Buy Local Food In Kitsap

CSA Stands For “Community Supported Agriculture”

To See A List Of Links To Kitsap Farms Click Kitsap_csa_list

Buying and Eating Local Food will

•    improve your health
•    delight your taste buds
•    stretch your food budget
•    increase income in your community (learn more)
•    preserve farmland; and
•    make you new friends

Winter is the time to sign up for your local farm share for the coming year. Last year, farm shares sold out before spring. Sign up now for 20-24 weeks of fresh local food. Learn more about Community Supported Agriculture.

Kitsap Farmers Offering CSA Farm Shares

Fill out the form below for someone to contact you with information about CSA shares in Kitsap for the 2009 season or follow the links below to view farm sites directly. If we are unable to find a farm CSA near to your home we will build a list of interested families to present to farmers willing to start a CSA.

Directory of Farms Offering CSA Farm Shares For Kitsap Residents

Directory of Farms Offering CSA Farm Shares For Kitsap Residents

Abundantly Green Certified Organic Produce

13274 Clear Creek Rd NW, Silverdale

Butler Greens

8449 Lovgreen RD on Bainbridge Island

Farm House Organics

Poulsbo

Fox Dog Farm

Kingston

Greenwoodes Farm Produce (Subscription Full, Sold Out! As Of 2/3/2009)

Gregory Farm Produce (Subscription Sold Out As of 2/13/09!)

Hand Sown, Home Grown
Download Handsown and Homegrown CSA Brochure Here

Holly Lane Garden

Laughing Crow Farm

Leapfrog Farm

Persephone Farm

Pheasant Field Farm

Fox Dog Farm Announces Their 2009 CSA

Last modified on 2009-03-08 21:10:24 GMT. 1 comment. Top.

When people asked Kingston archeologist-farmer Rikke Giles what on earth her two professions could possibly have in common she tells them  that’s exactly what they  have in common – love of dirt!

Dr. Rikke Giles and Friend

Giles and her husband Randy Wagner are again offering their popular Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares this year after a two-year hiatus while she completed her PhD in archeology. And they will be offering something unique – shares are available for the usual 20 week season between May 18 and the last week in September but they are also planning to follow that up with two more smaller CSA seasons.  One will start immediately following the summer one and run until the end of November and the next will run from March until mid-May.

Randy Wagner and more friends

“ We’re not sure what all we will have during those second two seasons but are definitely planning to keep tomatoes and peppers in our greenhouse,” says Giles.

Giles purchased her 12-acre property in Kingston and began farming in 1994-1995.  She built her own house on the property and it’s such a good replica of a Victorian farm house she says people who see it from a distance think it was homesteaded there many years ago.

But there are some pretty modern touches too such as the faux stone wall that gets hot enough to heat her house from the sun coming through the 12 x 30 foot greenhouse that she also built herself.

greenhouse and solar heat

Giles grew up in the Santa Cruz mountain area of California and obtained her first degree, a Bachelor of Science in engineering and sub-atomic particle physics from the University of Santa Clara.  After attending San Jose State for a couple of years and studying archeology and anthropology, she decided to obtain her Master’s Degree in archeology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Part of the program involved going to school abroad so she says her interest in farming was really planted when she went to England for three years and attended the University of New Castle-upon-Tyne.

“Seeing how they farm in Europe was really an eye-opening experience for me and I started getting very interested in it,” says Giles.

After graduation and a couple of years in Philadelphia, she moved to Washington where her parents had retired to Quilcene and began farming on her property in Kingston.  She met future husband Wagner on the Internet and they began many months of a commuting romance as he was living in Boise at the time but he eventually moved up here in 2000.

In addition to their vegetables, Wagner and Giles also have a herd of 16 Nigerian dwarf goats that help keep the farm tidy, and produce milk and cheese.

“I originally got these goats to keep the blackberry brambles down– they’d trim along the low part while I cut the top and dropped the branches down to them,” says Giles with a laugh. “And I tried tethering them but they were too vulnerable to predators so I ended up building the Taj of goat houses for them!”

In addition to the vegetables, the couple sells goats and plans to sell goat cheese once they have their Class A cheese-making certification.  And they will sell any surplus from their CSA  directly on the farm.

fox dog farm tomatoes

“If the gate is open and the sign is up, we’ll have stuff to sell,” says Giles

Fox Dog Farm is located at 26096 Miller Bay Road, Kingston.  The telephone number is (360) 2977135; web site is:  www.foxdogfarm.com and e-mail is: rgiles@centurytel.net

Gregory Farm – 2009 CSA Plan

Last modified on 2009-03-01 00:29:49 GMT. 1 comment. Top.

Symbiosis and Year Round Local Food Production

At a time of year when most farmers are thinking about what they will be planting, buying some seeds, or doing a little rototilling, Paul Gregory is  harvesting a few crops that are still in the ground.  He says he’s pretty amazed that he still has these crops.

Farmer Paul Gregory and Master Baker Mark Downen

At least once a week, he delivers some onions, maybe a little kale, or perhaps a few baby carrots to Monica’s Waterfront Bakery and Café.  It’s a symbiotic relationship here – owners Chef Mark Downen and his wife Monica give Gregory their kitchen scraps for his compost pile. Gregory points to a pile of egg shells among the scraps.

“These are great for bringing calcium to my tomatoes – it’s something they really need,” says Gregory.

Downen looks at the crisp, bright green onion tops with tiny bulbs that Gregory has just brought in.  He says they’ll be great in one of his famous quiches. And Gregory is glad to find a market for them.

Green Onions Are The Life For Me.

“These are some regular onions that didn’t bulb out, but the tops are still as fresh and green as a small green onion,” says Gregory.

And he’s brought in some just-harvested tiny, sweet Royal Chantenay carrots. Downen says he can use these too.  Next week he’ll bring in some kale that will be destined for Monica’s delicious kale and sausage soup.

But Gregory wasn’t always a farmer.

He grew up in Yakima, land of many fruit tree orchards, so he really didn’t have much early knowledge of western Washington farming.  After earning a degree in journalism from Washington State University and a brief stint with a bi-weekly paper, Gregory decided to become a commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska for ten years.

In the meantime, his parents had purchased two and a third acres in the Olympic View area and after Gregory left commercial fishing he started gardening on their property.  At first it was just a hobby but then, as he grew more and better crops, he began taking produce to the Poulsbo and Bremerton farmers markets.

“The soil here is innately very rich, there is a lot of sun, and I do a lot of soil enriching with compost, including leaves and grass,” says Gregory.

Next came his foray into Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).  He’s now entering his fourth season offering CSAs.  He started with six shares, grew to 12 and is now offering 20 shares this year.  Gregory says his mother originally helped him with some of the work but she’s now in her eighties and he farms about two acres by himself.  He says the CSA members come first with his harvest but he often has enough to continue offering produce at the Poulsbo and Bremerton farmers markets.

Gregory says his biggest crops are onions but he also grows a lot of leeks, cucumbers, beets, carrots, beans and other crops, plus tomatoes and lettuce for his CSA customers.

“I ask my customers for suggestions they might have for next year’s crops – someone just called me the other day and suggested a new type of cucumber that I’m going to try,” he says.

And Gregory goes back to his eastern Washington roots for some produce that many here don’t offer.  He still has connections to some excellent fruit growers and will go over to eastern Washington to hand-pick his fruit …by leaving here at 3 a.m. arriving in time for a morning pick, stopping during the heat of the day, picking again in the late afternoon and early evening and making the round trip back.  This way his customers have the freshest possible fruit.

He also operates his CSA a little differently than many farmers.  Beginning with a set price of $250 per share for the season, Gregory keeps a weekly running tally of how much money is left in each share by what the share owner orders each week.  This way, if a customer wants a box of apples to make applesauce one week or several pounds of tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce another week, they can order accordingly.   If a CSA customer uses up his share price, he can still continue to buy at ten per cent less than the farmers’ market price. And his customers get a bonus of some sort at the end of the season.

“I can get blueberries over in eastern Washington a month sooner than they ripen here and one of my customers last year ordered five pounds of them,” said Gregory.

But you’d better hurry if you’re interested in one of his CSA shares – he says he’s almost sold out.  Reach Paul Gregory and Gregory Farms at (360) 692-0528.

Why You Need Community Supported Agriculture Shares

Last modified on 2009-02-04 19:45:45 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

From: Monica and Mark Downen of Monica’s Waterfront Bakery & Cafe in Silverdale.

Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, brings farm-fresh produce and other grocery items into your home every week. You invest now, and the farm gets to plant in the Spring, and you reap the benefits of the harvest throughout the summer and fall.

Come to our CSA Q&A Saturday, February 7, 2009, 2 pm at the cafe. We will chat with Jared & Sara Hankins of Hand Sown Homegrown about their new Heirloom CSA, what they can do for you and why it is important.

On The Right-Jared and Sara Hankins

Every farm is unique and can offer different experiences and items.

Do you:

• Want to see how a farm works?
• Want to bring your kids to community events on a real, working farm?
• Want the freshest produce available on a weekly basis?
• Want to reduce your carbon footprint?
• Want to have healthier food options at home without having to plan a grocery list?
• Want to learn about Heirloom produce and why it is important?

Jared & Sara will have those answers and more. Whether you are just a little curious, desperate to know more, or already signed up, this is a great time to find out more and enjoy some time with your community.

Click here to see their 2009 CSA brochure