Reviews for: Wood Duck Farm
I'm very interested in joining your CSA, but I was wondering if your produce are organic.
Thank you!
When the first box of fall arrived with fresh tomatoes, my kids were so excited!! We had not had a tomato since summer. Yahoo! It doesn't get better than that for a mom committed to eating locally.
I appreciate the salad and arugula mix each week. This alone would make my box "worth it." In addition, we appreciate adapting our eating to the variety included in the box. Van has been great at distributing variety this year. Yes! we all get a lot of squash and cucumbers. I made relish and froze squash. We are eating preserved local food all year. That is the beauty of eating seasonally.
I especially appreciate the mushrooms and fruit when it comes. It is a nice touch.
Kale, turnips, mustard greens - all things that we tried.
I appreciate the care that Van takes with my CSA. The addition of delivery boxes had made a big difference this year. I am proud to support the farm and be part of the local food process!
Comment
I have mentioned in other parts of the Local Harvest site that we made mistakes during our first CSA program that began harvest in the spring of 2009. Consequently, some of the comments that are provided above may be accurate to some degree. However I think it responsible to dispel some of the exaggerations. Salad greens or baby Arugula were provided every week in the Spring 09 program, no question about it, period. Full shares received about 1# and partial shares received about 1 / 2 # each delivery. Some weeks, both salad mix and arugula bags were provided. Our salad/arugula greens quality was always great. Most customers found our rinsed greens ready to eat right out of the bag. Micro Greens were not always provided as commented above. However, this was noted in advance, via our FAQ, that micros would not always be available. Kale, yep! We had a lot of it. Some customers loved the Kale so much that they asked for extra. The tomatoes were usually heirloom varieties and thus had thin skin, which is one reason why some people desire heirlooms. Thus, while individually wrapped in paper, some tomatoes probably did crack in transit. Heirloom tomatoes, sometimes purplish in color and easily blemished, also do not always look like a normal red tomato from HEB. But they sure did taste good! Yes, we had plenty of cucumbers, squash and zucchini. (Maybe too much.) Two other programs (Summer & Fall 09) have transpired since these comments were provided in July 09. Some of the operational changes that we made were to spread out our delivery days from one day to three. This helped out with our punctuality, provided a fresher product, and also relived some of the stress here at the farm. We also decided to reduce our total shares available for 2010. We will probably continue to grow kale in the spring 2010, but realize that variety within the weekly box is important which can be challenging for any grower here in Texas. The July 09 commenter forgot to mention the broccoli, onions, cauliflower, carrots, new potatoes, beets, radishes among other things that were grown and provided last spring. Since writing this review, this July 09' commenter has visited, along with her aunt, my Farmers Market booth at least twice and purchased greens both times. (I can only speculate that she still likes our greens.) There is no doubt that we will probably face more challenges, some unforeseen, in 2010, but we are optimistic that we are on the right path and will strive to listen to our members.
Van is a regular vendor at the Bayou City Farmer's Market. (I didn't know until recently that he's also a producer for fine restaurants in Houston metro and Dallas.) For several years now his greens and other Bayou City Market yummies have been consistently great. He's known for being a hardworking guy, and for being committed to Wood Duck Farms and his customers.
The service and quality Wood Duck Farms delivered to its CSA members were no different. Van is highly available via phone and e-mail, and deliveries were reliable despite the weird weather this spring of 2009. His communications were professional and timely. The produce arrived crisp and fresh, and even the lettuce blends were so lovely, sweet and cool despite the excessive rain (earlier in the spring) and heat and drought (later in the spring). We received a good variety every week. In our CSA boxes we discovered some amazing heirloom tomato varieties, crunchy-sweet kale, mounds of pretty, pretty red potatoes, and more.
Wood Duck Farms uses hoop houses and some clever thinking to deal with our Texas climate as much as possible. This approach I think has helped ensure he has great produce to provide week after week.
I've seen Wood Duck Farms and I feel so good knowing where my CSA box comes from. My twins are only four but they can taste the difference in the produce Van grows, and look forward to our Wednesday CSA pickup days. We're glad Van has taken on the work of providing amazing food for his CSA families, and look forward to being regular Wood Duck Farms customers far into the future.
Comment
Sorry to reply to this comment so late as I just read it. Our produce is grown without chemicals; we do however spray herbicides along our deer fences to prevent the electric fencing from grounding out. Better late than never I hope!