Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
A sample assortment from the CSA.
(Courtesy – Winter Sun Farms)
Love the fresh local produce of your CSA, but hate to see it stop when the growing season ends? Winter Sun Farms can fill that void. The program, which began nearly seven years ago in New York and is locally part of Blue Ridge Food Ventures, freezes fruits and vegetables from area farms at the peak of freshness. Once a month, from December through March, members of this CSA then receive shares with items ranging from red raspberries to summer squash.
Last weekend, Chris Reedy, Program Manager for WSF, took a few moments to speak about the program.
Question: Winter Sun Farms has three branches in New York and one in Philadelphia. How did Asheville get into the mix?
Answer: We became a sister program to New Paltz [Winter Sun’s Hudson Valley home] four years ago. We were actually the first Winter Sun Farms outside of New Paltz. The other New York branches and the one in Philly didn’t start up until recently.
I’d like to think we’ve made the program our own. In New York, subscribers only get frozen items. Here in WNC, we have focused on incorporating as many parts of the agricultural community as possible. We focus on providing frozen items of some of the well known gems of our regions like berries, apples and tomatoes as well as some of the lesser know ones like honey, fresh salad and kale greens. So, since it’s possible to provide sweet potatoes in December and greens all winter long, we work with the farmers to make that happen. We’re working to give farmers a more consistent income stream in the summer and a longer income stream throughout the winter.
Preparing peppers.
(Courtesy – Winter Sun Farms)
Q: What does your role as Program Manager entail?
A: I work as the coordinator of the all the programs here at Blue Ridge Food Ventures (BRFV). WSF is one of them. I manage the operation of our Natural Products Manufacturing Facility, supervise the Farm Outreach Program and manage the Winter Sun Farms Program.
As program manager for the Winter Sun Farms Program, I deal with the day to day aspects of running it like a business and ensuring that it’s sustainable. I work closely with all the farmers that grow for the program. We closely monitor item costing to insure that items and crops are sustainable. I also work closely with our production crew. They require training to use all the equipment as well as training to understand the concepts of food safety.
Q: What foods are you most excited to offer in 2012-2013?
A: The shining star of program are the fruits and berries. We will be offering frozen blackberries and raspberries from Henderson County at all the distributions this year. The berries are picked at the peak of ripeness and individually frozen in blast freezers to lock in that quality. Also, we’ll be making apple sauce from local apples. It was a big hit with subscribers last year. We have really focused on developing a kid friendly recipe that has no sugar added; all fruit, just apples.
I hope to have a couple of new items as well. Definitely local mountain honey provided by the Appalachian Beekeepers Association & possibly regionally produced grits. Depending on Mother Nature, we hope to have a number of fresh items including sweet potatoes, greens, lettuce, carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips, spinach, arugula, etc. We’ll also have many of the products made here at BRFV for sale at the BRFV pickup only on our distribution days.
I should also mention that we will be offering a winter squash puree that is made from a North Carolina native winter squash variety that the Cherokee used to grow. It’s call a Candy Roaster Squash. Before the 1940s if you had a pie on the table for Thanksgiving and Christmas, it was probably made from Candy Roaster Squash and not from pumpkins. Most folks from the area have forgotten the candy roaster, so we are excited to work with farmers to grow it and increase the seed bank for the area. When I first started to request farmers to grow the variety, many had difficulty locating seeds. We have great recipes on our website for items like this that may be unfamiliar to some subscribers. For candy roasters, we have a squash dip, pie and a curry soup recipes. I can guarantee all the recipes are out of this world.
Yellow squash from Hominy Valley Organic Farm.
(Courtesy – Winter Sun Farms)
Q: How are the foods packaged?
A: The frozen items will be in deli-style 16 oz containers for fruits and in vacuum sealed bags for the vegetable items. Most items are going to be in 3/4 to one pound portions. Fresh items will range from several pounds for sweet potatoes to 1/4 pounds for salad greens.
Q: What are some of Winter Sun’s long-range goals?
A: Our long range goal is to continue to make the program sustainable. Through that sustainability, we will have more opportunities to work with small local farms. So far in three and half years of business, we have worked with almost 30 small farmers and processed ten tons of fruits and veggies. We’d like to continue to provide these farmers with a year-round sustainable income. That sustainability also offers us the opportunity to train and offer work to six kitchen ‘fairies’ who help us prep, package and freeze the items.
As a note, we treat the farmers as a normal CSA member would. We offer the grower the ability to become a contract grower for the program. We can then offer them 40% of the total contract amount upfront as ‘seed’ money. This allows them to pay for much of that upfront cost that goes in to the growing season.
Berries from Hominy Valley Organic Farm in Candler.
(Courtesy – Winter Sun Farms)
Q: Is there still time to sign up?
A: We’ll be signing up folks right up until the first distribution date on December 4th. I will say the all of our satellite pickup locations – Grove Arcade, Black Mountain and Hendersonville – all fill up very quickly. So if folks are interested in those locations, they need to sign up early to hold their name on those lists. The Blue Ridge Food Ventures pickup is open till shares run out.
We had 100 members our first year, 225 our second and 310 last year. We are shooting for right around 400 for this upcoming year.
This is a great, in-depth, well-written interview … glad to see Edwin A. contributing more than just movie reviews around here!
Many thanks, Nate!
We have a summer CSA and just signed up for Winter Sun this year. I’m SO excited to see this coverage about it, and can’t wait for my first pickup.