Adalyn Farm 2016 CSA sign-up’s are HERE!!!

All Farm CSA!

This is what we have been working towards for almost 5 years!  First, let us tell you what a CSA is.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  First coined in the 80’s, it was a farming business model that allowed local customers to have easier access to local, seasonal food, while taking a little bit of the risk from the farmer and sharing it with the customers (traditionally surplus is also shared with the customer).  The local food scene and eating in general has changed a lot since the 80’s and so have some CSA’s.  

We are striving to get back to the roots of a CSA, while leveraging modern technology to give today’s customers what they want.   All of the vegetables and meat you get will be from our farm, we DO NOT buy in any vegetables or meat from other farms.  We feel local food security is important, and local means local.  Even the flower and berry add-ons we offer are grown within 20 miles of our farm, not trucked in from California’s central valley or Mexico.  This does mean some things will not be available all season long.  You will have choices, not every week, but as much as we can.  Through our weekly CSA email update, when the harvest allows us the flexibility, you can select different options depending on your share size and what is in abundance or scarce.  If we have an abundance, you might get to choose between more lettuce or more carrots, or between a new veggie or some of the more traditional garden fare.  

You will have the choice to do on-farm pick-up of your share, or have it delivered to your home for an additional cost.  We highly recommend on-farm pick-up for several reasons: the chance to pick up surplus veggies beyond what is in the shares (depending on availability), to pick up eggs that are available on a first-come, first-served basis, to see what’s happening on the farm, to visit some friendly animals, and so you can get to know your farmers and where your food comes from.  

Week Seven

Week Five

Week Six

We are also partnering with two other local farms to provide berries and flowers as add-on options with your vegetables!!!

We are excited about partnering with Twig and Vine as they explore offering a flower CSA.  Deanna has been arranging for weddings and custom orders and is excited to have folks all over the area enjoying her flowers!  Her 10 week season will start in July (when the blooms are ready), and will run for 10 weeks.  Your arrangement will be in your box at pick-up, or delivered if you select CSA delivery as an add-on.

 

We know how much our family enjoys seasonal fruit, so we are very excited to offer an add-on for a berry share.  Hayton Farms is a fifth generation farm growing organic berries in the Skagit Valley.  Your berry share will include different varieties of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries as they come into season.  Each share will include 1/3 flat, that’s four pint baskets of local, organic fruit!!!  The season starts in mid-June and will run for 17 weeks.  They will be in your box at pick-up, or delivered to your door if you select for CSA delivery.

Lastly, Community Supported Agriculture is supporting the farmer and the community.  Giving back to our community through our farm is a key piece of our farm plan.  We will be working with several local churches to donate multiple shares to families in need in our community, and we want to partner with our customers in this.  If you would like to help us give additional shares, please indicate so on your order form.  You pick how much, even $25 will go a long way!  We will update our Farm-ily with the impact they make through this.  (Our goal this first year, with your help, is to donate 10% of the total food grown on the farm.)
  
 Here is the breakdown of what we are offering.  To hold your place you only need to pay the $200 deposit (which applies toward your total).  We will invoice you monthly for the balance (full payment due by April 31st).

 Farm CSA with choices! 25 weeks of a variety of fresh, organically-grown veggies and greens.

1. 1. Share Size
      1. Premium Share $795 (7 or more items, larger volume of each item, more choices, feeds 4-6 people each week.)
      2. Standard Share  $545 (5 or more items with some choices, feeds 2-4 people each week.)
2. Add-Ons
   1. Delivery to Stanwood, Camano Is. and Arlington!
      1. $135 for the entire season.
   2. Farm Bouquets!  Arrangements from the talented, local floral artist at Twig and Vine.  Included in your box starting in July and running for 10 weeks.
      1. $200 for a 10 week season.
   3. Berries!  A variety of local, organic berries from Hayton Farms.  1/3 flat (that’s 4 pint baskets) included in your box starting mid-June and running for 17 weeks.
      1. $204 for each 17 week share (Fruit lovers can get a second share for the reduced price of $195.)
   4. Adalyn Farm Organic, Pasture-raised Chickens!
      1. $30 each, must be picked-up on farm on specific dates. (This item is pending insurance underwriting, we’ll invoice once we have a green light.)
   5. Donation for a Family in Need
      1. You determine if you would like to give a monetary gift toward helping us provide fresh, healthy food to a family that is struggling to feed themselves.

 

Are you ready?  HERE IS THE SIGN-UP LINK!

Additionally, if you refer a friend to us, we will discount your CSA share by $20 for each family who signs up for either of our two share sizes.  This credit can only be applied to the main CSA share and cannot be applied to the Add-Ons.  To receive credit, your friends need to put your name in the field at the end of the sign-up form where we ask if anyone has referred them to us.  Just think, you could have a free share this summer!

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Adalyn Farm offerings for 2015

Hello, and welcome to 2015!!!

We are so excited and have so much to share with you.  First off, click through to our “about us” above, in the website header.  It’s new and updated, although it might be better said that it’s more in-depth, since we aren’t really new (we’re in our 30’s after all), and we haven’t really been updated (unless you include Farmer Joscelyn’s various surgeries). You’ll find our story there, as well as our management and farming practices spelled out.  We are scrubbing up some other little rough spots, so there might be more to see over the next few weeks.

(Gratuitous picture of food.)
 

We are super excited about the outcome from our farm meeting a few weeks ago.  In short, we are planning on more animals on the farm this year and a test Vegetable CSA.  We are raising pigs again, as well as turkeys for Thanksgiving and 2 batches of chickens.  All are pasture-raised, organically-fed and humanely-processed here on our farm just as before. For the chickens, we will have two different pick-up dates to try to accommodate more people.  Turkey and pigs will be done near the end of October, with a last batch of pigs done in December.  All of the details for each of these items can be found through the links below.  If you want to get in line for some of the tasty meat, simply click on the links that interest you and follow the instructions.  If your mind is currently blown, just reply to this e-mail and we can send you copies of the info. sheets for anything you are interested in.

Info. on PIGS!!

Info. on TURKEYS!!

Info. on CHICKENS!!

Now, how ’bout that Vegetable CSA?  Well, after hours of garden planning and talking through work load and expectations, we are sticking to our guns and running the Veg CSA as a test this year.  What does that mean? It means that we are running a very small (10 share) CSA for a pilot group of customers that will be patient as we work out the kinks and give us the needed feedback for improvement.  If all goes well, we will be going all-in on this in 2016.  In fact, it’s shaping up to be the cornerstone that our farm is going to run on.  Although we both prefer raising animals to plants, a living just can’t be made on 5 acres with only animals.  With a small 100 member CSA, it’s within reach, and we can still run our goats, pigs and various poultry, all without compromising our care and stewardship goals for the property.  Did I mention that we are excited?  It’s all out of our hands, but God-willing, we will be calling ourselves full-time farmers in just a few short years!

How can you help with this awesome dream?!?!  Well, if you’re not already a customer, please consider allowing us to grow food for your family. Additionally, if you have friends who care about environmental stewardship, where food comes from and local economy, please consider sharing this message with them.  We can assure you this e-mail will forward flawlessly.

Again, we love to hear from our customers and would be happy to send you more info. on any of our available offerings for 2015!

-The Adalyn Farmers

Spring is coming, the grass is starting to grow, and the birds are getting louder every morning.

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Time to think about Thanksgiving! Newsletter Vol 1 Issue 4

It’s that time! Black Friday is creeping up on us, as are the holidays in general. What does that mean for us on the farm? We’ve been caring for a small flock of future Thanksgiving meals for a few months now. Some of you saw them when you came to pick up your chickens a few weeks ago. Some have seen them on our Facebook page. And some of you might not want to see them until they are ready to go in the freezer. If you are interested, simply send us an e-mail, and I’ll send you the order form.  farmers at adalynfarm.com

We are raising broad-breasted birds again this year on pasture and organic feed. They will, however, not be quite as old when we butcher them, so the average weight will be a little lower. We expect them to range from #18 to #24. Last year the average was #30. As seen below, birds that size can cause issues such as back strain trying to get them into the oven..

So how do you get in line for one? Well, some of the savvy folks who got chickens from us handed us a deposit of $60 for a turkey when they picked up their chickens. That means that we have only 6 remaining turkeys, so you might want to get on the bandwagon quickly. Last year we literally had dozens of phone calls the week or two before Turkey Day, of desperate folks looking for local, organic, pastured birds.

This year, the pastured turkeys will be $5.50 per lb. The butcher weekend is coming up soon, October 25th to be exact. Yes, you will need to plan freezer space for these beasts. Last year when we butchered in November the weather was so cold the feathers were freezing to the work surfaces, so this year we opted for a weekend that should be above 40 degrees.

So, if you are interested, just send us an e-mail, and we will send you the order form. Your place in line (and weight preference) will be determined by the order you get your deposit into us. Oh, and while you’re at it, let your friends know about us (after you get your deposit sent in of course!). We will have more of the same goodies next year. We are tentatively planning on spring piggies, and possibly two batches of meat chickens… But that information is better saved for another post…

– The Adalyn Farmers

Meat Chickens are on their way!!!

Went out via e-mail to our subscribers a few days ago.  There are just a few left…

It’s finally time!  The cute little fluff balls will be showing up via US mail next week!  That’s 100 little nuggets, that will get all organic feed, fresh air and  sunshine in our chicken tractors, to spend all their days on our farm.  Then we’ll process them and you can pick them up!!  We will be processing them on Saturday August 16th, and yours should be ready to pick up in the afternoon! The birds will be $5.25 per lb this year, and probably won’t quite be the #5.03 average they were last year, as they will be getting done about 5 days earlier.  We require a $15 per bird deposit, and at this point we are limiting folks to 10 birds per family (we have had folks ask for 25 or 30 birds in the past, and as much as we wish we could run the 1000, or 2000 birds a year that would allow us to do that, we can’t and really want as many folks as possible to experience local, organic, free range chicken) “How can I get in line for these?!?!?”  Well, as we have kids, we are aware of trying to keep everything fair.  We will send out the pre-order/contract to folks in the order that they reply to this e-mail, they will have 48 hours to get the deposit to us, and as folks get us their deposits they will get their place in line.  So, it might take a few days for you to get the order form if other folks are in line in front of you.  Yes we did think of just sending out the order form, with our PayPal info and such, but, we didn’t want to deal with returning deposits for dozens of birds if lots of folks responded without checking to see if we still had some available.  You can also call if you would rather, or have questions, but we do need the signed contract and deposit to hold your birds. Thanks! and we are looking forward to seeing you in August!!! (or before, if you want to come and see your birds ‘on the hoof’) The Adalyn Farmers 360-474-7427 19313 22nd Ave NW Stanwood WA 98292

Update from the farm (or Vol 1 Issue 1)

Here’s what went out this AM to folks on our mailing list.  I wanted to post it here too, as there are a few folks who might be following the blog, but haven’t signed up for the mailing list yet.  If you want to get notices like this (and the offers to get some darn tasty food) hit the link below to jump to our mailing list….

Click here for our newsletter Sign Up!!

It’s been a long cold winter… and wet, with some more cold.  Single digit temps can make summer seem a long way off, but it’s coming.  Despite all that life has thrown at us (I’ll spare you all the excuses details.) the farm is still on track.  And then there were the babies.

Cute, huh?  They have chewed up the time that we might have had to get this out sooner, but here it is.  The Adalyn Farm Offering for 2014:

Our intent for 2014 is to continue with the practices we have worked very hard to put in place and offer Chickens, Turkeys and Pigs.  A more in depth ”how we do things” is in the works, and includes some of the practices indicated such as: organic feed, pasture-raised, humanely treated, sustainabily grown, by a local family, for their local community.  We’ll go into more detail on each of those points at a later date.  The critters will be grown on contract. What does that mean? Well, in a nutshell, we won’t be growing anything unless we have a customer who has gotten us a deposit.

Of the animals we are making plans on offering, the pastured chickens will probably be about $5 per lb. they will be the cornish cross, with a 7-8 week grow out, and the final price will depend on feed costs when the contract is written,

Pastured turkeys will probably be close to $8 per lb this year, with birds ranging from 18# to 25#. We are growing broad-breasted whites this year; butcher and pickup will be earlier than last year, so plan on freezer space for these.

Pastured Pork will probably be $5.00 per lb. hanging weight plus the kill, cut and wrap fees charged by Del Fox. The minimum order is a 1/4 pig. We buy weaned pigs from a local breeder, and they get farm surplus and other goodies here until butcher at 6-8 months of age.

“How can I get in line for these?!?!?”  Well, if you got this in your e-mail in-box, you’re first in line, but you need you to take another step. Please hit the link at the bottom or reply to this e-mail, and let us know your interest in what we have planned for this year. Specifically let us know what type of meats you want and how much (ex. 5 chickens, 1 turkey and 1/2 a pig).  This will let us plan for the year. Then when we send out the pre-order form, just be snappy about getting it back to us with the $$, and we’ll hold your place.  “But I didn’t get the e-mail!”  Well, then sign-up by clicking on the sign-up links on our blog/site and our facebook page.  You can also call us, or e-mail us.  Until then, get outside and enjoy the spring that’s soon going to be a distant memory…

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Are you still here?  Did you miss the sign up link?  Here it is again:

Click here for our newsletter Sign Up!!

Turkey in review… Or ‘time to head to ice camp’

Transition….   From Webster’s  ” tran·si·tion noun \tran(t)-ˈsi-shən, a change from one state or condition to another”

23 outside temp. The chill tank I filled the night before had a 1″ skin of ice on it.

That’s what we did this weekend.  We transitioned 13 turkeys 8 chickens and two geese.  Process and Transition sound so much better than Butcher.  However, given my sense of humor, I really like the term “ice camp”.  It sounds more fun (it was very appropriate given the weather), and folks still know what you mean.  Usually.  The chickens and geese were for us, and the 13 turkeys yielded #375.4 of hanging weight bird (looks like what you buy in the store).  The final price per pound was $4.05lb.  There were two ‘weight groups’ the #21-#23 range (all the hens) and the #31-#35 range (all the toms).  Bingo.

Turkey’s on the move. There’s 65+lb of Thanksgiving goodness there.

The biggest was #34.9 and the smallest was #21.4 which was much more in the range of what we were looking for.  We typically host  between 15 and 23 folks for Thanksgiving, and we like leftovers.  The Royal Palm heritage birds we typically raise are #8 to #16, and go through a little more feed (per lb) and a longer grow out (more of our time moving fencing, water, fretting over predator loss) and while they are enough for our meal, there are scant leftovers.  So the birds this year were Broad Brested Bronze.  There is just no way to get the size without using the hybridized meat birds.  And before folks start freaking out, these are not some kind of GMO monster.  They are bred the same way your pet poodle was bred, selecting over time for traits that the  breeders want.

Our birds were brooded in our spacious brooder box until they had enough feathers to handle nights without the heat lamp.  Then they did a few rounds in the pasture pens, kept safe at night, and moved every day onto fresh grass.  Once they had gotten a little bigger, (no longer a grab bag meal for passing birds of prey) they got moved out into the portable fencing.  Moved every few days onto fresh grass.  We fed them Organic feed, and they grazed like crazy (in fact several had crops full of grass when it was time to butcher them).  We processed them on farm, so the furthest they will have traveled, will have been from our farm to your table (well I suppose they came from Idaho as day old chicks, but they were packed in a box smaller than what would fit my work boots, and sent US mail, so I’m thinking the carbon impact there would be minimal).

One of the field pens they stayed in till they were big enough to not be snack size for air predators.

We wanted to express our thanks, to all our customers, for letting us raise your Thanksgiving turkeys for you.  It brings us a lot of joy and satisfaction to know that there are a dozen families out there who will be enjoying what we have cared for, nurtured and loved.  The final review will have to wait till Thursday, when we will get a chance to see how they stack up compared to the heritage birds we have had in the past.

The “crew”. Family and an awesome neighbor. We started at about 8 and were done by noon.

If you are interested in getting on the list for next year, click on the link on the right, where it says “interested in the meat and potatoes? Click here to sign up for our news letter”.  Deposits and progress payments totaling $85 held folks place in line, with the balance due at pick up.  We will be sending out a newsletter in the spring when we are ready to dive into another season of gobblers, it will have the prices for 2014, important dates and other information…  We will also be offering chickens again in 2014, and will most likely have pigs as well.

Moving on…

Another week, another pasture move.  The turkeys don’t graze quite like the geese, or goats.  And they don’t poop like 100 meat chickens.  So they get to move to fresh grass once a week.  Although as they get closer to T-day, it might get a little more frequent.  As will my apprehension.  And it’s not apprehension about the actual butchering, it’s the fact that a dozen turkeys will leave our farm just a few days before Thanksgiving, headed for what is probably one of the most recognized (and popular) family meals of the year.  What keeps me up is the knowledge that we don’t have much wiggle room.  If a dog or other predator was to get in now, odds are someone might not get a bird, but with over $75 of feed alone, invested in each bird there is an economic component as well.  And all this doesn’t even get into the animal husbandry, and love of the animals that an end not by my hand (via a predator) would imply.

I’d say we raise our animals with some of the same prejudice we are raising our children with.  They don’t get antibiotics (unless they show a profound need for them), they get good fresh, local food, the shelter they need, but not pampering (our kids have chores the don’t like, I was told it builds character), vitamins and the occasional treat.  We also try to raise them with lots of love.  We don’t let them play with sharp sticks, or run around outside after dark (unless they are supervised, or in an enclosure).  Having a hard time telling if I’m talking about our kids or our animals?  I am too.  Our kids even get out on grass just like the birds, but the turkeys eat more grass….

Although when I look at these critters, I can’t help but feel in a sound sleep, our girls think circles around the turkeys.

The turkeys are on pasture!

Two trips and we were done!  Way faster than the 90 meat birds.  They are doing well, and have made it through the first nervous night or two with no problems.  We’ll see how they handle the rain though, as they like to bed down where they have no overhead protection. They did however figure out where the hanging water was, and that is a relief.

 

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Turkey Update!

They are growing!  In some ways, there isn’t much more that can be said.  Except for some of the details…  We had ordered 15, and 15 showed up.  However, one of them had splayed leg, and that’s something that you can’t really do much about.  We had to put him down (that’s why we always order extras).  Then about 24 hours later, another was simply dead.  We have had them manage to drown themselves in their water in the first day or two in the past, but we switched to a quail chick watering base, problem solved.

We expect to loose a chick or two in a large batch in the first 24-36 hours.  That seems to be the time frame for them to die from any congenital issues, and that’s what probably happened to the second little fella.  So we are down to 13.  Maybe not a lucky number, but they are doing well.  In another week or so they will go out in one of the pasture pens, as they are already able to fly out of the brooder.  They are funny little guys….

Ice Camp.

That was fast.  I’m not saying easy, just fast.  This last Tuesday as we were moving the meat chickens out on pasture, we sang ‘happy birthday to you’.  They were 8 weeks old.  Thanks to a number of different factors, they will get an extra 3 days.  Then it’s Ice Camp.  The folks who bought in on this will be on hand to lend a hand, and to take their birds home when we are done.  We have 88 birds to do, and we plan on getting an early start, I’m hoping we are cleaning up before lunch.  Oh, how far they have come.

The pens have made the turn, and are headed back to the processing area.

And here they are at just a little over 7 weeks.

 

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