EARLY "BIRD" BONUS:  The first twenty five people to sign up for a CSA membership in March will receive an extra pasture-fed chicken this season!! 

Imagine this:

When you sign up for a share in Bluebird Gardens' CSA, you are getting the best possible piece of our farm...you will get a box of produce delivered to you each week from June to mid-October!  So when your neighbors are just beginning to plant their gardens in late May and early June, you will be already receiving our first harvests from our high tunnel greenhouses.  And in place of the high expense and hassle of doing your own garden, our garden will come to you each week.  With the weekly arrival of our vegetables, you and your family will be nudged into healthy eating habits!  Your first weekly boxes will likely contain romaine lettuce, cucumbers, mixed lettuce, spinach and fresh radishes.   Nothing compares with the first harvest after a long winter!   But, as the season progresses, you will find more and more new items in your weekly delivery.  Since you prepaid, each box will feel a little like a Christmas surprise with new flavors for your eager tastebuds!! 

Bunching onions, zucchini, new potatoes, shelling peas, sugar snap peas and green beans will soon appear in your weekly delivery.  Beets, carrots, Walla Walla onions, tomatoes, herbs, cabbage, peppers and tomatoes will soon grace your table as well... all with the nutritionally dense flavor of Bluebird Gardens.  The real hit, our main attraction, will be sweet corn.  We extend summer crops as far into fall as possible.  But fall will also bring winter squash varieties, fall radishes, fall decoratives and sweet potatoes.  Two of our chickens that rotationally graze on our cover crops are also a part of your summer CSA full share and one is in the half share!! 

You might think, "It can't get better than this."  But it does!!  As a full share CSA member, you are invited to connect with the farm in seven farm events where you come and gather peas, beans, herbs, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, sweet corn and fall harvest items for your freezer, canning jars and pantry.  Details of this are listed below under "Share Options"!!

SAVOR THE FLAVOR OF SUMMER AT BLUEBIRD GARDENS!

The real beauty of CSA lies in the connection to the farm.  Since you are signing up to be an active shareholder in our farm, you are invited to attend farm events that will make your connection with our farm more real and fill your freezer or canning jars at the same time!!  See exciting details below under share options!! You will receive newsletters, emails and are invited to take part in the blog on this website.  It is our hope that this blog becomes a conversation of excitement between our customers.  We can share recipes and stories of how we are savoring the flavor of summer at Bluebird Gardens.   And if you have any questions, anytime, just click on Contact and type an email which goes instantly to me.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Before the season starts in 2010, you purchase a $500 full share or a $295 half share to our farm.  (A half share is great for one or two people and a full share feeds a family of three or four.  In either case, our plan is to give you more than your money's worth!!)  If you want delivery to your house, instead of to your neighborhood, it is an extra $100 per season.  There is a secure sign-up on this website or you can pay by check as well.  To make it easier for you, you can make a down payment of half that amount  for now and pay in full by May 1.  Or, if that is a problem, you can work out a payment plan with me that fits you.  We are also offering a sponsorship program if you can't afford the CSA program.  Check out the details under "Food share" in this CSA section.   (There is a limit to the number of shares we can offer, so signing up early guarantees your share for this season. NOW is the time to sign up or you will be too late!)  The share entitles you to a box of produce a week for the summer and fall of 2010, totaling twenty boxes.  On a normal season, the CSA deliveries run from early June to mid-October.  Each box will contain what our season is providing for that week.  For example, an early June box will most likely contain romaine and mixed lettuce, onions, spinach, radishes and cucumbers.  A July box might contain cucumbers, zucchini, regular peas, sugar snap peas, pea pods, onions, cabbage, green beans, beets carrots, herbs, tomatoes and new potatoes.  The August box would likely include most of the July items, except peas, along with sweet corn, cantaloupe and peppers.  We will include two of our pasture-fed chickens in the 2010 Summer CSA  Full Share package.  The half share will receive one pasture fed chicken.  The September and October boxes will also include squash, winter radishes and fall decoratives such as gourds, pumpkins and Indian corn.  The "WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT" page shows a graph of when you might likely see each item.

SHARE OPTIONS:

FULL SHARE for $500:

• You will receive box a week from June to mid October totaling twenty weeks that will feed a family of three or four.  You will also receive 2 pasture-fed chickens during the season.  We will keep track of the produce you get and make sure the value of produce in your boxes far exceeds the $500 cost.  And, if you attend the farm harvest events, it becomes an incredibly irresistible deal that you can't pass up!! 
• If you desire a real connection to our farm, you are invited to take part in the following events as part of your full share.  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 at the same time you experience life on our farm.  You will see first-hand our wind turbine work and visit the rotational pens of  chickens grazing on our cover crops to see what happy chickens do each day!  You will also get to bond with other CSA members !  
• 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.  We will have an awesome  time!  Stay as long as you like!    
• Bean pick in early August.  We will save a new patch just for you.  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! !  
• Herb pick in late August.  We plan to add herbs in your box all summer but this day   allows you to graze and get the exact herbs you want to store for winter.  We are a little new to herb growing but we are planting Cilantro, Oregano, Thyme, Sage, Rosemary, Basil and Stevia.  Let us know if you would like another.     
• Pickling cucumber pick by appointment.  Your full share membership allows you to   come and pick a bushel of pickling cucumbers and will include dill to go with it!!     
• Fall  Harvest Pick in early October!  You will get a fifty pound mesh bag and you    can fill it with produce we have spread out on a huge table.  Choose what you want to fill your bag.  You will have Yukon Gold potatoes, Norland potatoes, Big Daddy and Ailsa Craig sweet giant onions, sweet potatoes, cabbage, beets and carrots to choose from.  In addition, you can choose from an assortment of pie pumpkins and decorating pumpkins .   
• Tomato pick!  As soon as John Wheeler starts to wave his arms showing a push of cold air and frost heading our way, we will email you about a tomato pick. You can gather from our 20,000 tomato plants and choose heirloom, normal tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and roma!!  Come with your boxes and get ready to can.  This will  be spread over several days depending on the weather.  The date??  Ask John Wheeler!!  Tomato quality wanes after the middle of September, so even if there is no frost in the forecast, we will make sure we have this fun event by the middle of September.
• Sweet corn pick!  This day entitles you to ten dozen of our famous sweet corn from Bluebird Gardens.  We will let you know in plenty of time although it will probably be in late August.  We hope to have it at the same time as the herb pick.  If you choose not to make the drive to our farm, you can also get your ten dozen at the end of a selling day at any of our stands.  We will check your name off the list when you receive your corn.  (You have to get your corn at one time and not 2 dozen one day and three the next, etc.  You can, of course, get less than the ten dozen.) 
• We will make sure your box delivery alone exceeds the value of the $500 CSA membership.  The value of the farm events could easily exceed $200.  It is our way of thanking you for becoming a part of our farm!   It is especially our way of establishing your connection with our farm!  

HALF SHARE FOR $295   

• The half share is just like the full share except the weekly box will feed a family of  one or two.      
• The person receiving the half share can choose to attend three of the seven farm events.      

FARM EVENTS FOR $200     

• We value our wonderful stand customers as well and want you to feel a part of  our farm.  If you want to take part if the farm events and fill your freezer and canning jars, you can choose this option.  This option is for anyone who is not a CSA shareholder but wants to be included in all farm events.  These events are listed above in the full share option.   

HOW DO I GET MY BOX?

Once our CSA customers have signed up, we will find convenient drop-off sites where you can get your vegetables each week.  You can choose the one most convenient for you.  Drop-off sites can be residential or commercial.  If five our more of your co-workers sign up for a CSA membership, your job site would be a great drop off site.  Then you could easily pick your box up from where you work.  Be thinking of a good drop-off site in your neighborhood.  It might even be your place!  Let me know if you would be willing.  It is a very simple process.

WHAT AREAS ARE WE SERVING?

We are especially targeting the Fargo-Moorhead area.   Even though we will have two stands in Fargo-Moorhead, we understand how difficult it is to drive out of the way to get to our stands.  Therefore, we would like to make it more convenient for you and deliver produce weekly right to your neighborhood.  We also welcome CSA memberships in other areas we already serve with stands such as Fergus Falls, Pelican Rapids and Wahpeton/Breckenridge.  Furthermore, we would like to offer a CSA to Underwood, Battle Lake, Otter Tail and Perham areas.  If you are not in those areas listed in this paragraph,  feel free to email me at mark@bluebirdgardens.net.  Or just click on contact listed at the top of the website page.  If there is enough interest, we are very open to starting a CSA in any area.  For example, by varying our drive to Fargo/Moorhead, we could easily go through Rothsay, Barnesville, Glyndon and Dilworth.  If there is a work site or neighborhood group that would like me to come and answer questions about our CSA, I am most willing to do that.  I can be as brief as you need:-)  Some insurance companies now pay people who take part in CSA memberships just as they pay people who attend fitness centers.  Check with your insurance.  You may qualify!