2025 CSA Newsletter Week 1
/Hooray! It’s Summer at Turner Farms!
Welcome to the 2025 Summer CSA Program at Turner Farms! We are so honored you chose us to feed you and your family this summer! Please know your support makes a difference to us and we take that very seriously!
We are excited to get this year under way and start enjoying lots of farm fresh food! We just returned from an agricultural tour of Italy and the single most important thing we took away from this trip was the importance of food and relationships! Food is an experience….not an inconvenience or a mundane task. Rather it’s an opportunity to connect with the earth and those who are sharing the meal. Meals in Italy are a beautiful thing…simple, whole and nourishing! So that is our goal this year…to provide you the opportunity to experience the beauty of food!
Ok, here’s some info about our CSA Program! Please read thru so you understand some of the nuances of how we run our farm and the CSA.
~We are organically managed. That means we don’t use any chemicals (pesticides or chemical fertilizer) on our farm. Our beef and lamb are all grassfed/finished. Our pigs are fed a locally-made, all-natural grain diet along with lots of garden produce. We also just began running the pigs in the forest area of our farm so we are moving to more pastured pork. Our animals aren’t fed any hormones.
We run an Intern Program for young teenagers. If you need any hope in our future, it’s these kids who are up early 3 days/wk to come and work their tails off on the farm! The exciting thing is…we have 9 interns this year with a LONG waitlist of others who want to work! Isn't that great news in this “no one wants to work” era!?
Their main duties include; field management, harvesting produce, maintaining the Farm Store, harvesting and prepping CSA bags, milking the goat herd and lots of other various tasks. While we try to train them on amounts, cleanliness of produce and appropriate presentation of the CSA bags sometimes they miss the mark. So, please bear with us and know that these kiddos are learning valuable life skills. Please feel free to reach out if there is something egregiously wrong.
This is our 2nd year offering a Meat CSA! We were thrilled to have so many of you wanting to add that to your Veggie CSA! We will have the meat bags for you starting this week and then EVERY OTHER week after that! Farmer Jon, Farmer Ethan and the interns put the bags together each pick-up. They will always be in the small chest freezer in the middle room of the Farm Store. Your name will be written on the bag so please take that one.
The Veggie bags will be prepped and ready for pick up anytime after 3pm each week. You can come whenever is convenient for you! The bags will be labeled with your name inside our walk-in cooler which is located to the (north) right of the entrance to the Farm Store. We have a sign on the door.
You will receive a yellow bag each week. Please return it each week and we will reuse it the following week. So, technically you are only using 2 bags each season.
If you are going to be out of town and can’t make pick-up, please let us know by texting (406)544-3854. You are always welcome to send a friend, neighbor or family to pick up the bag instead. Just let us know that so we don’t fight off your pick-up person! Haha!
If you forget to pick up, we will try to send an email to remind you. But we will save the bag in the walk-in for 24 hrs. After that, we will donate the bag to families in need. The produce just doesn’t stay fresh beyond the 24 hours and we HATE having it go to waste.
Kids are always welcome to come with you to pick-up! They can feed the goats in our Farm Yard area. It’s always a highlight for many kids! If you want to save your veggie scraps from week to week, they can feed them to the goats!
FALL SHARES: I know summer has barely even started but we’ll just let you know that we offer a limited 4 week FALL Share program. It starts after Labor Day and focuses on the late season crops (tomatoes, peppers, fruit, etc) along with winter storage crops (potatoes, onion, squash, etc). It’s a great value for only $150. We will send out a sign up in July for that. Current members are offered it first before we open it up to the public.
THIS WEEK’S BAG:
~Eggs: Spring eggs are so special. The chickens have been feasting on new green grasses filled with so many nutrients. This shows up in the vibrant colored yolks and the mild but flavorful taste.
~Lettuce and Spinach— These were harvested today so they are so fresh! Be sure to wash all the greens. We do field wash and spin the greens but it’s always a good idea to do an extra rinse. This blend of greens has a little of everything in it: spinach, curly leaf, butterhead and even some kale.
~Mint: The mint this spring has been so happy and is abundant as a result! Add to your water glass, chop finely and add to petite peas, make a pesto sauce with mint, walnuts, olive oil and salt and pepper! Or hey, just make a mojito and call it a day!
~Spring Potatoes: Once the plants start to flower, we can gently “steal” some small potatoes from the top. These are always so delicious. Soft and buttery.
~Tarragon: This herb is underrated! It adds so much flavor to food. We especially love it in our salad dressings. But we’ve also been adding it fresh to our lettuce mix. It’s unique and subtle flavor just makes everything seems extra special!
The first few weeks of the CSA always seem a little light but as the gardens mature, the bags start to fill out quickly!
We hope you enjoy your first bag of the 2025 Season! Have a great week and we look forward to seeing you next week!
The Turner Farms Family!