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Week 10 of our Winter/Spring CSA - the LAST one!

  • Mixed Baby Lettuce
  • Sunflower Shoots
  • Redleaf Lettuce
  • Tatsoi
  • Red Cabbage
  • Yellow Onions
  • Red Shallots
  • Red Beets
  • Harvest Moon Potatoes

And That's a Wrap!

This is our tenth and final week for the winter/spring CSA season. To all of you who've been eating with us since January, thank you for your support through a truly wintry winter! In spite of the rain, the hail, the snow, and the ice-on-the-windshield-every-morning, the farm still managed to yield a remarkable abundance of food for all of us. Gotta love those hardy overwintering cauliflowers, those durable steadfast onions, and those brave greens that are willing to germinate in the coldest, darkest corner of the calendar. For plant diversity and resilience, we give thanks!

We hope you are signed up for our upcoming summer/fall CSA season, which should be starting the week of May 29th. We love feeding folks year-round and delight in knowing that we're all on the same seasonal eating adventure together, week after week, fueling our lives with vibrant plants.

Next week we'll be taking a break from harvest so that we can focus the entirety of our efforts on transplanting a whole slew of crops into the field: winter squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, lettuce, and our first big wave of sweet corn. We'll also be direct seeding beans and carrots and herbs; putting up a new walk-in cooler; and starting in on construction of a new equipment shed (pardon our mess at the farmstand for the next couple months!). It's a doozy of a list, but thankfully we've got a rockstar team this year and we're having a great time tackling all the projects together. Believe!

The week of May 29th will also be the kickoff to our summer farmstand schedule: every Wednesday starting May 31st, 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. As many of you know, we did a big expansion to the farmstand this spring, so there's lots more room (and lots more shade) to shop. You're welcome to drop in and shop the stand, or place a pre-order using Local Line, our online sales platform. We'll add Saturdays to the farmstand schedule by mid-June-ish, once the strawberry upick is open. (Speaking of which, the strawberry patch is looking vibrant and we've found a few red berries, so hopefully we'll start seeing a harvest in the next few weeks). Meanwhile, we get to savor all the greens that early summer provides with gusto (the best of those - Abby's Greens - are two weeks away from harvest, and counting!). 

Enjoy your final "winter" share and thanks again for being a part of Valley Flora.

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Week 9 of the Winter/Spring CSA from Valley Flora!

  • Rainbow Chard
  • Bunched Spinach
  • Redleaf Lettuce
  • Radish Micro Mix
  • Kabocha Winter Squash
  • Cauliflower
  • Yellow Onions
  • Bunch Carrots
  • Cebollitas
  • Bunched Fava Greens
  • Bulk Lettuce Mix
  • Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Leafy and Green!

It's a sign that Spring is springing when the CSA share is stuffed with so much lofty green goodness! Chard, spinach, head lettuce, cut lettuce, micro mix, and - yes - fava greens! If you are a stranger to fava greens, now's the time to remedy that. Most of the time we eat the fava beans - usually sometime in early summer. But the greens are also edible, with the same delicious, nutty flavor as the beans. They're also a lot simpler and quicker to prepare: simply pluck the tips and leaves from the stem, give them a wash, spin or pat dry, and then sautee lightly in some butter or olive oil. Finish off with a little salt. The bunch that's in your share this week will cook down to a modest little side dish, which our family enjoyed this week alongside Roasted Cauliflower Soup and one of our long-time favorites, Wilted Spinach Salad.

If you are a Winter CSA member, there is one more week of deliveries after this. You'll receive your tenth and final tote on Wednesday May 17th. If you are signed up for the upcoming 2023 CSA season with us, we hope to kick it off the week of May 29th, weather permitting. If you would like to sign up for the upcoming season, you can still do so on our website: https://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/valley-flora-harvest-basket

Farmstand Re-Opens, Newly Remodeled!

Today was our grand re-opening of the farmstand and it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces queued up at the gate this morning. We've been in a remodeling sprint the past two weeks and were excited to open the gate into a whole new space for our customers. We've doubled the square footage, designed for better flow, and made more elbow room for drop-in shopping. AND, we had just a wee bit of fun putting all our old broken tools to use for decorative effect :). We hope you'll come check it out. We're on an every-other-Wednesday schedule through May (our next farmstand is May 17th), but will switch to weekly Wednesdays by June. We plan to add Saturdays to the schedule by the Summer Solstice, if not sooner. In the meantime, Wednesdays are a great chance to stock up on seasonal produce, Farmstead Bread, Wild Coast Brew Tea, Octopus Herb Garden Elderberry Syrup, Aguirre Farms Organic Eggs, and more! We're open from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm for drop-in shopping and order pickup. If you'd like to pre-order your produce for next time, hop onto our webstore when it re-opens for business next Thursday, May 11th: https://valley-flora.localline.ca/

And finally, our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have showered us with your love and condolences on the heels of the loss of my dad. Every card, every email, every hug has meant the world and bouyed us through the past couple weeks. We are so grateful to be surrounded by such an amazing community of support. Thank you. xoxox

Newsletter: 

Double Up Food Bucks: Sign Up for our CSA with SNAP!

Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) is a program that helps low-income Oregonians purchase more fruits and vegetables while supporting local, family farms. You can purchase one of our Monthly Pay Plan CSA shares using your SNAP/Oregon Trail card and DUFB will provide 1:1 matching funds (you pay half the cost of the CSA with SNAP and DUFB covers the other half). It's a win-win that strengthens our community by providing better access to fresh, healthy food while helping local farmers earn a living.

One in eight Oregonians experience food insecurity, and for families with limited incomes, the cost of fresh produce can be prohibitive. Double Up Food Bucks helps SNAP participants heap their plates high with fresh, local veggies when they purchase a Valley Flora CSA share. 

Sign up for our CSA with SNAP* today and enjoy the harvest from Valley Flora!

Click here to learn more about our 28-week CSA!

*Applies to SNAP food benefits only. If you receive SNAP cash benefits (allowing you to buy non-food items), unfortunately you will not be eligible for the DUFB program.

2023 CSA Sign-Ups

Sign-Ups are Open for the 2023 CSA Season!

 

Our Sliding Scale CSA

This year Valley Flora is introducing an income-based sliding scale CSA payment model for Harvest Baskets (the sliding scale does not apply to Abby’s Greens Salad Shares). We want our CSA to be accessible to everyone in our community, regardless of their current economic situation. Sliding scale options ask that those who can afford to pay more make a larger CSA contribution for the season, so that those who cannot afford to contribute as much can pay less. This approach means that collectively we make food access more equitable in our community while keeping the farm economically viable.

Participation in our sliding scale is based on the honor system and is completely voluntary. CSA is built on trust; in that spirit we will not ask you any personal questions about finances or life circumstances. If you do not want to participate, you can sign up for the normal full price option ($975 for the season, with a $25 discount applied to all Paid in Full Harvest Baskets). If you want to participate in our sliding scale, please follow the steps explained below. Additionally, to make Valley Flora produce more accessible:

  • We offer a $25 discount on all Paid In Full Harvest Baskets ($950 per season instead of $975).
  • We offer a Monthly Payment Plan option for those who need to spread their CSA payments out over the season.
  • We accept EBT/SNAP and are part of a program called Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB). SNAP members will receive 1:1 matching funds through DUFB towards the cost of a CSA share (you pay half of the cost of the CSA price with your SNAP and DUFB pays the other half). If you are paying with EBT/SNAP, you do not need to choose a sliding scale option because you will automatically receive a 50% discount. Please contact us directly if you want to pay with EBT/SNAP so we can set up your account and get you enrolled in the DUFB program.

Sliding Scale Participants, Read On...

Step 1: Income-based suggestion

Our sliding scale CSA pricing is based on the income required to provide a modest yet secure standard of living in Coos and Curry Counties, based on data from the Economic Policy Institute Family Budget Calculator. In the chart below, choose your household size (family of 2 or family of 4) and find the annual household income that most closely matches your own. To the right of your income you will find your suggested CSA contribution for the season. If you have a larger or smaller family, please use your best judgement to determine your CSA contribution for the season given the baseline provided.


 

Step 2: Consider your wealth and privilege in addition to income

Our sliding scale CSA encourages you to consider other factors besides income that affect your financial status. Some groups of privileged people go through life with a tailwind at their back, others with less privilege face a headwind (listen to this Freakonomics podcast for an explanation). For most people, there is a mix of tailwinds and headwinds. Please consider wealth and privilege as well as income.

Consider contributing more when you:

  • Own your home;
  • Have retirement accounts, investments, or inherited money;
  • Have access to family money and resources in times of need; have significant discretionary expenses like travel, dining out, entertainment, etc.;
  • Have a relatively high degree of earning power due to your education level (or other privileges you may have associated with race, gender, citizenship status, class background, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical ability, etc.). Even if you are not currently exercising your earning power – we ask you to recognize when this is a choice and consider contributing more.

Consider contributing less when you:

  • Are supporting other dependents or sending remittances;
  • Have significant non-mortgage debt, particularly cash advance or payday loans;
  • Have medical expenses not covered by insurance;
  • Are impacted by state violence (e.g. refugees, asylees and injustice in our criminal system).

Thanks to all the good people at Soulfire Farm,  Zephyr Farm, Boundless Farmstead and many others for inspiring and pioneering the sliding scale CSA model.

Follow this link to select your CSA option and sign up for the 2023 season.

Thanks for being part of a more just and equitable food system in our community!

Shop our Farmstand - In-Person or through our Online Store!

Our farmstand has re-opened for the 2023 season!

  • For the month of May we will be open on Wednesday, May 3rd and Wednesday, May 17th, 11:30 am to 2:30 pm.
  • As of May 31st we'll be open EVERY WEDNESDAY, 11:30 to 2:30
  • By mid-June-ish/summer solstice, we'll be adding Saturdays to our schedule as well.

There are two ways to get our farmstand produce: pre-order it online, or swing by and drop in to shop when we're open.

If you’d like to pre-order and haven’t registered an account with Local Line (our virtual store), it’s quick and easy. Simply follow the instructions below to set up your account. Once you do that you will begin to receive our availability emails with a link to our “store.”

You can also go directly to our Local Line store to check it out: https://valley-flora.localline.ca/farmstand

Farmstand Details and How to Order:

  • Anyone is welcome to shop our farmstand. You do not need to be a CSA member and there is no waiting list to join.
  • The farmstand is located 1.5 miles up Floras Creek Road at the shed just after the bridge. Directions. 
  • When picking up your order or dropping in to shop, please wait in line until it's your turn to be served. 
  • If you want to pre-order produce, you will need to register a new account with Local Line before you can place an order. Here's how (it's easy):
    1. Go to https://valley-flora.localline.ca/farmstand to view our store.
    2. Click "Register" on the right side of the page.
    3. Set up your account by providing your email address, password, name, phone number and address.
    4. Accept the terms and conditions,
    5. Click the green button, "Creat Your Account"
    6. Start shopping!
  • The ordering window for our Wednesday farmstand opens on Thursday morning by 9 am until Sunday night at 9 pm. Farmstead Bread is available on Wednesdays only. 
  • The ordering window for our Saturday farmstand opens on Monday morning by 9 am until Wednesday night at 9 pm.
  • There is a $20 minimum on orders. The "Place Order" button will not appear until you have met the $20 minimum.
  • Once you register, you'll start getting our weekly availability emails (Thursday morning for the Wednesday farmstand; Monday morning for the Saturday farmstand). 
  • You can always access our Local Line store by clicking the "Order Farmstand Produce" button on the left sidebar of our homepage, following the link below, or going directly to https://valley-flora.localline.ca/farmstand.

Thanks for your support of the farm and your passion for eating local, seasonal produce!

Shop the Valley Flora Store for Farmstand Produce Now!

Valley Flora - Growing Good Food for Local Folks

Valley Flora is a mother-and-two-daughter collective nestled on the banks of Floras Creek near Langlois, Oregon. Together with the help of our draft horses, a handful of fantastic employees, one little tractor and 12 kilowatts of solar power, we grow hundreds of varieties of vegetables, berries and fruit to feed our local coastal community year-round. Our farm was founded in 1998 with a deep commitment to ecological and organic farming practices and our passion is growing good food to strengthen our community-based food system on the southern Oregon coast. We grow produce for our 130-member CSA, our farmstand, u-pick, and a number of stores, restaurants and co-ops. Our love of the Floras Creek valley – the fertile loam and the river that runs through it - inspires us to farm with the next generation in mind, and the next. We rely on crop diversity, compost, cover crops, and crop rotation to keep our farm healthy and thriving both above and below ground. We are grateful to call this our life, our livelihood and our passion.

Week 5 of the Winter CSA!

  • Winter Kale Mix
  • Bunched Mustard Greens
  • Radish Micro Mix
  • Leeks
  • Yellow Potatoes
  • Autumn Frost Winter Squash 
  • Yellow Onion
  • Shallots 
  • Beets
  • Daikon Radish
  • Cauliflower

On Rotation:

  • Spring Raab
  • Purple Sprouting Broccoli

It's one of those CSA weeks when it's hard to snap the lids on the totes! So fun to have such abundance, as the sleet and snow and rain come pummeling down all around us, day after day.

The winter squash in your share this week is Autumn Frost, a specialty butternut that has wonderful flavor and great versatility. I love to make soup with these, but they're also just as good peeled, cubed and roasted or tossed into a thai curry.

You're seeing another round of our bunched winter mustards from the greenhouse this week. These are the workhorse greens that get us through the deepest corner of winter (planted in November, December and January for January, February and March harvest). Pretty soon - maybe by next harvest - we'll have tender spinach coming out of the greenhouses, and possibly even some baby carrots and hakurei turnips.

And a bit delayed by the cold weather, but finally brave enough to peek its head out at the world: overwintered cauliflower! This crops represents an enormous investment in farmer time and effort, mixed with a little bit of luck. This particular variety was seeded in early July, transplanted in early August, and has been growing slowly out in the field ever since. Over-wintered cauliflower is a sensitive, finicky crop and there are years when it fails to head up altogether. Fortunately, and in spite of the weather, we got our first harvest this week - but had to be strategic with our timing to keep the semi-open heads protected from hail and overnight freezing. I breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when, after sorting the harvest, we had just enough to fill the totes.

Enjoy that ample bag of radish micro, and do something special with your shallots!

CSA Shares are Available for the 2023 Season!!!

We are actively signing folks up for our upcoming 2023 CSA season - spread the word, we have spots available!! You can get all the details and sign up on our website, and if you have SNAP benefits you are eligible for Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB), an awesome program that provides 1:1 matching funds for CSA shares (you pay half the cost with SNAP and DUFB covers the other half)! Please help us get the word out about this fantastic program that helps low-income Oregonians access fresh produce from local farms!

 

Newsletter: 

Valley Flora Winter CSA: Week 4!

Hi everyone! Thanks for getting by without the farm newsletter this past month while I took a little winter break with my family. I'm back to it now, just in time for a dose of real winter weather! We were grateful to get the harvest in this week before the brunt of the storm hit. If you are a Winter CSA member and are unable to make it to your pickup site today, not to worry. Any unclaimed Valley Flora totes will be put in our walk-in cooler this evening (you can pick up anytime during daylight hours this week) and Bandon totes will be available until 5 pm tomorrow. Stay safe, don't drive if it's scary!

This Week's Winter Share:

  • Savoy Cabbage
  • Collard Greens
  • Bunched Winter Mustard Medley
  • Curly Parsley
  • Pea Shoots
  • Leeks
  • Yellow Potatoes
  • Tetsukabuto Winter Squash
  • Onions

On Rotation:

  • Purple Sprouting Broccoli
  • Spring Raab

A Couple Recipes for a Stormy Winter's Night:

Oven-Roasted Savoy Cabbage (not so much a recipe; more like the simplest way to make the most delicious cabbage you ever tasted, and warm your kitchen up while you're at it):

Preheat your oven to 450. Cut your cabbage into narrow wedges, leaving the core attached. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and spread onto a sheet pan. Bake until crispy-browned at the edges and soft throughout. That's it. I'm not sure there's a better way to enjoy winter cabbage. 

Lemony White Bean Soup with Lots of Greens (adapted from the New York Times Cooking)

Follow the link above to our online recipe collection for the full recipe. This has become my favorite soup this year, and is especially good with collard greens, which lend a meaty texture to the dish.

Let it Snow!(?)

I'm torn on this topic as I consider the forecast for the next 24 hours: on one hand, I would love nothing more than to wake up to a winter wonderland, pop into my nordic skis, and head out with 6" of fluff underfoot. On the other hand, I'm not so excited about camping in our delivery van next to the greenhouses tonight so that I can wake up every hour and sweep snow off the plastic. But heck, with a zero degree sleeping bag and a thermos full of hot tea, bring it on! I'd do just about anything to have ski season arrive right at my front door.

But why the need to sweep snow off the greenhouses in the middle of the night? Because a couple inches of wet, heavy snow is enough to collapse them. We live in a climate where precip usually falls from the sky in the form of rain, which allows us to use quonset-style hoop houses. They're cheaper to build but they aren't designed to shed snow very well (unlike a gable roof, which has a steep enough pitch to slough snow). So when an arctic storm like this rolls in - and that little snowflake icon shows up in the forecast - it means that we're working the night shift. Not only would it be a serious bummer to lose the greenhouses, it would be a big setback to have all the crops inside them get smooshed (right now that includes winter greens, lettuce, baby carrots, hakurei turnips, spinach, and other treats destined for the Winter CSA shares in the coming weeks). And so, I'll go digging for my winter camping gear, maybe light a little hobo fire in a burn barrel, and pack some extra mittens.

Stay warm, wish us luck tonight, and imagine happy farmers kicking and gliding across the snowy pasture tomorrow on x-country skis (sleep-deprived but delighted).

 

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