Reviews for: Funky Little Farm
She's got reasonable pickup locations and times as well as fair pricing on her goodies.
Besides, her fruit makes fine jam. I suspect it will win at the State Fair next year.
First of all, quality: sometimes veggies were wilted or appeared past their prime. We even got a bag of lettuce infested with little black eggs -- gross!
Value: when we figured out how much we were paying per bag, we were appalled by how little we were getting. It seemed like it was filled with cheap veggies. We got about a million cucumbers, but we didn't get any carrots, onions, or parsnips. We got broccoli maybe once, and very few tomatoes, potatoes, or ears of corn. If I took the $35 a week I paid, I could get SO MUCH more at the farmer's market, and still be buying locally grown produce.
The thing that was the most disappointing was the professionalism. Barb is a nice lady, and I understand she was sick for some of the season. Still, we were paying her a LOT of money. She was late the first 3 weeks (after that I stopped coming during the first 30 minutes of the 2 hour window because I didn't want to sit there with my crying baby waiting in a hot car doing nothing!). Communication was lacking -- nothing was labeled. We ordered the "adventure pack" of eggs and one week when I reminded her that I should have that pack instead of the regular eggs, she said she gave them away to someone else. We got about 3 tomatoes (not counting quarter-sized ones in tiny snack bags) all season. Her reason? Her turkey pecked a hole in all her tomatoes. When she got sick, she emphasized that we would have had no veggies for a couple of weeks if it weren't for some customers who volunteered to work the farm. That seems like a big operation for someone to run without professional farm help. If we had known this was essentially just some person's hobby farm, we wouldn't have spent hundreds of dollars on it. I had a friend who did Harmony Valley CSA and it sounded like she got about twice the amount of food as we did, with everything washed and labeled.
In conclusion, if you want a good value from a reliable farmer, I wouldn't go with this CSA!
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As someone who does a CSA farm without any additional employees I have to comment that if an individual farmer pays for workers they make no money at all. Have you ever thought about how this farmer paid for her surgery or got any veggies out alone? Or how much money a small CSA farmer makes? Usually less than $5 an hour. Just sayin' If I get hurt or have surgery I hope someone will be there to pick some veggies for my shareholders.
Comment
Wow, I had surprise major abdominal surgery and almost died, I was not 'sick' for part of the season. I explained this to my customers. Two weeks after my surgery I was making deliveries again because I am committed to what I am doing. I had a crop failure with tomatoes for the first time ever, usually I am up to my ears in tomatoes. That is what shared risk means. I am not an 80 acre commercial farm and I made that clear in the beginning. It is really sad that this customer never expressed any dissatisfaction during the season when something could have been done about it. Showing up late for deliveries can have a bad effect on your produce when it is 90+ degrees. I try and keep everything in the best condition for delivery by picking it fresh. I am truly sorry he was unhappy and I wish he had told me because communication can not happen if you do not try.
Anyone that has tried her eggs will never go back to eating store bought. She always has a variety of colors from her various breeds. Have you ever had a Blue or Green egg(shell)? If you have a preference to egg color, she will handle that also.
Her chicken and Turkey are fantastic as well. This is my second year and I already pre-paid for my Turkey for fall. My family said I cannot come to Thanksgiving unless I bring another of her birds. Last year it was 38 pounds! Well worth the $. Fed 10 of us with leftovers for all.
- Value in the Earth. To grow naturally with what is meant to be IN the earth. - Value in Wildlife. To treat their livestock as animals not scientific experiments. This in turn really does produce a better quality meat. - Value in their Customers. To accept the fact that some people have dietary restrictions; and still others have foods they do not care for (regardless of the reason).
I would encourage anyone to try this CSA.
The greens, vegetables and berries are garden fresh and the herbs have helped expand how I cook since Barb can always come up with a suggestion to use the ones I'm not familiar with.
The poultry is far tastier than anything from a regular grocery store and usually a lot cheaper than my Co-op. The eggs are my favorite, I just can't stand the lack of taste and color in regular store bought eggs since I started getting eggs from her farm, the one's she has have bright yellow yolks and clear whites and FLAVOR. Even this year with hard time's I'm going to find the money for this years subscription
Comment
When I answered the phone for this customer there was no answering voice on the other end. I asked several times if there was someone there with no response. She actually threw some of here vegetables at me at two different deliveries because she did not like swiss chard. I did not know this and it was not in her bag afterward. I was not sick this last season I had major abdominal surgery and almost died. I explained this to my customers and I still managed to make my deliveries because I felt it was important. I could have given up and taken the easy way out claiming shared risk to my customers, but I did not. I am sorry she was unhappy and I told her so. There is such a thing as human compassion and most of my customers were much more supportive. I wish her well.