Curious Gourds Community Suported Agriculture (CSA) is back! — Sign Up Now! — download brochure and signup form.
History
The Curious Gourds CSA was started in 2006 by volunteers and with the generous loan of land at the Sandwich Mountain Farm by Mary and Nevin Scrimshaw. In 2007 the Margret and H.A. Rey Center picked up the formal sponsorship of the program, but this was dropped this summer, 2009, because of concerns that there were not enough subscribers to make the project financially viable. A liitle bit more volunteer effort (and some creativity) has brought the Curious Gourds back under the umbrella of The Rey Foundation and in collaboration with the Community School CSA. The CSA is back in full force in 2010, open to subscriptions. While the bulk of the CSA food will be grown in at the Community School CSA in the Bearcamp Valley, the familiar Sandwich Mountain Farm and Curious Gourds Garden will also provide a bounty of produce and provide a special place for families to learn about gardening, Margret and H.A. Rey, and take home a drawing in the style of Hans Rey.
Volunteers John and Mary Bolster will be working the Courious Gourds West Meadow Garden to produce an abundance of vegetables for sale and for putting up (freezing, canning, drying, storing). The proceeds from sales and the food itself will benefit the Farmers’ Table, another collaborative program between the Community School and the Rey Foundation.
The Community School CSA and the Rey Foundation Curious Gourds
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a unique partnership between a farm and a community member. The rewards of CSA membership are great. Members get a share of the weekly harvest from the farm, a chance to eat locally and seasonally, to try new vegetables, to cook and preserve the bounty in new ways, to get to know other community members, and to celebrate the growing season at a variety of events.
The Community School cultivates four acres in South Tamworth, NH, using organic methods certified by the State of New Hampshire. Organic gardening produces healthy vegetables through natural methods using no chemical pesticides or fertilizers. We build our soil through composting, mulching, and cover cropping; manage our pests with companion planting, organic pest control, and hand picking; and control weeds through mulching, and a whole lot of hand weeding.
The Curious Gourds Garden was for three years and independent CSA garden located at the Sandwich Mountain Farm in Thornton, NH. In 2010 Curious Gourds merged with the Community School CSA. Thanks to a partnership between the Community School and the Rey Foundation, residents in the Plymouth area can enjoy now produce from the Community School’s certified organic garden at the convenient pickup location of the Curious Gourds on the Thornton side of Sandwich Notch (see map below).
What You Can Expect
Each week you come to the farm, receive a list of the available vegetables each member gets that week, and fill your bags. Often, we’ll give you some bonus options, like cutting your own herbs or flower bouquets. You’ve paid up front, so there’s no check out. Early in the season, you’ll head home with a lighter bag. But by August, you’ll be carrying extra bags, as the full bounty of summer kicks in. In the typical season, our CSA members have received more produce than they could buy at a local supermarket for the same money. And it’s fresh — most of it picked that day!
Beginning in May at The Community School Spring Fair, and going on right through the summer, there are many events at The Community School and the Curious Gourds Garden for which your CSA membership provides benefits. Receive discounts on plants at the Spring Fair, reduced ticket prices at our annual Bluegrass on the Bearcamp concert, and invitations to our community dinners in July and August.
Family Day at Curious Gourds
The Curious Gourds Garden is located on the Sandwich Notch Road in Thornton, NH. After your CSA pickup you can stay on to enjoy a family day in Sandwich Notch. Children can explore a play house house covered in gourds and pick peas while they make their way through Maisy’s Amazing Maize Maze. Children can also take away a personal Chalk Talk drawing by Rey Foundation president and resident author and illustrator Nat Scrimshaw. You can get to know other CSA families, pick flowers, have a picnic, or peruse original art is the Curious Gourds Studio.
I hope you’ll call if you have questions, or better yet, come by and visit either the Curious Gourds Garden in Sandwich Notch or the Community School CSA in South Tamworth! We look forward to feeding you this season.
Brady Potter, Community School CSA Farm Manager
Nat Scrimshaw, Gourdmeister
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