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The Kretschmann Farm FRESH FROM THE FARM--DIRECT TO YOU
The Kretschmann Farm provides |
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The Farm: Who, What, and Where
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Becky and I (plus many other helpers) have been providing One of the first organic growers in western PA, we have always grown strictly organically and are certified organic with OEFFA. We believe in no magic formulas, just encourage life everywhere we can. We fertilize most heavily with the farmer's footsteps, keeping our operation diverse and simple. We try to give service and value to our customers and to stay humble enough to change. We have always felt our organic produce should be able to compete well with conventional in both price and quality. We feel we give our customers both. And more. |
What is grown?
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The variety of products raised is probably wider than that provided by any other western PA organic grower and ranges from vegetables in season to apples, cider, fresh herbs, blueberries and strawberries. It's a lot like eating out of your garden! Typically, what is included early in the season would be spinach, lettuce, strawberries, onions, beets, fresh herbs, kale.... Midsummer you'd see peppers, tomatoes, new potatoes, broccoli, sweet corn, blueberries, lettuce, squash.... Late season would bring apple cider, spinach, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, beets, cauliflower.... In the fall larger quantities of potatoes, carrots, apples, cabbage, and beets are given which can be stored for later use. |
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We take a special pride in our fresh greens and herbs. Almost never would you be without lettuce. Enough herbs are given through the season, that by drying, one is able to accumulate a pretty good supply for the winter. And we have learned that Pittsburghers can be really adventurous in their tastes! Many years ago we found mesclun greens to be a surprise hit and continue to hone our expertise at putting the mix together. We try new crops and varieties to put a little surprise into the mix. Rainbow chard, fennel, radicchio, heirloom tomatoes, ethnic pepper varieties, and many other items you'd likely not bother with when purchasing in a grocery store are part of the package. |
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We try to solicit information from subscribers as to what they would like to have grown and adjust planting accordingly. We keep track of individual subscriber's tastes with a brief preference list reproduced on the box tags, though admittedly one sometimes gets unfavored items. On a one-time basis, we will give subscribers an unusual item just for diversity. Many people find this an adventure-- maybe they have never made a fresh salsa, or are unfamiliar with kale, cress, radicchio, or fennel. |
Special this year: Lots of apples! Organic apple trees tend to be biennial--caused by too much fruit in the good years, as there is no good way to thin apples without chemicals. Before the turn of the 20th century nearly all apples were biennial producers. Last year should have been the “on” year, but due to the unusual Easter morning freeze and June hailstorm most of the crop was lost. In the scramble to somehow make up for this drastic shortfall, we met Bill and Mary Ann Oyler, who had begun to transition their small orchard to organic production. This year they will be fully certified organic. The quality of the Oyler’s fruit has been absolutely outstanding. We’ve decided to continue the relationship because we’ve always been a little light on fruit. This will ensure the fruit quantity and quality through the last half of our season and into the winter.
The eternal quest for the best heirloom tomatoes! We’ll continue seeding several of the heirloom tomato varieties we have come to like in the last several years, San Marzano, Green Zebra, and Arkansas Traveler and add a few more which have been highly recommended by friends--Cherokee Purple, Orange Banana, and Amish Paste.
We are looking forward to our second year with our mechanical bean picker. Last year was a little rocky mostly because of the dryness—but we did have a lot more green beans than other years previously. Our experiment with peas was also successful, so we’ll be adding to these as well to make June more varied and delicious as well.
At this very moment (mid-January) we are constructing a small greenhouse/high tunnel to grow-on the rows of spinach which were interseeded with the mesclun in late fall. Within a short time of harvesting the spinach in March, we’ll be planting this house to tomatoes so we can have a few home-growns earlier than we’ve had tomatoes in many a year.
We’ve long known that we have not supplied nearly enough bulb type onions. Onions are terrible competitors and for organic growers there’s little option but to hand weed them—which you can imagine is a tremendous disincentive to grow them at all. For the first time last year, we tried planting these into rows of black plastic. We’ve always tried to minimize the use of plastic in the fields because it’s a nasty process pulling it back up and disposing of. But the experiment showed that a very few rows could grow a tremendous number of onions when spaced closely together. We’ve already got lots of sweet white and red bulbing onions seeded in the greenhouse for this. We’re also planning to fill in as needed with some nice large sweet PA onions grown by Becky’s cousin (though not organically).
In the last few years we have sought to encourage our neighbors, especially
the younger farmers to produce meats for the local market. We do this by
linking interested subscribers to these producers. This will keep the farms
viable, preserve the farmland, and add to food security for all. Likewise, as
we all learn more about the nutritional benefits of grass fed beef, it's truly
exciting to utilize the grass
Delivering
produce to families
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Why Through the years, most of our produce has been marketed directly to consumers at farmers' markets. We have sold to stores, resale wholesalers and restaurants. Unfortunately, many people have been unable to obtain this beautiful chemical-free produce either because of time constraints or location. We now offer produce subscriptions to be delivered to your neighborhood or business. Where Most often this is someone's porch or garage. The exact location of dropoff points is flexible and depends on the number and geographical distribution of subscribers. Clusters of about 15 families/individuals pick up at one site, located to minimize travel. Attractive wooden boxes are marked with your name and pickup takes seconds. |
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When Every week from the first of June to Thanksgiving a subscriber receives a box of produce containing whatever is in season. Delivery days are Tuesday through Friday, depending on location.
How Much We try to be generous enough that one could give things away and still have plenty to enjoy. As a matter of fact, one of the leading reasons people quit is that they just can't eat all the vegetables! There are three sizes of "shares" available: Small--produce sufficient for a household of two adults and one or two small children, Medium--for families with two adults and two older children, Large--for families with several teen children or vegetarian families. (For single people we also offer a small size every second week.) It is a small matter to change share sizes in mid season if you desire.
Also: A Newsletter
to keep you up to date
With your produce, we supply a weekly newsletter sharing a little of what is happening on the farm, what to expect in the following weeks, and simple recipes for preparing what's in season. In these recipes, we lean toward minimal prep time for busy people (which we certainly are in the summer) and gourmet results. In the newsletter we also let you know about specal order items not part of your regular share or larger quantities of items for preserving or storing. Bushels of tomatoes, potatoes, or basil and flats of blueberries, are examples of what can be delivered at the same time.
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Thank You
A few years ago we became acquainted with the writings of Louis Bromfield. One could call him one of the fathers of the organic and sustainable agriculture movements. A Pulitzer prize winner in fiction in the '20's, he returned from long residence in Europe in the 1930's to the family farm and wrote extensively about farming into the 1950's. So much of what he says is as current as the day it was written. Eg. "…booms must always be paid for one way or another at some time by someone; in the long run there is never any such thing as a “quick buck”. Someone, perhaps a son or a granddaughter or a child unborn, will have to pay. We are already leaving a vast burden to future generation which will have no Eldorado to plunder as we have had. …These disasters today seem far away. All of us alive today may be dead long before the first symptoms appear, so perhaps none of it matters; but if one has any real morality or genuine religious feeling and faith, as so many of us keep asserting loudly, we are hypocrites, for there is no worse sin in the eyes of God than stealing the heritage of children as yet unborn." We hope we are planning adequately for the future and making the sacrifices which that might require. Cooperation in loving the children will be the key. One of the best current writers on the state of the food system in the "This is not the way I want to eat every day. I like to be able to open a can of stock and I like to talk about politics, or the movies, at the dinner table sometimes instead of food. But imagine for a moment if we once again knew, strictly as a matter of course, these few unremarkable things: What it is we're eating. Where it came from. How it found its way to our table. And what, in a true accounting, it really cost. We could then talk about some other things at dinner. For we would no longer need any reminding that however we choose to feed ourselves, we eat by the grace of nature, not industry, and what we're eating is never anything more or less than the body of the world." We hope that you have a thousand wonderful conversations around your dinner table as you eat our food which you know all these things about. |
