Hi, I’m Brandi and I am the lead gardener of a half-acre garden at High Hope Ranch located less than ten miles from Glen Rose. When the pandemic began I was presented with an opportunity to grow food at High Hope with the aim to increase food stability during an unstable time. I’ve always had a passion for growing healthy organic food, but walking into empty grocery stores and the panic that followed was the final straw for me. Our food systems are very dependent on mass producers- often in different states and even countries. The team here at High Hope has now observed a full year of growing conditions and we are pleased to announce that we can supply you locally sourced, organic, biodynamic food!
What is a CSA? If you don’t know, a Community Supported Agriculture program is a weekly subscription box of farm fresh vegetables to be picked up by you from the farm once a week for a full 8 week growing season.
This is different from a meal delivery kit, we simply provide vegetables that are at their peak ripeness to you and your family, often with a few ideas on how to cook the more uncommon veggies. Your food won’t have to travel all the way from California to get to your table, it’ll be grown right here in Texas and it’ll come with some great benefits too!
Joining our CSA is an easy, cost effective way to bring more variety to your diet and it can also serve as a way for you to connect with your community. Alongside offering healthy food to members we plan to host CSA member dinners in the garden, pesto and salsa contests, classes, and other events as the seasons change- in compliance with current health procedures of course.
When: March 21- May 9
Cost:
Full Share [suggested for families of 3 or more]
One 8 Week Season: $360 ($45/weekly)
Half Share [suggested for 1-2 persons]
One 8 Week Season: $240 ($30 weekly)
How To Pay: We accept cash, all major credit cards, Venmo, and Paypal.
Shares will include up to 5-10 vegetables, herbs, and fruits we have available at the time as well as ideas for how to cook the less common ingredients. Part of joining a CSA is helping your local farmer with their crop successes and failures. One share may be heavy with excess produce, while the next share may be leaner. Shares are contingent on the current growing conditions. As the farmer I cannot control the weather, I only sow seeds and hope for the best. Joining this CSA is hoping for the best with us and supporting us through the unexpected.
What to expect from Spring shares: Spring is a time for cool season vegetables (my personal favorite!) beginning with greens like lettuces, spinach, bok-choy, kale, collard greens, and Swiss chard. As the season progresses you can expect more root vegetables such as radishes, carrots, and beets. With the warming temperatures we will see more hearty vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, sugar snap peas, kohlrabi, and cabbage. Fragrant herbs such as cilantro, parsley, oregano, dill, basil, and mint should be available throughout the season as well. As the season comes to a close we may even have green tomatoes to fry up, zucchini, summer squash, and green beans.
These won’t be your average vegetables. While you may have had boring broccoli from the grocery store- flavorless and disappointing, we will provide you will crunchy, fresh, and unique varieties of broccoli like romanesco and purple! It’s likely that you’ll often receive produce you’ve never seen before and its even more likely that it will taste better than anything you’ve picked up at the store!
Boxes will be available for you to pick up right here on the ranch where you can also take a tour of the garden, spend the day hiking on our extensive trail system, or visit for a while with our friendly staff, fellow members, and our 16 goats.
In addition to vegetables, we hope to be able to bring other add-on products to your experience in the future, such as:
- Cut Flower Bouquets
- Farm Fresh Eggs
- Jellies & Jams
- Herbal Skin Care Products
- Salsa, Pesto, Hot Sauce
- Meat Products such as Beef, Chicken, and Goat
To join, I require an 8 week season commitment from you, and a deposit totaling 4 weeks worth of shares. In exchange you will receive Organic, Biodynamic, farm fresh produce for the season, access to the garden during pick ups, and plenty of opportunities to engage with your community! Members will be given contracts to sign and return to us so that we are in agreement about what all this 8 week commitment requires (much of what I’ve outlined above.) Contracts will be sent out by February 21st and will need to be signed and returned by February 28th with your 4 week deposit to participate for the first season!
If this sounds like something you are interested in joining, I’d be happy to answer any further questions you may have.
We hope this is the first of many seasons to come, if this CSA performs well we will confirm that addition of another season to follow the end of this one. We are taking this new endeavor slowly, one season at a time and with your help we hope to see it grow! Members will be notified as soon as an additional season has been added and we hope that members will be able to sign up for a full year in 2022!
Thank you,
Brandi Graves
Leave a Reply