Renewing Shares for next season... and Shares for November 2, 2024

We have THREE MORE WEEKS in the Farm Share! Final shares for this season are on Wednesday, Nov 20/ Saturday, Nov 23 -- the week BEFORE Thanksgiving.

We are launching rollover renewals for 2025 Farm Shares soon! Our current software is going out of business and we're switching to a new software. Please check your email for a comprehensive message about how to secure a share for 2025.

State of the Farm: See the photo above for baby plants in one of our greenhouses this week. For many parts of the country, October has brought drought conditions. However, for us, we can fairly well irrigate this time of year and we'd much prefer to irrigate during moderate temps (such as those this month) than to have our plants experience straight rain and no sunshine for more than two weeks.

Almost all of our crops experienced significant damage from the excessive September rain, and you'll see that continue to be reflected in fewer options for your Farm Shares for a bit longer.

Carrots are still looking good! We HOPE to start harvesting them next week.

We're still planting and we're looking forward to the protection of the greenhouses for our crops as we move toward winter. Cabbages are still growing and we hope they form nice heads. Cross your fingers!

Need to check on or make changes to your pick up dates? Log in here.

Recipe suggestions:

- Turnip Au Gratin recipe

- Pickled Turnips version 1

- Pickled Turnips version 2

- Portugese Kale Soup with Turnips (our family favorite!)

- Stuffed Peppers - with cream cheese and Everything But the Bagel Seasoning

- Cilantro Lime Crema Dressing - drizzle it on alllll of our vegetables

- Ginger Miso Scallion Dressing - put it on any combination of vegetables and protein

Bread Share members: You get a SEPARATE email to customize your bread share.

To Customize Your Share:
Each time you are scheduled to have a share, you'll receive an email from us 2 days prior. It should have subject line "Time to Customize Your Share." The software will create a default share for you (based on your indicated preferences and what we have available to harvest) and list those default contents in the email. The email also contains a link saying "Want to make changes to your share or add extras?" Click on that link to customize your share! Customization usually ends at 6am on the day before your pick up day, and sometimes at 5am when our harvest days need to start extra early.

For Pick Up:

- Please remember to bring your own bags each week.

- At Self Serve locations: Our vegetables are in plastic boxes at the pick up location, labelled with members' names. Find the box with your name on it. - Empty the vegetables into your bag and leave the empty box for us to collect.

- Loaves of bread and bags of Tomatoes during Tomato season, for those who have ordered them, will be near the green boxes, labeled with your name. Pick up your bag(s) if you are due one or more. (Some people have purchased a Bread Share for a loaf each week of the season. Some people order a loaf when they please.)
- Same for cooler(s) at pick up locations with any cold items that aren't vegetables (eggs, fermented vegetables, etc...See below for more info.)

- At Staffed locations: One of us will be there to quickly gather your items for you to bag up and bring home.
- Preparation ideas and recipe suggestions are in your email. Also check out our Pinterest Page for lots of recipe ideas, organized by vegetable.

EGGS: Ring-a-Bell Farm in Pamplin offers their eggs for sale through us. Their chickens live on pasture and are fed supplemental non-gmo feed from Sunrise Farms. Their eggs are fabulous and we trust their farming practices completely. You can purchase their eggs in our self-serve FarmStand at our farm and you can order them through the Harvie system "Extras" when they are available.

Our FarmStand is at our farm and open every day of the week, 9am-dusk (or 7pm, whichever is earlier). Visit us to see where your vegetables grow and pick up some extras for yourself or a friend. We have vegetable and herb plants for your garden available in the Spring, in addition to a host of our vegetables, and we have flower bouquets most weeks of the summer. Driving directions here.

You are also invited to shop for our goods at the farmers' market where we vend on Saturdays: Farmers' Market @ St. Stephens.

Finally, we have a Facebook group for our members to share recipes ideas, etc.

Visit and join here.

Also see recipe suggestions on our website here. We also have a Pinterest page with recipes here.

We so deeply appreciate the opportunity to farm for you. Thank you for being the most important part of our farm! We love you!

With blessings on your meals ~
Janet, Dan, and the whole Broadfork crew (Julie, Alisa, Jen, Clara, Tabea, Christina, Jackson, and the farm kids)

Want to follow along during the week, including Farm Stand updates? Visit us on Facebook or Instagram

Owned and operated by Janet Aardema and Dan Gagnon, Broadfork is a small family farm in Chesterfield, VA providing the metro-Richmond area with Certified Naturally Grown vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
We use traditional European methods of biointensive, raised bed production while maximizing soil and plant health for nutrition and sustainability. No synthetic/chemical fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, or fungicide is ever used in any part of the process of growing your food. Everything we sell is grown by us, and we farm full-time, supporting ourselves and our four children through our farm business.

Growing practices at Broadfork utilize only ecological methods: compost, cover crops, organic fertilizer, and minerals are used to feed the soil that feeds our plants. Raised beds are used to prevent soil-compaction, allowing for happier plant roots. We use organic potting soil and fertilizer, as well as amendments like fish emulsion and sea minerals. No chemical fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides are ever used on your food and we are Certified Naturally Grown (which follows the same national standards used for Organic Certification). We are also proud members of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming and Slow Food RVA. Janet and Dan both hold Bachelor’s Degrees in Biology from Davidson and Lafayette Colleges, respectively. Janet holds a Master’s Degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We both thrive on putting our biology backgrounds to use in a farm setting and share a passion for farm education.

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