Farm Happenings for November 3, 2021

Featured this Week in Your Shares:

Salad mix is back for our final week!

CVO's organic herbal teas, herb-infused vinegars, dried culinary herbs, catnip products, farm-to-skin skin care products, and smudges are available for swapping into your share! All of these products are hand-made and/or grown by us at the farm. Holiday shopping time!

Featured from Our Farm Partners:

All of our farms are featured this week! We are offering 10% off EVERY farm partner product this week. No coupon code needed to stock up!!

This week, Woolf Farm apples are in your fruit shares...

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Updates from the Farm:

It's the final week of farm share 2021! Wow, has it been a wild, weird year.

We know that eating with the seasons isn't for everyone. Farm share is not the same as buying from a grocery store or a grocery delivery service (even a local one). Farm share requires a commitment to eating with the seasons, even when that means you eat a lot of lettuce in May, a lot of zucchini in July and August, and a lot of tomatoes in August and September. We appreciate your support this season as we worked our way through staffing and equipment challenges, even when at times that meant delays in answering your emails or less choices than desired.

We were not immune to the challenges facing every business this year in the wake of Covid. We turned over more staff during this season than we ever have in the 20-year history of Cherry Valley Organics. It seems that folks are searching for something that is settled and stable, and farming is anything but stable. With so many factors outside of the farmers' control, we are constantly jockeying for better position and reevaluating, going with whatever Mother Nature throws at us. The flexibility and resiliency needed by farmers are rare. The work ethic and perseverance, rarer. Constant staff turnover put more stress than imaginable on our grower team, but despite frequent very long days, Emily and Vanessa kept going and they deserve a huge round of applause for their accomplishments this season.

What's next for the team at CVO? We will need to make some very big changes to our business to continue to flourish and grow in the current climate. We'll be announcing the first of these changes later this week so stay tuned to your email!

Have a great week everyone, and thank you for being a farm share member this season!

Jodi, Emily, Vanessa, Lauren, Victoria, and Jared

The CVO Farm Share Team

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to vanessa@cherryvalleyorganics.com or to support@harvie.farm at any time.

Cherry Valley Organics began in 2001 as a USDA certified organic farm, producing a high diversity of agricultural products, including vegetables, herbs, cut flowers, and potted plants. Since those early years, we have grown into an organic lifestyle company, producing a wide diversity of products that support a clean, organic lifestyle, including our herbal teas and herbal body care products, all of which are grown or hand-made at our farm.

At Cherry Valley Organics, we believe in…

*Living the healthiest life possible (full of organics!)
*Fair, livable wages for our team members
*USDA certified organic growing and production practices
*Minimizing our carbon footprint and ecological impact
*Supporting our local community

Cherry Valley Organics is a collaboration. Unlike traditional family farms, we come from diverse geographical, family, and professional backgrounds. We are growers, scientists, food & health enthusiasts, teachers, caretakers, chefs, and nutritionists. We are all farmers. And, all of us here at Cherry Valley Organics are committed to growing and producing high quality certified organic products for our community. We would never compromise on organics. Ever.

Cherry Valley Organics, founded by Jodi Danyo, began as a one-third-acre “urban farm” in the Pittsburgh suburb of Crafton, Cherry Valley Organics now encompasses approximately 36 acres in nearby Cherry Valley, Washington County, PA. Despite this expansion, the footprint of the operation is still quite small with farming operations encompassing less than 8 acres. The farm was built, quite literally, from the ground up!

Our Farm Share Growers, Emily Kramer, Vanessa Davis, Lindsay Henry, Alexis Williams, and Alliy Gundlach, love producing high quality organic products for our local Pittsburgh communities. You can find our products at the Sewickley Farmer’s Market on Saturdays (April through November), and also at local florists and specialty shops. In 2018, we opened a Farm Market & Cafe along the Panhandle Trail in Burgettstown, PA.

What makes our Farm Share unique?

*We wash the produce. Thoroughly. You are unlikely to get any mud in your CVO Farm Share bag. We still recommend that you wash our veggies, but many items will be ready to eat (and may make for excellent snacking in the car on the way home from the pick-up location).

*High diversity of veggie crops. We grow over 150 varieties of vegetables and herbs per season, on average.

*Specialty crops, like microgreens. It's a bit unusual to see this high value crop in farm share programs. They are a bit tricky to grow, but wow do they pack a nutritional punch! Despite their small size, they are the most nutritious veggie in the share!

*We believe in minimizing our environmental impact, and we use biodegradable and compostable packaging wherever possible. And we have a variety of new packaging products in the works for 2021.

*Specialty cut flowers are a niche crop for us. We grow many of the hard-to-grow flower varieties like Ranunculus, Bells of Ireland, Delphinium, and more. Many more. Nearly 300 varieties! Our flowers are not your run of the mill market flowers. Our bouquets are carefully crafted, and absolutely gorgeous!

*We have extensive partnerships with other local businesses and farms, including Primrose Farm (pasture-raised eggs), Paul Family Farms (maple syrup), Tait Farm (jams, butters, shrubs), Weatherbury Farm (flours, milled products), Big Bob's Honey (honey), Clarion River Organics (potatoes, sweet potatoes, melons, winter squash), Woolf Family Farms (blueberries, apples, peaches), Cherish Creamery (cheese), Emerald Valley Artisans (cheese), Steel Cup Coffee Roasters (organic, fair-trade coffee), Conover Family Farm (pickles, hot sauce) and more! A selection of these items is available on a weekly basis and can be added onto your Veggie Farm Share in any quantity you choose. We believe in the value of small business and keeping dollars in our Pittsburgh neighborhoods.

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