BASKET-A-MONTH COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE
WHAT WE OFFER?
Our basket program is divided into four seperate seasonal periods: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Each program will have three baskets, each of them picked-up at a designated location, or delivered to your home or business, the week of the 20th each month. The primary pickup location will be the Farmer's Market pavillion at the River Market. Our baskets contain only farm fresh food from local farmers. Each program features seasonal crops, provided by multiple small farms. Our producers seek to be naturally grown, grass fed, and use no antibiotics, or artificial hormones.
We offer two types of baskets, the Vegetarian Basket and the Whole-Farm Basket:
Vegetarians will love the additional herbs, grains, and greens included in this seasonal surprise each month. The winter basket features new crop pecans and local fall honey, as well as fresh cut mesclun and asian greens.
Whole-Farm Basket includes a high quality sampling of different local, grass-fed, heritage breed meats as well as nuts and vegetables. You're likely to see beefalo, range poultry, local pond raised shrimp, goat, lamb, and old spot pigs, as well as range eggs and raw milk cheese.
HOW IT WORKS?
Using a
cooperative buying strategy, we ask you the customer to pre-pay for
the three baskets of local produce, and delivery if you choose this
option. The baskets will be assembled at the headquarters for the Arkansas
Farm-to-Family Cooperative CSA in Grady, AR, and at Hardin's River Mercantile
at the River Market. Hardin Farms will assist by providing cooler space
and a large packing shed each month to store the large volume of produce
our growing program requires. We will typically offer a two day period
for picking up your baskets, and we will try to do it on a Friday and
Saturday. Ideally, we can schedule pickup on a Saturday and Tuesday
Farmer's Market day. For the last four baskets (Dec., Jan., Feb., and Mar., we have managed to arrange pick up and delivery consistently around the week of the 20th, which has fallen on 23,24,and 25th of each month. The April basket will be on the 20, 21, 22, or Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
WHAT IT WILL COST?
Our baskets are valued at $60 retail, or $180 for the required 3 month program. You must prepay for the entire program, which is limited to only 300 baskets each month for the entire metropolitan area of Little Rock. We hope to expand it by 100 each year, as we add to our list of small sustainable local farms. Last year we started with 100 members in our 12 month CSA program at Hardin's River Mercantile, so moving up to 300 is a big step, and requires careful planning to grow into a meaningful yet sustainable scale.
Hardin's
River Mercantile is a year-round farm to market store located in the
River Market of downtown Little Rock, AR. We feature a retail showcase
for local, seasonal produce Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. until 5
p.m. HRM is owned and operated by Jody Hardin. Jody serves as primary
buyer and coordinator for the newly forming Arkansas Farm-to-Family
Cooperative CSA, a newly formed organization charged with overseeing
the coordination and marketing of locally grown farm produce.
HOW DO I SIGN UP?
You can
come to Hardin's River Mercantile at the River Market and pickup
an application until we have one on this site. Its very simple what
we need. We also need a good email address and your contact numbers so we can
schedule pickups or deliveries. We also have a newsletter published
occasionally for our customers and local foods advocates that we like
to distribute by email. We also need to know if you want a Vegetarian
or Whole-Farm Basket. Most importantly, we need your phone number and payment. You can also email me and come in later to pay, or we can take your credit card by phone if you choose. We will let you sign your credit card receipt when you arrive to pay and pickup your first basket.
Make your check out to: Hardin's River Mercantile
PICKUP OPTION: $180
DELIVERY OPTION: $240 (Notice: we have stopped offering the DELIVERY OPTION)
FOLKS, THIS IS A GREAT GIFT IDEA FOR WHOLE FOODS LOVERS. THIS GIFT KEEPS GIVING FOR 3 MONTHS, AND IT'S SOMETHING MANY WOULD TRULY APPRECIATE. It promotes a healthy diet, good family conversations, and supports small scale family farmers as well as the local economy.
contact us at: jody@hardinfarms.com
