illinois Archives - Archie's Acres

April 19, 2018

We Thought it was Spring??

We hope you’re having a warmer Spring than we are. At this very moment it’s alternating between hail and snow outside and all the animals are upset about it. Goats wonder, "where is Spring?"

Even the cats and Archie are mad…at us, as if this weather is our fault. But Spring in the Midwest can be like this so there’s no point in complaining about it. Cold weather is a great excuse to take some time to read a book, cleanup your house, watching a movie or just relax. It’s actually a pleasant excuse to just take a break! And that’s awesome… unless you have crops to plant. We currently have 100+ potted seedlings hanging out in front of every South, East & West facing window in our home. Plus usually by this time we would have planted potatoes, onions, leafy greens, and peas in the garden but the ground is too frozen to get the potatoes in and too wet for the others.

Seedlings want to get outside — Plants congregating in front of our kitchen window

Getting a little stressful at this point…

It’s a major bummer. Time seems like it’s flying by and farmer’s market season is getting closer and closer. It’s stressful to feel so far behind so early in the season! We’re hoping to get these little plants in the ground at the end of next week. All that stress aside, the plants are happy in their current situation, but would be happier if they were outside getting pollinated by honey bees instead of an electric toothbrush. Oh which reminds me…we’re very worried about what this weather is doing to our bee hives. The cold Spring/extended winter could be disastrous and it’s too cold open up the hives to check on them. We don’t want to release any remaining heat in their hives and endanger them further. We’re staying hopeful though.

Our CSA signup has gone great. We still have 3 spots remaining so get one while you can! https://www.archiesacres.com/sign-up-now-for-our-csa/

Hoping to have a post detailing prepping the garden and planting very soon!

March 7, 2018March 7, 2018

Sign-up Now For Our CSA!!

Hello friends and followers of Archie’s Acres! We hope all of our fellow Midwesterners enjoyed last week’s Spring weather as much as our farm critters did, because it has already hightailed it out of here. Yesterday and today we’ve had heavy, wet snow and 20-30 mph sustained winds that have been throwing buckets and garbage cans all over the place. Needless to say, nobody is happy about it.

We’ve been busy starting plants for the upcoming market/CSA season. There are grow lights Everywhere! And I already can’t wait for them all to move outside. However, I’ll check back in tomorrow to update you on everything we’ve been up to lately. Here’s a quick teaser though…..we’re picking up some baby chickens tomorrow!!!

So back to the point of today’s exciting news post…we’ve finalized our CSA plan for 2018! We will be doing a once or twice monthly arrangement at 2 pick-up locations, we will also be regulars at the Glenwood Sunday Market again this year, on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month, so for convenience, that will be our city pick-up location. Our second location will be in the Oak Brook/Downers Grove/Clarendon Hills area, since we’ve had great interest there. However, because we’re a small farm, just starting out, we only have room for 15 “families” to sign up for our once/twice monthly CSA. (Please scroll down on our blog to re-read our post on CSAs if you’d like a refresher)

Reserve your spot today! Fill out the form below and we’ll email you our CSA agreement, go over some specifics about your personal produce requests, and coordinate preferences. Ok, so that’s it for now! Our sign-up cutoff is April 6th or until all 15 spots are taken. Thanks for reading, hope you’re well and we’ll check in tomorrow with a better overall farm update, including a list of the produce we’re growing! It’s a lonnnnnng list. Oh, and we’ll include baby chicken pics!!

January 15, 2018March 7, 2018

We are starting a CSA!!

Yay! We have exciting farm news!

We have finally crunched the numbers, finalized our seed orders and planned our gardens and fields, so now it’s time to announce that we are doing our very first CSA sign-up this year!

What is a CSA?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it’s the best way for farmers and consumers to partner to help farms match production to their markets. CSA subscribers purchase, up front, a share in the farm’s growing season in exchange for produce over a set number of weeks of the season. Large farms are capable of doing a drop-off every single week of a spring/summer season, however, small farms like us don’t have the means to produce that much. So most small farms, especially 1st timers, keep the delivery to a couple times a month. Typically, there is a drop-off site or sites where CSA members pick up their weekly shares each week/month, or they come directly to the farm.

2018 CSA number crunching.

Since this is our first year running a CSA we are only doing a signup for once or twice a month produce deliveries. Each delivery will contain $30 worth of fresh, seasonal, organic produce delivered to a location near you. Our season will start Saturday, May 26th and go until Saturday, October 27, a full-season will be $300 for 11 weeks, delivered twice a month or a half season will be $165 for 6 weeks, delivered once a month. Every box will include farm fresh eggs, but otherwise the produce and herbs will change depending on that week’s crop.

Caribbean Red Habanero and Peach Hot Sauce

We will also include some jellies, jams, hot sauces, salsa etc from time to time as well. A small sample of this season’s crops include 5 varieties of lettuce, 3 varieties of spinach, 3 varieties of eggplant, 15 varieties of peppers (hot and bell), 15 varieties of tomatoes, 3 varieties of apples, Bartlett pears, Jubilee peaches, Bing cherries, Detroit dark red beets, kohlrabi, 7 varieties of radishes, 7 varieties of carrots, Concord grapes, broccoli, delicata squash, acorn squash, pumpkins, 3 varieties of onions, 4 varieties of garlic, shallots, zucchini, cauliflower, purple and green brussel sprouts, 2 varieties of tomatillos, 3 varieties of green beans, black raspberries, blueberries, red raspberries, watermelon, snow peas etc…the list is long. We are really looking forward to the upcoming season and are soooo ready for Spring!

Farm Fresh Produce can now be delivered to you!

This is going to be a lot of fun. We’re so excited to get the ball rolling on this. It will be nice to know that every single thing we grow will find a home. The 2018 season is going to be great!

If you are interested in joining our CSA, drop us a line!

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We Thought it was Spring??

Getting a little stressful at this point…

Sign-up Now For Our CSA!!

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