a royal harvest of broccoli this year. You will get one five gallon pail of broccoli heads.
• Pickling cucumber pick by appointment. Many chose the cucumber pick last summer and picked a bushel of pickling cucumbers! A bushel is two five gallon pails. Hundreds of jars from our cucumbers sit on shelves ready for winter eating across the valley!! We will make sure there is enough dill to go with your canning in 2012! The dill will be planted right beside the cucumbers so you can get what you need.
• Cabbage Pick- Some who are into kraut will choose the cabbage pick and get ten heads for sauerkraut .  Since you will have your own patch in the wind turbine field, you won't have to wait for the end of the season.
• Tomato pick! Many took part in the tomato pick in 2011! The tomatoes, in spite of the frost, did well into the middle of October so we had several weeks of free tomato picks. in 2011, we will have a huge amount of hot peppers planted by the tomatoes which will be part of the tomato pick!!!  We are planting oodles of Jalapeno, Cayenne and Chili peppers.  Let us know if we should add others!!
• Sweet corn pick! This event entitles you to ten dozen of our famous sweet corn from Bluebird Gardens. In 2010 and 2011, the sweet corn harvest event began in August and continued for two months. Many came and took advantage of the sweet corn pick and will be enjoying corn all winter! We freeze corn by putting it in a plastic bag in the freezer right from the field, husk, cob and all. In the long winter months, we pull a few ears from the freezer, soak them in warm water, husk the corn and boil as if it were summer! It is a little more soft than summer corn...but pretty close.
• Potatoes- The potato pick was huge the last two seasons!! Since we had such a bountiful crop, the two five gallon pail amount was changed to four! That amounted to 100 pounds of potatoes...free as a bonus from Bluebird Gardens!!
• Members could pick Norland Red , LeSota, Russett and Yukon Gold potatoes. Almost everyone who came to the fall harvest event chose to get potatoes.
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• Squash pick- Come and harvest twelve winter squash for your fall and winter season. Last year, members could get 12 squash from our field.  Butternut, Delicata, buttercup and Celebration were the favorites last year.  We will make sure we have plenty of those.
• Pumpkin pick- Many families had a blast finding their eight pumpkins in the pumpkin patch!
• Fall Decoratives- In 2012, we will make for a huge variety of gourds and small pumpkins but also Indian corn as well.
• Beets- Come and get a five gallon pail of our super sweet beets! With a bountiful crop, we might raise it to two five gallon pails as we did in 2011!
• Carrots- Get a pail of our very sweet carrots.
• Peppers- If you choose this event, you will get a pail of our peppers.
• Onions- If you choose this harvest event, you get a five gallon pail of our sweet onions.

• Cauliflower - We will be planting your own harvest event patches of cauliflower of our very best and biggest cauliflower!!  You will receive a pail for each coupon.