Growing up on my family's farm in Pennsylvania, I never would have pictured the life I live at Willow Haven farm. As a kid I spent summers in our large family garden we called, “The Truck Patch”. I helped mom every summer, picking beans, weeding, and cutting fruit and vegetables for the hundreds of jars of canned and frozen produce we put up. Now I spends less time out in the field and more time in the kitchen doing the same preserving for my own farm family. Farmer Reuben values my many hours doing much of the behind the scenes marketing, writing emails to cultivate customers and capturing the farm story each week. I'm always learning along the way in my quest to improve the farm experience for each of her current and future farm members in our 500+ member, year-round customized farm box delivery program. Reading our stories will connect you with your food in a way you never experienced before. Someday soon you will want to fit local food into your life and we'll be here to help you.
Soaked to the skin for farm gold + updates on teen farmer & farm teens
[Member's only this Saturday. Farm family is away. See below.]
Hi Reader,
It poured on the harvest crew!
Blaise re-appearred at the house just after leaving for the field. He was soaked to the skin and looking for a jacket.
Just as they were beginnig to dig carrots, it began to rain heavily. It didn't last long but with a little breeze and no sun, I guess he got chilled.
Carrots are Gold! You wouldn't believe how much work it is to succeed at growing carrots for you.
Carrots are a very labor intensive crop that isn’t always successful on our farm because we don’t spray chemicals for weed control.
These carrots were planted in July, hand-weeded, hoed, picked, washed and bunched. Just the weeding itself takes so much time that two of our guys spent every day for a week weeding just the carrots. They did a great job!
Carrots are a root vegetable that grow under the ground. They have green feathery tops that capture the sunlight and send it down for the root to grow.
You know that sunlight is important for growing plants. It's a no brainer and we take if for granted most of the time.
BUT what if the sun doesn't shine enough. Fall and spring can be overcast and in 2018 we had a BIG problem of not enough sun. I remember writing about it:
2018 was the worst farming year in most farmer's memories. With so much rain, the crops that were harvested rotted too quickly and didn't last in storage. With so little sun, the fall greens didn't grow. (Link to that video here.)
Amazingly, Willow Haven Farm still filled our farm shares for the full 20 week season. But we didn't offer a Fall Extended Season Share that year.
Plenty of onions are in storage, our sweet potato harvest will start soon and the kids helped me check on the growing greens last week.
You can count on a fanatastic Winter Share this year if you sign up soon!
The feedback from winter share members last season was overwhelmingly positive.
"We really loved the winter share and will sign up again!"
"I love to get better tasting and better for me small farm food and this was a great way to do so."
"I love knowing what will be in my box and having the availability to swap items. Especially when I had leftovers from the prior box."
"I loved that veg were already boxed and I just picked up; it was smooth and quicker and the time frame to make it out to you was really nice also -- the items were packed really nicely and thoughtfully."
"I liked the winter share. Love [purchasing] the flatbread pizza doughs [as extras] and I usually buy double since they're not always available."
Our auto-renewed members have already claimed MORE THAN HALF of our 100 memberships this week.
A Winter farm share membership might be right for you if:
- you've been a CSA member of any farm before
- you wish you'd joined the CSA at the beginning of the summer
- you love winter veggies like butternut squash, sweet potatoes, kale, turnips and more
- you are ready for the challenge of eating what your farmer puts in your box each week
- you realize the end of the winter shares will offer many of the same items each week - repeats are motivation to find new recipes
- supporting local, eating organic and eating more vegetables are a high priority
- you want to be on the first notice list to reserve a membership in the 2022 summer CSA.
| Buy Winter Share Now |
UPDATES from last week's newsletter:
- TEN individuals donated to the DeMaster children's Go Fund Me page!
- Bohdie sold 50 dozen ears of corn through us last week!
We'll keep farming for you!
Reuben and Tessa DeMaster
Willow Haven Farm
Directions to the farm
P.S. Farm Share members only THIS SATURDAY! The farm family is away this weekend so our market store is understaffed. Suzanne will be helping farm share members as best she can.
Want something from the market? Make your order for pastured duck, brick oven bread, bath and body herbal products, discounted apples, Haven Farmstead cheese and organically grown veggies, using the Online Farm Stand to make an order for Wednesday.
Are you new? More info about our farm:
ON FARM MARKET OPEN THIS SATURDAY! Come in forpastured duck, fresh brick oven bread, bath and body herbal products, discounted apples and sweet corn, Haven Farmstead cheese and organically grown veggies, or check out the Online Farm Stand to make an order for Wednesday.
WINTER SHARES, including plenty of winter squash varieties will be offered to farm members beginning September 22. Get on our waitinglist for the shares that remain after our members renew. If you were a winter share member last year your auto-renew options will be sent to you soon. Find out more
SUMMER SHARES: Get the six question guide Is a Farm Share CSA Right for You Guide to find out if our Farm Share CSA will fit into your life and your goals. YES! SEND ME THE GUIDE.
How do you Refer A Friend? Members get REWARDED for getting their friends to join too! When you tell others about our farm, you both earn $15 Farm Credit when they start their own membership using your unique referral code. Read this article to find your link, then send it to your friends.
FLOWERS: Annika's private CSA takes members who want flowers delivered to them every week during the summer and fall. Members enjoy the beautiful variety of local flowers, information from Farmer Annika about the flowers, a Flower Guide and a unique note each week. Flower Shares can be added to your farm vegetable share as well. They come carefully wrapped and included in your box with each delivery. Just select Flower Add On Share after choosing your perfect size Veggie Share.
CHEESE: Want to purchase amazing grass-fed artisan cheese from our sister business, Haven Farmstead? The grass-fed dairy cows at Willow Haven Farm are co-owned by farmer Reuben and cheesemaker, Steve. Living on pasture and milked once a day, they produce excellent milk for the best old-world style cheeses. If you've traveled to Europe, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find the same excellent flavors here in PA. Shop the Cheese Store.
WOW! YOU MADE IT ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM!
Please Share, Share, Share Their Story! https://gofund.me/a1c6db4b
➢ Share on all your social media accounts with ONE CLICK!
Thinking of unsubscribing? current CSA members need to stay connected to our emails but you can limit them to just vital information about your membership by clicking here.
Tessa DeMaster
Growing up on my family's farm in Pennsylvania, I never would have pictured the life I live at Willow Haven farm. As a kid I spent summers in our large family garden we called, “The Truck Patch”. I helped mom every summer, picking beans, weeding, and cutting fruit and vegetables for the hundreds of jars of canned and frozen produce we put up. Now I spends less time out in the field and more time in the kitchen doing the same preserving for my own farm family. Farmer Reuben values my many hours doing much of the behind the scenes marketing, writing emails to cultivate customers and capturing the farm story each week. I'm always learning along the way in my quest to improve the farm experience for each of her current and future farm members in our 500+ member, year-round customized farm box delivery program. Reading our stories will connect you with your food in a way you never experienced before. Someday soon you will want to fit local food into your life and we'll be here to help you.
Hi Reader, I finally did what I promised. Taking my girls out for birthday shopping kept being delayed because of farm activities. I said I would take them last Saturday, but I got pulled into setting up a tent at Rodale’s Spring Market event. Even a unique situation on the farm last night caused me to detour as we started to drive away. A fight. The story continues... We Are Open! Saturday: 9 AM - 3:00 PMFresh Brick Oven Sourdough Bread: Onion Rye, Ancient Grains, Honey Wheat, Baguette,...
Hi Reader, A snake in the greenhouse! Terrified? Not at all. Farmer Reuben welcomed the garter snake and the sense of security it gave us. You see, if a snake is present, we can be sure that the mice will stay away and our newly planted seeds will be safe. Unfortunately, the snake must have moved on because earlier this week... The story continues... We Are Open! Saturday: 9 AM - 3:00 PMFresh Brick Oven Sourdough Bread: Olive Rosemary, Onion Rye, Cranberry WalnutFresh Veggies: Rhubarb,...
Hi Reader! The young, aspiring reporter met Reuben and Bill at a boring township meeting. Now Olivia Marble is following this lead wherever it takes her. After the zoning meeting in Upper Macungie Township, a young lady with a microphone attached to her iphone stopped Farmer Reuben and Bill Kuklinski, the owner of the building at 8150 Hamilton Boulevard. After that interview she looked up our farm and found out about our Foster A Chick program. She came out to the farm to see the families...