Buy Local Food In Kitsap

Kitsap Certified Organic Produce and Grass Fed Beef

Abundantly Green organics is co-farmed by Marilyn Holt, Brad and Barb Green. They are the fourth generation of farmers to care for this land in the Central Valley of Kitsap County. Marilyn is board member of the Kitsap Community and Agricultural Alliance, an author and business consultant.

You can purchase certified organic produce through their CSA or at the Poulsbo Farmers” Market. Payments may be made online at Abundantly Green Organics.

How To Start A CSA For Your Farm

Last modified on 2009-01-18 02:33:19 GMT. 3 comments. Top.

Marilyn Holt, Paul Gregory, Nikki Johanson

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!

Abundantly Green In Poulsbo

Last modified on 2008-08-20 03:52:49 GMT. 3 comments. Top.

Abundantly Green Certified Organic Produce couldn’t have found a better name to suit their successful produce business.

It’s named in part after two of the four co-farmers, Brad and Barb Green, but the amazing abundance of tasty, herbicide, chemical and pesticide free produce grown on five acres astounds other farmers as well as those who bought shares for this season’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Abundantly Green sold its produce subscription shares out before the season even began.

For the 92 lucky share-owners who receive fresh produce each week for 20 weeks and discerning produce shoppers at the Poulsbo Farmers Market, every week brings a delectable new surprise. Approximately 40 different types or varieties of produce are offered throughout the season. Among the farm’s specialties is lettuce – eight different types are currently produced. Some have intriguing names such as “green deer tongue” or “flashy trout back”. The latter actually looks like a brook trout under water. Paired with some of the sweet, juicy, tomatoes just now ripening and a little vinaigrette dressing, the flashy trout back creates a succulent symphony of color texture, and taste.

To maximize the enjoyment of CSA share-holders throughout the growing season, Abundantly Green goes out of their way to provide as much variety as possible. If they are a little short of one product and another local certified organic farmer has a surplus, they will sometimes trade products so the customer has the benefit of both farms’ produce.

Abundantly Green started in 2004 with sales to the Poulsbo and Silverdale Farmers Markets and by 2006 the four partners began their first CS with 30 shares. Members may pick their produce up at either the farm or the Poulsbo Farmers Market. The first recorded CSAs in the U.S. were started in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1986 – they are still in operation today.

“We went from 30 to more than 90 shares in our CSA in just three years,” says Barb Green.

Though five acres is used for organic farming, the overall acreage is 60 and it goes back four generations in another one of the farm partner’s family. Marilyn Holt took over the farm management from her father in 2000 and inherited the farm in 2001. Holt’s husband, Clifford Wind, is the fourth member of the Abundantly Green partnership.

Holt says her great grand-father, Frederick Walker, bought the property in 1892 from the original homesteaders, Mr. and Mrs. Cooksey. Her father, Maynard Holt bought the property in 1960 where he maintained a Class A dairy until 1972. It’s called the “Holt Ranch” because he raised beef cattle after retiring from dairying. 38 head of naturally raised , hormone, antibiotic and pesticide-free Hereford beef still graze on part of the farm not used to raise crops and beef can still be purchased there today by special arrangement.

“Our CSA is a single farm source model,” says Holt. “We grow a kitchen garden for our CSA family members.”

She says a kitchen garden is like the garden our great-grandparents had outside their kitchen door…where a family member could just step outside and pick the vegetables for that evening’s meal. Abundantly Green has made a special effort to choose and grow varieties of crops that are particularly well-suited to the farm’s Kitsap growing environment between Brownsville and Keyport.

Bremerton native, Brad Green, with the help of a few hired hands, assumes much of the responsibility for the crop planting, growing and harvesting. The home he and wife Barb own is behind the Holt ranch property so it’s a quick hop over to tend the crops. Retiring a mere year ago from his 35-year career as a truck freight hauler, Brad now devotes full time to his farming career. Barb, a pre-school teacher, helps out as much as she can on the farm and does the farmers market sales. She hopes to add flowers into the mix of available products next year.

The farmers say they have just about maxed out on the currently useable crop soil but hope to clear and prepare more in time to expand their growing area. And all four partners agree on one thing – the nutritional value of locally grown, fresh organic produce.

“Organic food is about what’s not in it – the herbicides, pesticides and chemicals – and ours doesn’t lose any nutritional value because it immediately comes straight to the consumer from the farm,” says Brad Green.

To learn more about Abundantly Green Certified Organic Produce, go to their web site at: www.holtcapital.com/abundantlygreen or e-mail them at: abundantlygreen@holtcapital.com