Reviews for: Blackbird Heritage Farm

My 20 year old and 16 year old son's were on spring break and I was on a mission: to inspire my sons to grow food and love the localization movement.

They each read Andy's web site and agreed to visit Blackbird Heritage Farm. We learned to make little squares of dirt without plastic casings and planted a thousand or more seeds in the green house with great music and beautiful breezes playing with us the whole time.

It was idyllic. We ate together on the lawn. A baby chick escaped into the sheep pasture challenging Andy to keep us from the electric fence while corralling the little one back into the barn. While geese guarding the drive way stretched their long necks and yelled at us, shewing us away from their giant eggs, and the Junior Farmer on duty (Andy's daughter) won their hearts, luring them toward an old fashion swing hanging under the great Oak Tree.

My 16 year old, Simon, asked for the privilege of working for Andy this summer and I am thrilled!

One Happy Mama,

~RuthAnn Purchase

We joined this CSA in July after seeing our friends' basket, and it was a truly fantastic choice. Every week, we get a big basket of really excellent veggies. They taste much better than even other farmers' market veggies, and because they use all heritage varietals, they are usually interesting twists on readily available produce. For example, the purple dragon carrots are delicious and also very attractive. Every week, there's something interesting, and we look forward to it all week.

It also helps that Andy and Sherri are wonderful people, and we enjoy chatting with them. We've also enjoyed visiting the farm and seeing how much work and attention they put into farming in the most sustainable and conscientious way possible. Their passion for doing things the right way is only matched by their passion for making sure everything is delicious; taste is (rightly-so) the focus of their veggies.

I also wanted to mention that pickup is also available on Sunday at the Newark Farmers' Market, which is really great for the northern Delaware folks. I can't recommend Blackbird Heritage enough; to my mind, this is exactly what a CSA should be.

Although New Castle county is Delaware's northernmost and most urbanized county, the southern portion of the county is still highly rural and agricultural. But Blackbird Heritage is the only CSA and organic farm in the entire county. Just as the 17th century Swedish and Dutch settlers were pioneers surrounded by wilderness, Andy and Sherri at Blackbird Heritage are pioneers surrounded by a different kind of 'wilderness', consisting of vast corn, soy and chicken monocultures. Stepping foot on their farm feels like entering a church in the middle of a busy city - a quiet, reassuring sanctuary. Everything about the farm attests to the pleasure that they take in being serious stewards of the land in their care. As members of their CSA, we take great pleasure in helping them - if only in a small way - care for their land.