CSA: Magpie Farm

The Magpie Farm CSA will operate for 50 weeks starting June 1, 2013 and taking the weeks following Thanksgiving and Christmas off. We will be serving the Bernallio, Placitas, Rio Rancho, East Mt., Albuquerque, and Santa Fe areas. Drop days have yet to be established. Drop sites will be arranged in a area where there is 5+ members in a 5 square mile area or as needed. Although we expect to have more than enough produce for 50+ members this year. We are limiting annual membership to 25 this year so we can give lots of what the ecosystem offers back to the ecosystem. We will also begin to develop a presence at farmers markets and other commercial arenas.

Our farm is still developing and with very little effort the land can be encouraged to produce beyond our most fanciful dreams. Members are not just product consumers; they are keys to developing healthier and more abundant ecosystems. Our CSA annual memberships offers members the chance to be a part of the necessary processes to enhancing this pristine environment to better sustain itself and to increase its carrying capacity for a myriad of life forms. With every step in development there will be workshops in which CSA annual members are welcome to come to free of charge. We will also be developing speciality, private classes, and seminars with guest speakers, film festivals, which, of course, are free to Magpie Farm's CSA annual members.

For our first year in full production there is still a number of variables which may affect weekly and seasonal harvest. For this reason we ask all members to keep in mind that some weeks may be leaner than others and the risk of nothing being available some weeks may exist. CSA members are given the first distribution; all commercial produce(Farmer's Market's etc) is calculated and sold after distribution to members. While we do not offer refunds, credits for the following year will be applied if we are unable (under extreme cases which we really can't imagine happening) to produce more than half of the deliveries. We have carefully considered that we are a start up and that we must temper our expectations and excitement of harvest for these first two years as the soil and ecosystems balance. It is our practice to put half to 2/3 of all organic matter grown in those years back into the soil to enrich the soil and ecosystem. In doing so, the following years can be as prosperous and sustainable as possible.

You, the future CSA member, are critical to the success of Magpie Farm's endeavours. It is with your support we will be able to archive all that we have set out to do and more. The more support we receive the quicker and more prosperous the land will be and the more fruits of the land we will all enjoy. Our goal of $30,000- $50,000 this year will purchase a larger irrigation system (mobile and capable of sprinkler irrigation 3 acres), thoughtful fencing (deer, elk, cows also love veggies), seeds (several hundred pounds of seeds are needed to start the process of returning and integrating thousands of native, endangered, produce plants), a 42'x96' greenhouse (tree starts and winter production), bee hives and bees, a tractor (not for tilling), and more fowl and rabbits.

Our structure of a CSA offers people a way to support Magpie Farm's dreams of developing a truly sustainable thriving ecosystem in New Mexico with their finances and labor and return to them the benefits of our wholesome food, education, experience, self-enrichment opportunities and much more. We are taking the notion of a CSA to new levels. Expanding its use to include its members in the educational, experiential, and spiritual/energetic evolution of Magpie Farm. Magpie Farm is more than a food producing business but a ecosystem enriching, endangered species preserving, spiritual enhancing, permaculture/natural farm and food forest.

Magpie Farm is actively preserving and enjoying threatened and endangered species already here like: Jemez Mt SalamanderWiki USFS Hyla eximia Mt Tree FrogAmphibiaWeb Peregrine FalconsWiki Bald EaglesWiki Mexican Spotted OwlWiki Old Growth Mosses & LichenWiki MossWiki Lichen Old Growth Pinyon and PonderosaWiki PinyonWiki Ponderosa and more being discovered all the time...... We will also be integrating other endangered flora n fauna as we develop. Through a CSA membership one may enjoy the many quiet spaces that harbor these species. Our workshops (free to members) will offer the experience and knowledge of developing the ecosystems that help them thrive.

It has been known throughout time and culture that the practice of land, water, and life stewardship is a deep and powerful way to connect with, enhance, and refine ones self. We try to encourage these deep connections through our work techniques and land layouts that include spaces that call to be sat in quietly. These spaces are always available to the Magpie Farm CSA annual members and our workshops (free to annual members) build the wisdom to create these spaces in other places. Annual members will receive discounts on body, mind, and energy classes (yoga, meditations, ect) in these spaces at Magpie Farm as well.