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Market gains
By JEFF KERR
9/18/07
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News-Graphic/Jeff Kerr |
The Scott County Farmers' Market has now closed for the season, but fresh vegetables will still be available in the county until 10 days before Christmas.
They're just different kinds of vegetables than what are found in the regular farmers' market.
Elmwood Stock Farm is now taking signups for fall vegetables under its Community Supported Agriculture program. The vegetables will be ready for the first pickup on Friday, Oct. 19 and will be available until Saturday, Dec. 15.
"There will be an assortment of fall vegetables," Ann Stone of Elmwood said. "We will have five or six kinds of lettuce, cooking greens, including spinach, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens, cabbage and bok choy, brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower.
"There will be some kind of root crop, like beets, radishes, turnips, potatoes, carrots and parsnips. We will also have some winter squash like butternut, acorn or spaghetti squash."
If the weather holds, Stone said, other vegetables could be included.
"Depending on how late the first frost is, the early baskets could include late summer vegetables like cooking herbs, tomatoes or peppers and garlic."
Now in second year
Elmwood's fall program is an offshoot of its summer CSA program. Members of the program purchase shares and each week receive vegetables.
For the summer program, the vegetables are available from mid-May through mid-October.
"In the summer, the most popular vegetables are the early vegetables, like corn, tomatoes, and green beans, and we have 225 members," Stone said.
The fall program, now in its second year, had 40 to 50 members the first year, Stone said.
"The vegetables are a little more difficult to grow at that time of the year, and not as many people are interested in vegetables that grow that time of year," she said. "So it actually works out as a good match."
Elmwood will harvest the fall vegetables and prepare the baskets two days a week, Stone said.
While Elmwood has been growing vegetables for sale for more than 15 years, this was the third year for its CSA program. Stone said the program takes some of the guesswork out of growing the vegetables.
"We have an idea of how much to plant and harvest," she said. "There's a little more predictability to it."
The CSA program appeals to people for several reasons, she said.
Some want to know where their food comes from, she said.
"And we can provide vegetables for people who don't find it convenient to go to a farmers' market," Stone said. "A large part of our produce is certified organic, and that's why a lot of people seek us out."
One size basket
Elmwood offers one size basket for the fall season, and each basket is anticipated to contain from five to seven different items.
Pickup will be at Elmwood 3-6 p.m. on Fridays. Pickup at Elmwood's booth in the Lexing_ton Farmers' Market is 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays.
Members can pick up their basket one time and deliver to the homes of four other members, and their share will be delivered the four other pickups. Elmwood will also arrange groups to share pickup and delivery in Lexing_ton, Georgetown, Midway or elsewhere.
Meat, eggs also available
Vegetables are not the only food available at Elmwood.
"We also offer organic Black Angus beef, free-range organic eggs and free-range chicken and turkeys," Stone said. "People can add it at any point when they pick up their weekly vegetable share."
The chickens are grown in the summer in batches of 300, she said, while the turkeys are destined for the Thanksgiving dinner table.
"We get signups for them," she said. "That way when we take them to be processed, we know who're they're going to go to."
Elmwood also has a booth at both the Scott County and Lexington farmers' markets.
"The Scott County Farmers' Market usually runs through the Festival of the Horse," Stone said. "We're at Lexington on Saturdays through November."
But this time of year, she said, is pretty busy.
"We're marketing five days a week now," she said.
Those wishing to sign up for Elmwood's fall vegetable program can do so at www.elmwoodstockfarm.com.