Reviews for: Antaya Acres Heritage Farm
So far, I still say buyer beware. There is no customer service and definitely no possibly way to speak to Stephanie.
Steph has consistently shown a lack of integrity, unprofessionalism and bad faith by not providing any feedback and blatantly ignoring our inquiries. We should not have to chase her down after paying her money. On her blog she has the audacity to state that she willl be providing Pork deliveries to other customers. When will we get what we paid for over 10 months ago ?!
She should quit playing a shell game with other people's money. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is her best specialty!
It will be interesting to see what excuse/ rationalization she will give for not returning our calls or providing the agreed upon product. At this point all we want is a refund of our deposit. We have no trust in you and do not want to receive anything else from your CSA. You had more than enough time to contact us to rectify the situation as we have been more than patient with you.
Stephanie is always very knowledgeable about her produce and helpful when I have questions on how to preserve or prepare the bounty. She is also clearly passionate about being able to continue raising livestock & crops in the manner they were intended. She works hard, and is, therefore, not able to update her Web site (blog) on a regular basis, but can be counted on to return a phone call without a long delay.
Next year promises to be fabulous!
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Biggest problem with my transaction with Leonard was after purchasing 13 'registered' LBH gilts/sows, we only ever received paperwork on one of them. Only 7 of the 13 proved fertile, and 2 of those died during farrowing to stuck piglets. The one sow we actually have registration papers for is the one we bought from Kay Wolfe, who at the time was the president of the LBHA and could print her own. I couldn't deliver on registered piglets because we couldn't get the paperwork for our pigs from the people who we purchased them from. Most of them couldnt get the paperwork from Ted Smith in Mississippi, or at least that was our understanding. Ted has been behind for so long it was standard practice for his registry for paperwork to take up to a year. Ted is in his 80s and in poor health last we had heard, so getting paperwork from his registry at this point will probably never happen. Communication between us should have been better, but I work 100 plus hours a week trying to hold down the fort up here, while Brett works downstate and the little people stay down there with him most all of the time. I was barely hanging on...I stopped talking to just about everyone and went into survival mode. I haven't sold a purebred LBH since, nor will I - papered or not they are not a good production pig..but it took us a good while to get that all sorted out. Noone wants to speak the truth about the pigs because they are afraid it will hurt the market for the purebred hogs, and it would. We only cross them for meat these days. Our results with the crossbred hogs have been much better. You get the marbling with the benefits of a larger genepool. I'm sorry Leonard, I wish I could have fixed it sooner and I wish I had a better solution to offer. I had no way of knowing we wouldn't get the paperwork. There were 3 seperate breeders involved and I firmly believe they all thought that they would be able to get them (just like we did) and it just never happened. I would have loved to offer you a cash refund, but Lord we just didn't have it...so we did what we could. You know what circumstances I have up here.
http://flint.craigslist.org/grd/3118853959.html
To the person that wrote the bad review, maybe a CSA isn't right for you, since we are depending on Mother Nature and there wasn't a ton of rain up by the garden this year. Stephanie worked very hard to manually tow in water and make the best of it. Now next year, who knows, but that is the chance that we are taking.
It is also to help out our local farmers. Yes you can get more at the farmers market, but do you know what growing methods they use or if they are even local? I know of one farmers market stand where items are shipped from out-of-state. At least by getting our produce from Stephanie we saw the garden itself and she doesn't use any pesticides what-so-ever, which effected some crops.
We enjoyed our experience so much that we are already signed up for next year and we are participating in the winter meat CSA. I am already looking forward to creating some other new recipes!
If you want variety locally grown organic produce and someone willing to work with you and you aren't expecting perfection, then you should sign up for a CSA with Antaya Acres.
Overall, we were very upset and felt like our money was completely wasted. We could have gone to the farm stand down the street and we would have received triple the amount of food and much more variety.
On a positive note, the eggs offered were excellent.
Comment
We were dissapointed as well. The season started very late, the communication was lacking and in the end there was not enough produce for all shareholders. Due to shortage we took an option to take the rest of our share in meat. We did not receive any info as to when and where we could pick up our meat and few to none details were offered as to how everything would be worked out. Eventually we decided to cut our loses rather than continue with a very frustrating situation. We understand that the weather can not be controlled, however the the end of season shortage could have been handled better. Last season was their first season as a CSA and we are guessing that most of the issues can be attributed to lack of experience. Hopefully the new season will be more successful. We love the idea of the CSA and we are thinking about giving it another chance, but we are looking for another farm.
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While the person leaving this review did not leave their name I am pretty sure I know just who it is, because only one person has expressed these views out of about 40 customers. This was our very first CSA season, and we did switch to bi-weekly deliveries half way through the season due to a signifigant drought this year (less than a quarter inch of rain in 12 weeks - the least rain we have received in a season in the last 10 years), BUT no reduction was made to the amount of produce delivered or agreed upon, and the quality of the produce was never compromised. Each customer was also at the time of the switch from weekly to bi-weekly, given the opportunity to opt out of the program for a credit towards meat or next years veggie program, which is much more than most CSAs offer. It was very important to our family and our farm that everyone felt like they were getting their moneys worth, and just about everyone was very positive and understanding. Only a couple of people took the early out option, and most customers remain very enthusiastic and excited by the program. If it was a full share customer the deliveries were doubled up just like with the half share customers. Typically half share customers received a half bushel, once the transition was made to bi-weekly deliveries their share size increased to a full bushel. The idea that mostly squash was delivered is ridiculous. I do grow a lot of squash and I deliver a lot of squash (I plant at least a dozen varieties), but just ot give everyone an accurate idea - I also delivered sweet corn at least 7 times this season and not in consecutive weeks (throughout), and we have one of the most diverse planting lists in the area for a CSA. Everyone received lettuce at least twice, several varieties of sweet and hot peppers, at least 2 varieties of eggplant, swiss chard, pumpkins, several melons and melon varieties throughout the season, brussel sprouts, herbs, cauliflower (4 different colors), brocolli, at least 4 varieties of beans, 6-7 different varieties of tomatoes (cherries and fullsize), onions, potatoes, and so much more. While it was a challenging season, the baskets remained beautiful and bountiful. While it wasn't ideal, it was still a lot of fun and the value was still signifigant. The CSA experience is different with each season, and we all learn and grow. The CSA is not the right solution for every family, but it is a great and rewarding experience for most who take part. Anyone who has been in business for any length of time understands that no matter how hard you work or how well you do...you can't please everybody. And anyone who has been in a business at the mercy of mother nature understands..there are some things you just can't fully control. That said, I think that we offered a wonderful solution to a difficult year, and although it wasn't always easy, I wouldn't change a thing. I love our CSA and I have thoroughly enjoyed blessing our shareholders with their portion of the bounty. God's love and blessings, Stephanie Antaya
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I'm really glad I read all these reviews before I ordered.... cause now I'm not bothering. I have enough to do without having to remember to remind, constantly, someone to send me goods I've paid for.