Gregory Farms

Paul Gregory farms a few acres in South Kitsap County. He has been a regular producer at the Port Orchard Farmers Market and is starting a CSA for 2009. He can be reached at 360-692-0528.

Gregory Farm CSA Plan

Last modified on 2011-05-17 17:10:01 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.

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.

“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.

How To Start A CSA For Your Farm

Last modified on 2009-01-18 02:33:19 GMT. 4 comments. Top.

At this month’s KCAA meeting, veteran Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers Marilyn Holt of Abundantly Green and Nikki Johanson of Pheasant Fields provided a wealth of information for anyone interested in starting a CSA. And there were plenty of tips available for those who are farming for their own consumption or selling in a farmers market.

Johanson emphasized two “V” points in her advice to those considering starting a CSA:

- Vend at a farmers market – sell your products here and get to know other farmers who are willing to share some of their farming experiences with you.   You’ll also get a feel for pricing, supply and product demand.

-Volunteer to work on an established CSA farm – here you’ll get a feel for the amount of time you will need to spend, the work and expenditures as well as the income involved, and some of the problems that can surface in running a CSA. Most CSA farmers are more than willing to share their information with other farmers.

Holt and Johanson made some other points during their presentations.  People really need to be educated in the benefits of eating local food.  And many are unaware of the vitamin and mineral richness of some of the lesser known greens.  Recipes explaining these benefits and providing tasty uses of these greens are a good idea.

“I publish recipes that use currently available produce every week my CSA is in operation,” says Holt.  “It seems to be very popular with my subscribers.”

Both Holt and Johanson are high on farmers markets, both for selling and as a pick-up point for CSA customers if they are unable to get to the farm.  It’s also a place to recruit new CSA customers.

Develop a relationship with your potential and existing customers says Johanson. If you have other activities during the year such as a corn maze, holiday activities, etc., keep them informed during the off-CSA season.  Keep your contact list up to date and send out notices as soon as you can  about your upcoming season.

Holt and others say they can’t emphasize the importance of trying to fill your CSA subscriptions as early as possible. Advertise in local papers, put up a good web site with on-line subscription capability, develop a good brochure or flyer and put them where they can be accessed easily in such places as libraries. Early subscription gives you a better idea of how much working capital you will have for your growing season.

“Plant an abundance, variety, and things that will be ready to harvest at different times throughout the CSA subscription period,” says Johanson. “You never know what’s going to happen in a growing season.”

She adds that a farmer does his best if he gives good value in return for that money the consumer has spent.  Farmers agreed that this was a tough year because of the long, wet, cold spring and the large amount of rain in August.

That’s when you need to become innovative say seasoned CSA farmers – develop relationships with other farmers who offer different produce or perhaps meat, wine, flowers and other items that can be traded.

“You should feel a real responsibility to meet that commitment to offer the best that you can to your community subscriber,” says Johanson.

Some CSA farmers, such as the newly minted CSA, Handsown Homegrown, offer ad-ons that you can purchase to go with your weekly CSA share.  A small north end farm, Handsown Homegrown offered some of the finest heirloom tomatoes around at last season’s Poulsbo Farmers Market.

Another important point Holt says to consider is how much land you want to buy or lease, how big a labor force you want to manage and how much refrigerated space you will have.  The latter is very important when it comes to picking fresh crops in  warmer weather.

“A CSA farmer must be willing to work long hard hours during the season – one night Nikki and I were picking corn by the headlights of the car,” chuckled Holt.

CSA web resources – contain on-line articles, reference to books, etc.:

-WSU Extension site at:  http://smallfarms.wsu.edu/marketing_CSA.php and

-USDA lists many articles that can be read on-line at their site http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csafarmer.shtml

-“Community Supported Agriculture:  An Introduction to CSA”  describes a CSA but also lists many excellent articles and books at:  http://www.biodynamics.com/csa.html

CSA farms represented at KCAA meeting who are available for share subscription in 2009:

Gregory Farms – (360) 692-0528

Pheasant Field Farms – (360) 697-6224

Abundantly Green – (360) 692-2504

Handsown Homegrown – (360) 598-4711

Soon we will be compiling a list of peninsusla farms offering CSA shares in 2009. Check back often!