CSA Share FAQ with a link to the Share Agreement

Share Agreement

Click to open.

Print the form and fill it out.

Send it with your payment to the address shown on the form.

What does CSA mean?

CSA is short for Community Supported Agriculture. Instead of selling to the grocery store and letting them store and mark up your produce, Mule Shoe Farm produce can go directly to you. To receive our produce, you become a partial owner of the farm by buying a share. We all share in this endeavor together. A CSA ensures that Mule Shoe Farm is a sustainable operation and that you can get the fresh organic produce that you need to be healthy.

How much does a share cost?

A full share is $750 for a half bushel every week from mid-April to the end of October. A half share is $400 for a quarter bushel every week from mid-April to the end of October.

What if I can't pay all at once?

That's fine. The share agreement has three different payment options available. If finances are an issue, call or email for arrangments. Mule Shoe Farm is proud to barter shares for needed goods or services.

How do I participate in the CSA?

• Pick up shares on day and time specified unless you make other arrangements. Call 615-792-9955 or email apouliot@gmail.com
• Buy your share at the beginning of the growing season. Fill out the share agreement and send in with your share amount.
• Recycle the container used to pick up your share by using it each week.

What does a share mean? What do I get?

By buying a share, you become one of the farm owners for one year. You will receive a ½ bushel of fresh organic and natural produce each week during our season. A full share is enough produce to feed a family of four for a week. Half shares are also available for couples or singles desiring fresh produce. You will be invited to attend our Summer Festival and you are welcome to visit anytime. Please call in advance to make sure we are here to show you around.

The volume in a share will vary slightly over the course of the season. The peak of the season will have more produce than the beginning or end of the growing season. The produce will vary depending on what is at its peak of freshness. This means you will not be getting tomatoes or corn in April. You can experience the connection to your food by “eating with the seasons.” You may get vegetables you haven’t tried before. Recipes can be found in Friday posts at http://www.muleshoefarm.blogspot.com/

Is Mule Shoe Farm certified as an organic producer? Does the farm grow its products organically?

Mule Shoe Farm is not USDA certified organic. We are currently building a paper trail for organic certification. We use organic production methods for our poultry and goats, as well as, our vegetables. Our animals are pasture-fed, free-roaming creatures and our vegetables are grown in organic raised beds, as organic field crops and as naturalized plants throughout our property.

Share Agreement
Click to open.
Print the form and fill it out.
Send it with your payment to the address shown on the form.

Be a Part-Time Farmer

I remember coming home from school in the spring and eating snow peas straight off the vine, munching on green peaches at the tree, picking and eating strawberries, all before I went inside to do my homework. There is nothing like the taste of fresh home grown produce. Nothing in the world. It is warm sun on your back, the flight of butterflies dancing across flowers and the gentle background buzz of bees making their rounds.

If you tasted it and become accustomed to it, then you know what I mean. But there is a great deal of effort that can go into your own garden, like weeding, pest control, planning and placemnt of crops and harvesting your produce. Not many have much time to do that anymore. When you work into the evening, the last thing you'll want to do is walk out the back door and harvest a half bushel of cucumbers or pull up great clods of weeds by the corn.

Since childhood, I have dreamed of growing my own food. As I started a family, fresh, whoelsome food became a priority. Now I have a small farm and I am offering you a partial share. I do the work, you get the produce. To be sure, if you are dying to wander around and pull weeds, I won't stop you, but I know most don't have time for that. I think local organic and frsh food is a cornerstone of healthy communities and I believe fervently in the idea that 'someone' must act now to make this dream a reality.

Over the past year, I have practiced a 'dry run' of the farm, through a drought no less and now I am ready to offer Community Supported Agriculture shares to interested folks. This is fresh, local, in season produce. Whatever we are producing: from vegetables to eggs and milk. I will post some more details later this evening and put up a link to an Agreement Form which you can print and fill out and send to me. Stay tuned...

And We're Back

photo by ☼ Sunshine

Even if you didn't celebrate Christmas, you probably had time off during the last couple weeks. Did you eat too much? See enough of your family? Wondered what to do with time on your hands and no work? OR Did you have an altogether different experience?

In the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we are inundated with commercialism in the guise of the perfect Christmas.

Dinner magically prepares itself with multiple courses, perfect ham, perfect
turkey, perfect dessert. All carefully crafted by ... who? Oh that's right. You don't
have to actually prepare any of this yourself. If you go to the right store,
wear the right clothes, and buy the best gifts, these things will magically appear.
The Cha-ching Fairy will bless your lovely multi-million dollar dream home with
magical happiness.

Some folks help others in need at Christmas and others gather the few friends they have around them to celebrate a much smaller sparer version. Some folks are not home and celebrate in other places with foreign customs feeling reassured while strangely out of kilter. For many others, the holidays are a hard cold time. A time of remembering, unwillingly, things you don't want to remember.

Media momentum prevents us from really skipping Christmas. For those who are depressed and saddened by the holidays, there is a double burden of their own demons and the expectations of the dominant culture. Probably you know someone for whom the holidays are a difficult time whether or not they are alone. Maybe you take care of someone who has difficulty around the holidays.

You are not alone.

Let me say that again.

You are not alone.

The holidays are the most difficult time of year for many. If the dark wolf of depression stalks your Christmas table or you take care of someone who refuses to "play nice" at Christmas, there is Hope. Now is as good as time as any to tap into the wonderful resources at NAMI - a.k.a. National Alliance for Mental Illness. There is an affiliate just about wherever you are in the U.S.

I am a child, great grandchild, and great niece to people who have major holiday blues. I am also a cousin and a daughter. I never realized growing up how different things were at my house. NAMI has helped me learn to cope with the legacy I inherit from my wonderful family, who could no more help being who they are than I can. Perhaps you are in a similar position. Perhaps you have a close friend who is. There is help in Middle Tennessee and it is a phone call away.

615-361-6608

NAMI sponsors local support groups. People who have been through it and taken care of their beloved family members. They have designed and present workshops providing tons of useful information, coping strategies and most of all, the support of generous, loving people who know exactly what you're going through. In Cheatham County, the NAMI affiliate meets the second Tuesday of the month at the Ashland City Public Library from 7-9pm. If you need them, they are there.

How has the "holiday blues" affected your family? What has your experience been like?