I want to express my sincere gratitude to all of our CSA members. Your commitment to buy a season’s worth of vegetables allows our farm to stay in business. Our goal is always to provide you with great-tasting, healthy, fresh vegetables. Your support makes it possible for us to do this.
Most of the global food system relies upon chemicals or exploited labor to produce food. Growers spray thousands of acres with chemicals designed to kill pests and weeds. They rely on a constant stream of impoverished workers to exploit. They harvest food (like tomatoes) before they are ripe and then spray them with gasses to make them appear ripe.
Our way of small-scale farming is very expensive. We grow food by hand. Everything that is harvested at Red Wagon is harvested by hand—only when it is ripe. And a lot of the planting and weeding also happens by hand. We focus on keeping the soil healthy, which results in healthier plants and more nutritious food. We take care of the natural habitat on our farm. We have ponds and trees for birds. We plant flowers and shrubs to provide food for our pollinators. Our farm crew works incredibly hard, but we try to pay them as well as we can (and you can help by contributing to our Farm Worker Support fund!) The way we farm is expensive and a lot of work, but we think it is worth it to take care of our ecosystem and provide you with the best food possible.
Thank you so much for choosing to support Red Wagon this season. Small farms like ours struggle every year to stay in business. Our CSA is the foundation of our farm and we are so grateful to all of you for making our small farm possible.
We also offer some additional options for purchase:
Fruit
Eggs
Mushrooms
Coffee
Beef
Pork
We also have two new programs in 2015: Friends of Red Wagon Farm Worker Support
Friends of Red Wagon
New in 2015! Our Friends of Red Wagon share is for people who want to go above and beyond in supporting our farm. Let’s face it, there are so many things stacked against small farms. Do you truly value Red Wagon produce and the benefits Red Wagon brings to our community? Are you in a strong financial position? Then the Friends of Red Wagon Share is for you! You will be helping to ensure the long-term viability of Red Wagon.
Here are some of the benefits of being a Friend of Red Wagon:
–You will be allowed to take up to $40 in produce each pickup.
–You will have more flexibility in your pickup location–including being able to pick up at the Boulder farmers’ market on Saturday. Farmers’ market pickup will give you access to the full range of vegetables we harvest each week. (Note: We do not have a farmers’ market pickup option in our CSA signup. Just select a pickup location that might work for you. Once the growing season starts we will contact you to work out your pickup preferences.)
–You will have additional access to our farm and there will be additional farm events for you.
This is your way to give additional financial support to our farm. You will not receive the full dollar amount in vegetables.
Friends of Red Wagon is a new program for us. We would like to hear from you as to what benefits you would like and what you would value. Please contact us directly if you would like to discuss this program more. Send an email to Wyatt@RedWagonOrganicFarm.com.
Farm Worker Support
At Red Wagon we recognize that our farm workers are one of our biggest assets. They are the ones who grow your food and harvest it for you each week. Without our farm workers we would not be able to bring you our amazing produce.
We start our farm workers at $10/hour, which is high for farm worker pay. But realistically, this is not enough for the work they do. It is not easy being a farm worker. The work is incredibly hard, the hours are long, there is no reliable source of income in the off-season, and the list goes on and on. We try to pay our farm workers as much as we can, but the economics of food and small farms currently do not allow us to pay more.
We have had a lot of incredible farm workers over the years, but we have not been able to keep most of them at Red Wagon for more than a season or two. Most people cannot afford to live on a farm worker income. We are asking our community to help us invest in our farm workers to give Red Wagon more long-term stability.
As an example, a contribution of $10/week would increase the pay of one farm worker $230 total over the course of the CSA season. Any amount you can contribute is greatly appreciated. The money you contribute will go directly into farm worker paychecks.
We want to be transparent and accountable in our endeavor to financially support our farm workers. Please contact us if you would like to be on a committee to help monitor our Farm Worker Support program.
For all the details on our 2015 CSA please see our website. We hope you will join us for a delicious season!
What is “good food”? Is “good food” important? Why? Where does “good food” come from?
I never make new year’s resolutions. But this year I am making one and it is one I am going to keep. In 2015 I resolve to engage people more in conversations about “good food”.
I am starting out with a series of questions, beginning with the questions above. You can just think about these questions on your own. Or I would love for you to share your thoughts. You can do that by commenting on this blog post. You can also post your thoughts on our Facebook page.
I look forward to hearing your responses and continuing with more questions.
Amy
Two of our farm workers have young children and we are collecting gently used clothing for them.
We are collecting clothes for 3 GIRLS–especially winter clothes:
Scarlett needs clothes that are size 3 months and older. Samanta needs clothes size 2T and shoes size 5. Jimena needs clothes size 3T and shoes size 8.
You have several options for donating the clothes/shoes:
1) You can bring the items to the last Boulder farmers’ market of the season on Sat 11/22 and drop them off at the Red Wagon booth.
2) You can drop the items off at Red Wagon Organic Farm at 7694 N 63rd Street. Leave the items in a bag outside the gate. It might be a good idea to let us know you are coming so we look out for the items.
3) We can possibly pick the items up from you if you are in Boulder County.
Thank you so much for your help! I know our farm workers really appreciate it!
At Unitarian Universalist Church 5001 Pennsylvania Ave, Boulder
No Charge (donations accepted), Refreshments
For information call 303-494-0195 ext 3
About the Film “Narrated by Katie Couric, FED UP blows the lid off everything we thought we knew about food and exercise, revealing a 30-year campaign by the food industry aided by the U.S. government to mislead and confuse the American public. Exposing the hidden truths contributing to one of the largest health epidemics in history, the film follows a group of families battling to lead healthier lives and reveals why the conventional wisdom of exercise and eat right is not ringing true for millions of people struggling with diabetes, childhood obesity and other serious conditions. Including captivating interviews with the country’s leading experts, this vital information could change the way we eat forever.”
Sponsored by: Red Wagon Organic Farm, Hazon, Tuv Ha‘Aretz Interfaith CSA, & its partner congregations: Boulder Jewish Community Center, Congregation Bonai Shalom, Congregation Har HaShem, Congregation Nevei Kodesh, St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, & Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder.
Our CSA season is over and our farm stand is closed. But you can still get veggies and other great food from Red Wagon!
See the order forms below to order veggies, fruit, eggs, coffee, beef, and pork. Place your orders and pick them up on Thursdays (4-7pm) at Red Wagon (7694 N 63rd St).
We plan to offer weekly veggies until the weather gets cold enough to kill our crops. Then we will switch to a biweekly or monthly schedule for the other items (eggs, mushrooms, coffee, beef, pork).
You must place your order by 6pm on Wednesday 11/5 for pickup Thursday this week. Sorry for the short notice this week! We will send the order forms out earlier for next week.
Wyatt and I are both voting YES on Proposition 105 regarding GMO labeling of food. We both avoid knowingly eating GMO foods, but I am certain that we unknowingly eat GMO foods because they are everywhere. I can almost guarantee that any box of crackers, chips, cereal, or any other packaged food that is not Certified Organic has some ingredients that are genetically modified.
I can only think of 3 ways to currently avoid eating GMO foods:
1. Eat only Certified Organic foods. (GMOs are not allowed under the National Organic Program).
2. Buy your food directly from the farmer/rancher so you can ask them if they use any GMOs.
3. Grow and raise your own food.
Our farm is Certified Organic and this year we were required to provide proof that we did not use GMO seed for the following crops: corn, alfalfa, yellow squash, zucchini, or soybeans. More and more vegetable crops are being genetically modified. If we stay on our current path, GMO foods will continue to rapidly enter our food system.
Wyatt and I want to know if food products contain GMO ingredients so we can make our own decisions about potential consequences to our health and the environment. So join us, your farmers, in voting YES on Proposition 105 for GMO labeling!
-Winter Squash
-Onion
-Choice: Cauliflower OR Romanesco
-Choice: Hakurei Turnips OR Beets
-Choice: Kale OR Collards OR Broccoli Raab OR Bok Choi
-Choice: Spinach OR Lettuce OR Arugula OR Braising Mix
There’s still time to sign up, pick up is Wednesday at Google in Boulder. It is a great way to try out our CSA without committing to our entire regular season.
How did it get to be the middle of October already?!? The 22 weeks of our CSA have flown by and here we are in the final week.
Thankfully the weather behaved a little better this year (no 1,000-year rain events and floods!) But we always have out challenges (like racoons eating the watermelons!) We had a great crew and all-in-all it was a good season.
We couldn’t do it without our CSA members. You are the backbone of our farm. Thank you all so much for your support!
We had so much fun at our CSA Harvest Celebration on October 5th! Thank you to everybody who made it. Below are a few photos from that beautiful day. And click HERE if you’d like to see even more party photos in a Flickr album.
