Seasonal Eating

Join a Community-Supported Agriculture Farm!

It is the first week of April. The ground is ready. Last season's raised beds were seeded down with an oats and peas cover crop which has winter-killed. Now they only need to be gone over once with the Rotovator Bed Shaper to have a seed bed ready for planting. The Sutton Planting Sled is hooked up to the 504 International tractor. With seeds, seed plates, and a paint brush in the box on the front of the tractor, Mike is ready to plant 9 rows of baby salad greens on a 6 foot bed. He has to haul 17 different varieties of seed out to the field to plant that salad. The lettuces with names like saucy dancers, their red and green skirts billowing in the slightest breeze: Rosalita, Tango, Lolla Rossa, Freckles, Frisee, Purple Passion, and Malawi. The hearty greens make up a third of the mix and really pack in the vitamins, with flavors ranging from lemon to pepper: Arugula, Pac Choi, Tat Soi, Red Mustard, Kale, Yukina Savoy, Red Chard, Mizuna, Bull's Blood Beet Tops, and Wrinkled Crinkled Cress. Every new variety means stopping the tractor, tipping the seed box forward, cleaning out the hopper with the paint brush, and changing the seed plate for a different sized seed. Two weeks pass and José Rodriguez is ready to cultivate with the rolling basket cultivators, a two inch spool rolling between the rows, his driving so straight and perfect, he only has a 1/2 - inch margin of error or he would take out the entire row- no the entire bed! The salad is harvested, triplewashed, and the Violas are added for color, Nasturtiums in mid-season. The salad is ready for the first CSA box, maybe the second if the weather is cold.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. When you join a CSA farm, you enjoy the ripest and freshest food (like our baby mixed salad greens) at the height of its natural harvest time, when it has the highest nutritional value. At Harmony Valley Farm in Southwest Wisconsin, we grow seasonal, fresh organic produce, and deliver it to households all over the Twin Cities. CSA members purchase a 'share' of the harvest at the beginning of the season, and pick up a box of organic produce, beef and/or fruit from a drop-site once a week. Along with this box of organic food, we issue a weekly newsletter informing the shareholders of events at the farm, the contents of that week's box, as well as recipes, vegetable histories and stories from our farm. CSA is a unique way to connect urban households with the farm and farmers who grow their food. A community is created of people from the same neighborhood, enjoying the same food, sharing recipes, and coming together at farm events.

Receiving a fresh box of seasonal produce every week promotes healthy eating habits and creative cooking. Harmony Valley Farm grows one of the most diverse selections of produce available in a CSA, from spring dug parsnips, ramps, and asparagus to sweet potatoes, broccoli romanesco, and scarlet turnips in the fall and winter. With this selection of produce, it is possible to become the cook you've always wanted to be. Our farm chef helps with the transition to seasonal eating by writing educational articles and recipes for our newsletter and doing cooking demos at our farm events. Everyone strives to eat healthier, and what better way to ensure a constant supply of fresh, organic produce, than to have a box delivered to you every week for 30 weeks out of the year.

Harmony Valley Farm began growing vegetables in 1984, and has been providing households with CSA boxes each week for the past 13 years. Starting in May and continuing on into January, every Thursday, Harmony Valley Farm delivers to drop-sites in and around the Twin Cities area: Lyn-Lake, Seward, Linden Hills, Northeast Minneapolis, Bloomington, Como Park, Minnetonka, Maple Grove and Rosemount. Choose a 30 week share, a 20 week peak season share, or choose the weeks that you receive a box with our flex plan! We offer several payment plan options. Check out our website: www.harmonyvalleyfarm.com for a brochure, signup form and the list of vegetables and fruits that we grow, or pick up a brochure on the customer service counter at the Wedge Co-op!