Friday, June 13, 2008

FARM STAND OPENING SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2008!

The farm stand will be opening tomorrow, Saturday, June 14, 2008. As most of you know, since last summer I have been transforming my garden into a farm! I have a mini CSA (community supported agriculture) where members buy a share of the farm's harvest and I also have a farm stand here at home. This year the stand is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, during daylight hours. I'll be picking early Friday and Saturday mornings and will most likely have stocked the stand by about 8:00. Bear in mind that this is a one person operation so there will be some variation in the restocking time. Feel free to call ahead. 413-773-8325

FARM BLOG
http://lasting-impressions-on-the-farm.blogspot.com/
The blog has a link to the farm stand where I will post what has been harvested for the stand each weekend. Please consider doing some of your vegetable and flower shopping here in Leyden. (Naturally this especially applies to you folks who live in Louisiana, Virginia and Georgia!) Tomorrow there will be head lettuce, mesclun, radishes, garlic chives, apple mint and maybe some kale.

I love gardening and being outdoors. Last year (2007) was my first experience selling what I grow. My main question that year was to find out if selling vegetables and flowers made my gardening more enjoyable. The answer is YES! I am having so much fun. I am still keeping the farm very tiny while I learn about growing for sale and expand my garden. I want to keep a balance between having enough produce for the CSA members/farm stand and keeping the farm small enough for my own enjoyment and good health. Last year I sold 2 shares. This year I increased to 4. In 2009 I hope to have 8 shares available. One of last year's most popular items was mesclun and I am growing a bunch more this year. Other main crops include head lettuce, various greens, beans, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and flowers. I am growing many more vegetables but you get the picture.

The CSA is going very well and if you are interested, you may become a member for 2009. I make weekly deliveries of vegetables and flowers to people in Leyden. I expect to make at least 20 deliveries this year. Contact me if you would like more information or want to be notified when shares become available in 2009.

POLICIES:

The stand is being run on an honor system. Leave your payment in the cash box. If you are hungry but have no money, please take what you need. If your spirit is sore and your wallet is empty, please take flowers. I really think of the stand as more of a service than a money maker. It's a way to shared the bounty of the earth.

All bouquets being purchased for the sick, grieving or homebound are half price.

As much as possible, I would like this business to be a Zero Waste business. I have have some biodegradable bags and strongly encourage you to bring your own bags or containers for food storage. The special bags are 10 cents each so if you can pay extra for them, that would be helpful. Please do not bring used bags for the stand as I can not be sure of their ‘clean enough for food’ status. Please do bring clean glass jars for bouquets, if you like.

I am also happy to receive divisions of perennial flowers to plant here for future bouquets.

Please sign in the notebook provided, recording your purchase, suggestions and thoughts.

I am often home on Saturdays and if you would like a tour of the garden I would be happy to show you around.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for supporting my little farm.

Yours sincerely,
Laura Timmerman
Leyden, MA 01337
laurat@crocker.com

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