Dear Waitlisted CSA members,

Thank you for your interest in the Chatfield CSA! Some of you may already be CSA members, not interested anymore, or waiting to hear how you can sign up.

Thanks for your patience - we are in the process of building a new website and so we haven't been in touch as much.  We should be ready to sell our CSA shares to you starting at the end of February/beginning of March. This allows time for our current CSA shareholders to renew their shares first.

We will email you a purchase link to our new e-commerce site toward the end of Feb. when we are ready. You can also read about our shares and prices on the Denver Botanic Gardens website at: at https://www.botanicgardens.org/our-impact/food-programs/chatfield-farms-csa-program 

Please be sure to watch for our emails coming up if you'd like to become a shareholder for 2021! If you have any questions, please email me at   

Thanks, everyone! We hope to see you in the summer with a fresh basket of vegetables in your hand and a smile on your face!

Greetings, shareholders and friends!

Happy New Year, everyone; no need to reflect on 2020, we all know how it went. However, we do want to thank you all for your amazing support, kind words, enthusiasm and community last season. The weekly distributions in the open air were the highlight of our summer. Seeing your faces light up when you came to pick up your produce really made the smoky skies, the drought and the heat all worth it! 

Usually, CSA share renewals happen in January. This year, we are moving from our old website to a new one and ask for your patience as we create something simple and streamlined. We plan to open share sales the second week of February. Stay tuned.

For now, you can find information about the CSA here on Denver Botanic Garden's main website, although we are still adding prices, etc.: 

https://www.botanicgardens.org/our-impact/food-programs/chatfield-farms-csa-program 

Soon, we will start emailing you through MailChimp instead of this platform. Please add the new email to your contacts as soon as you get it so we don't get lost in your spam-land.

All returning shareholders will have priority to renew for the rest of February before we release shares to our waitlist. 

An updated list of share options and prices will be emailed to you ahead of time to ensure the process of buying a share goes quickly. In the mean-time, if you have specific questions about the coming season, feel free to reach out! 

Let's make 2021 full of connection, beautiful food, nurturance, and hopefully more moisture!

Thanks,

Josie and the CSA Team

 

Dear shareholders,

We apologize for having to make a spur-of-the-moment decision yesterday to cancel Tuesday distribution. We appreciate your patience and understanding. As a thank you, we have something special for you. 

We invite you and your family to come to the Chatfield Farms to pick up your shares tomorrow (Thursday, October 22) For the extra travel, we offer you a free carving pumpkin and hot cider! Come see the fall colors, where your food is grown, and end the season on a high note! 

Each of you will receive a carving pumpkin, your share, fruit share if you have one purchased, and hot cider. Come any time between 3:30 - 7 p.m. Please park in the upper gravel lot and head to the Hildebrand Ranch area. Follow the signs to the CSA Washstand.

Hope to see you tomorrow! 

Hey all,
 Reminders - last week was the final week for eggs and mushrooms. FRUIT shares will be there today. Although flower shares have ended, we made a special dried "forever" bouquet for your homes. Enjoy - just a special little gift from us to thank you for buying a flower share! 

PLEASE bring cash (bee keepers don't do venmo) to pay for your honey, grain, flowers or any other item you might owe money on.

If you bought a bouquet on THURSDAY we need our vases back please! Bring them this week.

Thank you all for a great season - we truly appreciate you and will miss seeing your faces every week. We will be in touch with details about next year's sign up, our new website, and survey results.

Eat well, Be well.

 

 

Dear Shareholders,

October is right around the corner but we are still filling our days with bountiful harvests and sunny warm afternoons in the fields. We are so grateful for all the food we have curing in the greenhouse and for the resilience of the crops we are still harvesting in our fields. 

We hope some of you made it out to our gleaning day this past Saturday to collect up some of the last sweet summer produce. If you haven't been to the farm lately we encourage you all to come check out the pumpkin patch, corn maze, and stroll through our market garden. Chatfield in the fall is a wonderful place to spend some time enjoying the cooler weather in a beautiful setting, with fun activities with family and friends. 

Thank you to all who brought reusable bags last week, please bring a bag again this week if you are able. 

Harvest list -  Sep 29 & Oct 1

arugula

lettuce mix

french breakfast radishes 

carrots

delicata squash

garlic

dill

 

Featured Recipe -  Arugula Salad with Delicata Squash, Wheat berries, and Pomegranates 

Items to buy in the coming weeks:

Flower shares are wrapping up for the season, but we are going to have a couple weeks where you can purchase a bouquet for $10. As a special treat to folks who have been asking all season for flowers! 

Wheat berries grown at Chatfield will be back in stock. 

Please make sure to wash all your produce very well.

 

Hey there,
Welcome to the special salsa edition for the CSA this week! We have one final round of tomatoes, cilantro, hot peppers, and onions ready for you today so you can all salsa your way to the weekend!

** PLEASE BRING A REUSABLE BAG FOR TODAY (we are low on bags).

* NO flower shares/sales this week, they need time to catch up so next week we will have them again.

Don't forget gleaning this Saturday fro 9-12:30!

See ya there!

 

Dear shareholders,

Today - PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN BAGS! We are running low on paper.
The much anticipated first gleaning day is here! Bouquets are for sale - Bring $10 cash!

This Saturday,  
9:00 -12:30, Chatfield Farms' CSA fields.

Please park in the first main gravel parking area you see when you arrive at the farm. Bring large reusable grocery bags, snippers or pruners, gloves and water/snacks. This event is free - but please let the security know you are at the farm for Gleaning with the CSA.

You will walk out to our far fields back by our greenhouses (about 10-15 minutes) so you need good shoes and the ability to walk that far. If you end up picking a ton of produce, you can go fetch your car and pick up your produce with it at the end. Please do not drive out to the far fields. We will send out a separate map of the farm for those who are new.

We will have the corn maze event going on and that will create chaos if we have folks driving through the farm.

Each crop you will be able to harvest from will have a flag in front of it - and will be labeled. Please do not pick crops that aren't flagged as we are still harvesting those. We will have tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and other selections we have not determined yet. 

After Gleaning, you all are invited to go through our Corn Maze for FREE!!! If this sounds fun to you, head to the entrance and tell security again you are a gleaner and they will let you and your group inside! Good Luck!  

See you all Saturday!

 

 

Hi All,

It's that time of year again for Peg's Homemade Grape Jam.   
Because of Covid 19, I'm taking Grape Jam orders via email. 

If interested, please email me at [email protected]. 

I will provide Venmo information for you to submit payments with a debit card or bank account.  No credit card purchases.    

My jam sells for $6 per 1-cup jar.  It lasts a year unopened when kept in a cool dark place, or up to 6 months opened and kept in the fridge.  This year's harvest looks good.  My Concord grapes are dark purple, juicy and sweet.  I will fill orders on a first-come-first-served basis while supply lasts.  Josie will advise the pickup date for each Distribution location as I will not be onsite for distribution, or to give out taste samples, or handle money for payment. 

To those who have not tasted my Grape Jam, they make great Christmas gifts or just as a sweet addition to your breakfast.  To my repeat customers, welcome back!    Thank you for your support this year, as well as in years past.  Happy Autumn and enjoy!

Sincerely,

Peg Montagne

12-year Chatfield CSA volunteer
25-year DBG volunteer
[email protected] 303-907-7078 cell    

 

Dear Shareholders,

Prepare for the worst - hope for the best - inside every farmer, there is an eternal optimist. We planned for the killing frost and brought in a ton of vegetables and flowers...covered plants with fabric...waited...and...things are not that bad!

The warm season crops are definitely slowed down and we may not get very much off them but things are in better shape than originally thought, however, let's be real - climate change is a challenge and making it harder for farmers every year to produce what we need to sustain local systems. We've all got work to do.

Thank you to the many folks who offered help, showed up, prayed, sent vibes - we made it through! The storm was wet which was good for the soil - but not as cold as projected! It hovered right around 30 degrees(f) for most of it and usually 28f will kill plants - so we got very lucky!

 

 

Harvest list - September 15 & 17

Shareholder Survey out soon - Please give us your feedback on the season. We want to hear from you about what you liked this year and what you missed or want to see improved. It will be a link so please take the 5 minutes and tell us what is on your mind! It helps us every year to get closer to providing the best CSA we can for all of you.

Remember to wash your produce well.

Thanks again for your support during the rollercoaster of events lately! 

Dear Shareholders,

With a hint of fall in the air and cooler temperatures this week, we all are looking forward to a break from one of the hottest summers on the farm I can remember. Thanks to all our crew AND volunteers who are out there day to day. Thanks to you all for your compliments/emails/smiles and nice words of support this week. Grateful for glorious rain on the farm!

We loved hearing about the grain shares this past week - so many creative recipes! We are hoping to have another round of wheat berries soon, so those of you who didn't get a bag can do so. We are crossing our fingers for a day that we can also have our own flour!

Onions coming in this week - and as some of you know, onions are one of the best crops we grow! So many onions! Here is our crew in the greenhouse working on processing and curing.

 

   

 

In the background below, are all the mums for our fall displays at both locations.

 

 

• Remember to come buy pumpkins in October! 
   

Harvest list for Sep. 1-7

onions
garlic
potatoes
peppers
broccoli
head lettuce
squash
sage

featured Recipe ~ fall is in the air but summer crops are still here

1-2 medium summer squash (any variety) washed and cut into chunks

1-2 cloves garlic

approx. 10 leaves of fresh sage, minced

2-3 tablespoons butter

salt/fresh lemon juice on top optional

On low heat, melt the butter with the fresh sage very slowly until the butter has browned and sage is infused completely. Add small chunks of summer squash gently stirring in the butter. cook for a few minutes on low heat, turning over the butter into the squash. 

Use the squash in several yummy ways - a squash quesadilla with with fresh basil? Or on top of your head lettuce with sliced tomato and boiled potato for a perfect summer salad? Or try making a creamy polenta and adding the sage summer squash on top!

Have a great week everyone!

 

 Please remember to wash your produce well in cool running water you get home!