Greetings, Farm-ily!
Together, we've enjoyed 25 weeks of CSA, farm shares spread across 7 months and 3 seasons. We've grown and harvested nearly 100 a different crops for you! You've shared your kitchen triumphs, your families, and your time and energy with us in return, making Willowsford Farm's CSA a truly beautiful experience for us as Farmers. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for a wonderful season.
As we bring the 2019 season to a close, we want to share with you what we're cooking up for 2020.Our newest Farm team member has four wheels and will be seen in your neighborhood bright and early in the morning: Willowsford Farm CSA will now make home deliveries in the areas closest to the Farm. We know how busy your lives and calendars can be, and we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help your CSA share fit right in. For those outside of our delivery perimeters, we're adding pick-up sites at the Broadlands Community Building and Brambleton Farmer's Market in Ashburn, and Rocket Frog Brewery in Sterling. No matter where you are, we want to be close to you!
In addition to our new delivery option, we’ll be adding a share size. In the past, we’ve offered a slightly smaller “Personal Size” vegetable share and a larger “Family Size”. Next year, we’re making room for a new offering: the “Starter” size. The smaller size of the “Starter” share means fewer items, making it better suited to households who are just beginning their journey with seasonal eating and intend to supplement their CSA with produce from other sources. We hope you'll have some friends who may be interested in giving it a try! Family sizes will remain approximately the same for our larger families and heavy veggie consumers, and the Personal Size will be slightly more robust to better serve small families with average vegetable needs.
Whatever the size of your CSA, whether you pick up at the Farm Stand or have it delivered, we’re strengthening our relationships with fruit farmers in the surrounding area to bring you more fruit options, more often. We’ve heard your feedback that you love berries, apples, and peaches with your veggies; we’re here to make it happen! While Willowsford Farm is primarily structured to grow vegetables, our goal in 2020 is to include a fruit option from one of our nearby friends every week.
Our members already know that we coined the term Farm-ily because we like to think of our all our members as an extended family, connected by the Farm. "Know your farmer" is more than just a slogan or a hashtag. From the start, our mission has been to grow vegetables AND community. Our shareholders are the driving force behind every decision we make, including this year's updates to CSA. Remember, we now have a program in place to reward our current members for growing the Farm-ily by spreading the word about our Farm. On your Harvie member profile page, you'll see a menu option that says "Refer A Friend". Click this tab for a unique hyperlink that you can post to your social media, or send in an email, to invite your friends to join our Farm community. For each new member who uses your link to sign up for a Willowsford Farm share, you'll receive $25 in member credits for extra veggies... and so will they!
One last Harvie feature we'd like to remind you of as we prepare for 2020 is your option for auto-renewal. This is an account service offered by Harvie as a convenience to our members, to allow your CSA next year to continue seamlessly. By using the auto-renewal, you don't have to worry about farm shares selling out, or re-entering your account information. Auto-renewal will automatically continue your share sizes, location, and payment plans for 2020 by charging your deposit to your credit card on file. We plan to make 2020 shares available starting in mid-December, and the auto-renewal will engage at that time. We will send out an email reminder with exact dates and further details one week prior to initiating renewals. If you'd like to opt out of the auto-renewal in order to adjust your share size or delivery method, you can do so using these steps:
- Log into your Harvie account, click “My Profile” and then “Edit Profile”.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see a checkbox to allow auto-renew
- If the box is checked, you are saying you want your membership to be renewed in December - uncheck the box to opt out!
- Don't forget to hit save
- If you have any questions, email us at farm@willowsfordfarm.com or support@harvie.farm
Farm-ily, thank you for being a part of the Willowsford Farm community. You are, without a doubt, our most precious resource. We'll be seeing many of you during the cold season for Winter CSA, and we will be excitedly preparing to welcome everyone back in the Spring.
As always, eat well and be well,
Ashley, Collin, John, Lex, Nate, James, Rory, Alexandra, and all the happy critters
