Archive for the ‘General Topics’ Category

Join us Saturday October 1st at 6:30 pm for an evening of sharing food by a fire and drinks while cuddled on hay bales with farmer friends! Bring a dish to pass and whatever you love to drink! We will have power strips available for those squash soups! Call for directions! We really hope you can come!!

PHEW! We are finally getting into the shares that Good Life Valley Farm CSA is known for! After a tough cold and wet Spring to a hot and dry Summer, our shares are finally reflecting what a mid-season share is supposed to be! My hope is to introduce at least one new variety to your share each week… this week we introduce TWO! We’ve also got much more to come as the tomatoes hang green and plump on the vines, the corn reaches for the summer sky, and the potatoes grow underground. Please don’t forget about all of the incredible offers we have available to our members… you can also purchase milk, eggs, bread, and keiffer at the farm with trout, cheese, yogurt, garlic, and pesto also to be available for your additional purchase in the very near future!! Send us your favorite recipes! oxox!

Coming soon: an entire page dedicated to this protein packed versatile green that few know “what to do with”! I think it’s about TIME!

Please share with us your favorite kale recipe!

Diane Imrie (http://www.cookingclosetohome.com/id1.html)  is visiting Newport Natural Market and Cafe this Saturday to talk about her new cookbook “Cooking Close to Home” from 10am- 1pm. She will discuss how fun and easy incorporating local foods into your menu is and demonstrate a recipe around 10am! Books and signings are available! Grab a latte and observe how you can become a master of your weekly GLVFCSA share!

BURR! It’s about 56 Degrees F at my house right now as I settle in to grade my student’s finals and sip some coffee. Somehow in the course of motivating to do my grading and find my slippers (!!) when I’d rather  be outside, I began to reflect on the years of Good Life Valley Farm and all we have become.

Corey and I began our CSA 6 years ago during a time in our lives that was very uncertain. I had a very low-wage job as a florist and Corey worked about 70 hours a week for his family’s farm for little to no wages. We lived in a 15×9 camper with our two dogs in the corner of our very first CSA garden patch. We had a 1/2 acre plot, and it was all me since Corey worked in the fields haying all day. It was tough because everything was done by hand, and weeds were certainly doing their best to maintain their home. We loved what we did, though, and something just told us to keep evolving, learning and observing instead of giving up. Now, we are in a perfect location in Westfield and have since then developed quite the portfolio of tractors and garden implements that were welded and designed by Corey.

Life is SO good and the garden reflects this! We have a gorgeous little homemade greenhouse, an ever-improving planting system, and incredible working members. The folks at Springbrook Farm who have given us the land we use to grow on have done nothing but nurture our farming careers and become family to us both. We are so truly fortunate.

This growing season reminds me of two summers ago when the traumatic Late Blight hit. I lost about 200 tomato plants and about 100 lbs of seed potatoes. There was a time when I couldn’t look at a tomato without feeling the effects of heartburn and anxiety. It shook us both to see so much devastation. We plugged ahead, though, the following season, determined to once again store enough salsas and sauce to last a winter, and plowed three new garden plots to give our seedlings an uncontaminated start. Due to our efforts last year and the best growing season any farmer could ask for, we ended our season with a variety of heirlooms and regular tomatoes to give each member a hearty taste of red, purple, orange, yellow, and green gold!  So, due to that dreadful experience two years ago, we are taking our time  getting certain varieties outside, and are using our past experiences to gauge our decisions. The lettuce is glowing, the beets are poking up, corn is up, squash is flowering, and beans are bending their way above the soil’s surface. So, throughout everything, our garden’s name still emulates it’s owners, and life really is good! We are looking forward to a bountiful season despite the tornado watches, torrential spurts of rain, flooding, and cold and we can’t wait to share this beautiful bounty with you! We’ll see you next Saturday, the 18th for the small but delicious first share offering! Please know that your share will be available for pick-up after 1pm. Stay in touch!

oxox- Natalie

Kitchen Window: Oh, The Things You Can Do With Your Farm-Share Box

This is the coolest little ditty from NPR’s Facebook page! oh! and BTW: “like” us on FB too! You’ll make a little farmer smile!

So sorry the website was down for so long! We have been super busy! We are entering our 6th year of providingDEE-licous Naturally Grown FOOD! Check out our link to the CNG Homepage link and learn why CNG is a good choice for small farms like us.

So, people, here is the DEALLL-iooo. Shares are available and we are having an awesome spurt of sun and breeze! Our veggies struggled during the tornado watches and golf-sized hail but didn’t grow as fast as usual due to the agriculturally unfriendly month of May…we are two weeks behind schedule due to this. No worries though! Our veggies are looking FINE on this June morning!

We have room for up to 10 more members: order now!

Shares will start hopefully next week. Check out our Shares page for pricing and membership details. Contact us directly to have a pamphlet with order form mailed out to you!

We have some REALLY exciting changes happening this year! Thanks to the Carmelite Sisters of Lowell who are NEW MEMBERS, we will have a large selection of fresh made organic and grain breads and home-made organic  keiffer available each week to our members. We also, compliments of Kitty Edwards (another famed GLVFCSA member), will have kombucha tea for sale! Need eggs? Just let us know and we will get organic free range eggs added to your share upon request! Prices for these items will be extra.

Call us NOW and be a part of our GROWING COMMUNITY!!

oxox!- Natalie Gaines, Owner/ Operator of Good Life valley Farm!

We’re among the coldest days of winter and I say to you: let’s think about green kale, spinach, and mustard greens squishing through our teeth, and soft tomatoes salty on our tongues, cool breezes at the end of a hot day, dirty fingernails, and the smell and sight of a teaming harvest basket in the back seat. The 6th annual Good Life Valley Farm CSA membership drive will begin towards the end of March with early bird specials. Come back soon and join our “growing” community or drop us a line with your mailing info! Lots o’ Love and see you then, Natalie

ATTENTION MEMBERS from 2010: We LOVE feedback! So far we’ve had incredible constructive criticisms and input! This can only help us make your experience better! Because of your feedback we hope to have many positive changes to make your CSA experience with us truly rewarding and unique. Bring it!

Act now veggie eaters! Good Life Valley Farm is offering our famous Half Season Share for only $150! Get all of the benefits of a CSA Member, like weekly veggie shares until the end of our growing season! Visit our Contacts page now to sign up!