crop share | Yellow Stonehouse Farm CSA

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated Social Distancing is a new and unsettling time for us all. Here at Yellow Stonehouse Farm, we are continuing with our mission of growing USDA Certified Organic Food for our Members & Friends and increasing our planting to ensure a bountiful harvest for our local community. We are more committed than ever to sharing both our healthy immunity boosting vegetables and our beautiful natural landscape with you during this stressful time. To keep everyone safe, these are the practices we will implement:

The Spring Pantry share is a preview of how “barn-side” NO CONTACT DISTRIBUTION WILL WORK, if necessary, for future summer distributions.
YSF has expanded our safety procedures concerning sanitizing our distribution & storage areas, as well as the washing of produce. YSF will provide 2 hand washing stations.
For members and employees alike, we require that Social Distancing of at least 6 feet is practiced by everyone on the farm’s property.
Most produce will be bagged in compostable “plastic” bags, and when the share is distributed “barn-side” using No CONTACT DISTRIBUTION, it will be packaged in brown paper bags. No boxes will be used to eliminate potentially contaminated returns to the farm and because paper bags are easily reused & recycled by farm members.

YSF will provide compostable plastic bags to cover member’s hands when the market style distribution is safely opened. YSF requests that “if you touch it you should take it.”
When the Market Style distribution center is open, it will be cleaned & sanitized on a daily basis after a deep cleaning prior to Wednesday’s opening each week.
To ensure proper social distancing is implemented in our gardens, and to enhance member’s Pick Your Own (PYO) experience, YSF has increased the size of our PYO gardens by planting 3 separate areas with vegetables and flowers.
We request that members be aware of the Covid-19 symptoms and not come to the farm when they are symptomatic.
All farm employees are subject to daily health screenings and will follow all CDC guidelines, concerning handwashing, gloves and social distancing.
YSF requests that all future payments be made by credit/debit card or check to eliminate the need to handle paper money or coins.
Yellow Stonehouse Farm will provide notification of changes & updates to CDC guidelines when pertinent.

A week from today is Mother’s Day and Yellow Stonehouse Farm is celebrating with an Open Farm day on Saturday, May 11^th starting at 10:00 am. It’s a day to tour and learn about the farm, pick-up some fresh Spring vegetables including, weather permitting, fresh asparagus, ramps, and greens, and celebrate all the Mother’s in our lives. We will have a variety of flowering pots, vegetable and herb transplants, other flowering perennials and shrubs, plus locally crafted and organic food items in our farm store for a perfect Mother’s Day gift.

Mom’s and Families are very important to Yellow Stonehouse Farm. So much of what do here is about supporting our local community – growing organically, providing freshly picked produce to members along with easy family friendly recipes, offering Pick-Your-Own vegetables, flowers and herbs as a fun family activity plus our friendly and supportive farm community.

Life is busy for today’s families and we know Mothers are the organizers, nurturers, and caretakers of the family – responsible for everything from ferrying kids from one activity to another, to making sure food gets on the table that is tasty, nutritious and healthy. Making the right food choices is complicated, with a bewildering array of foods making a variety of claims. It’s scary to learn about the pesticides and herbicides used in conventional farming – and the growing evidence of impacts on human health of a diet that contains these substances.

The impact of pesticides and herbicides are linked to everything from immunity related disorders to cancer and learning disabilities and have led to a huge increase in the popularity of organic food. Eating organically is one of the fastest growing food trends in the US and a good way to protect the health of children, the elderly, pregnant and nursing mother’s and the immune suppressed such as cancer patients.

Joining Yellow Stonehouse Farm’s USDA certified organic CSA is a good way to ensure that the produce you eat every day is organic. It is truly one stop produce shopping! Your CSA share provides all the vegetables along with delicious recipes you need to feed your family of four for a week. And the cost of a full weekly share works out to be just $32.50 per week – a bargain when you factor in the weekly PYO privileges!

Something new we are adding to the farm this year – and focused especially on Mom’s and making their lives easier – is an expanded product line in our farm store. We have decided that one thing we can do to simplify the lives of our members is to save them a trip to another store. So, we are going to carry a variety of grocery items to help busy mom’s make delicious meals as well as every day items such as milk, eggs and bread. The best thing is, most of the items are going to be organic and locally crafted from farms throughout Western, MA allowing us to support other farmers in our area.

We look forward to seeing you on May 11^th. If you can’t make it, you can contact us at the farm at 413-562-2164 or email us at yellowstonehousefarmcsa@gmail.com to arrange a visit that’s convenient for you.