• KnowYourFarmsCSA
    Cotswold Pickup Location – New! Cotswold Pickup Location – New!

    Cotswold Pickup Location – New!

Cotswold Pickup Location – New!

Know Your Farms CSA is excited to announce a new pickup location partnership in Cotswold with Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte beginning the week of June 19, 2013.

 

 

Unitarian Universalist CSA Pickup Location in Cotswold

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Know Your Farms CSA is Charlotte’s only multi-farm delivery service for local farmers that sources from Charlotte area farms.  The service is also the most convenient way to get local food delivered to over 40 locations throughout Charlotte including public pickup sites, workplaces, and home delivery.

Restaurants Lease Farmland

barbeefarms_fieldThe idea of restaurants “leasing” farmland from local farmers for certain produce items is not new but may be something for our Charlotte area restaurants to consider.  One of the stumbling blocks in restaurant supported agriculture (RSA), where food businesses buy from local farmers for resale, is the forecasting that farmers must do at planting times throughout the year.  They have to use data from previous years and increase their intended yields based on estimated future sales.  There is a lot of risk and unpredictability for the local farmers around Charlotte.  Sometimes when food businesses ask farmers to grow a certain amount of food with a promise to buy it four months later at harvest time, the promises are broken and farmers can be left without much-needed sales.

Restaurants Can Reduce Farmer Risk

One of the interesting and high-impact ways restaurants can help local farmers and get great food to their customers at the same time is to help farmers reduce the risk of losing future sales.  We think it would be great for restaurants to provide secured future sales to local farmers in exchange for foods that chefs would like to have in their kitchens.  The idea is not simple but can be done.

If a restaurant(s) offered to “lease” a certain amount of land from local farmers to grow certain things in certain quantities, farmers might feel more comfortable dedicating a portion of their growing space for this transaction.  We will throw in a word of caution here: 

Please, please do not consider this option unless you really are dedicated to following through.  Farmers can sadly recount past experiences where they grew for people who guaranteed future sales, only to find out the sales had vanished when the crops were ready to be harvested. 
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Restaurants Plus a CSA Offer Farmers Low Risk

Know Your Farms CSaThere is also an even more secure way for both restaurants and farmers to accomplish this mutually beneficial restaurant supported agriculture.  Know Your Farms CSA could act as a backup for these guaranteed crops so restaurants could request a whole row of produce but only have to use less than the whole row if things changed in the future.  Our goal is to protect the farmers from negative impacts of this kind of change.  It also gives chefs a safety net with their credibility with the farmers so if they do fall short of their purchase estimates, the excess will still be purchased from the farmer by the CSA.  We hope both parties will want to begin a dialogue about how to use our CSA as a safety net to facilitate the connection between restaurants and farmers.

 

Partner Highlight – Fintastic

Partner Highlight -Fintastic

fintasticFintastic opened in 1992 as the Carolinas’ first full-service aquarium retailer, specializing in quality freshwater and marine fish.Our new high-tech store showcases over 10,000 square ft. of aquariums, fish, plants and corals. We have 425 aquariums displaying over 18,000 gallons of unique living nature. The store is filled with new products including a custom design center where you can create the system of your dreams.

Fintastic is located in Ayrsley and is a public Know Your Farms CSA drop site.

Location:

2135 – C Ayrsley Town Boulevard
Charlotte, NC 28273

Phone: (704) 525 – 0049
Web: www.fintastic.us

Hours of Operation:

Mon-Sat: 11am-8pm

Sun: 1pm-6pm.

Partner Highlight – Common Market South End

CM_logoCommon Market – South End is now a CSA drop option for those in that neighborhood interested in getting convenient and fresh local foods from local farms.  Know Your Farms CSA is happy to have a strong community partner like The Common Market.  Common Market is your stop for for eclectic, neighborhood convenience!  We hope our service will only enhance our community partners in South End.

Common Market – South End is located in South End and is a public Know Your Farms CSA drop site.

Location:

The Common Market
1515 South Tryon St
Charlotte, NC 28203

Phone: 704-332-7783
Email: info@commonmarketisgood.com

Hours of Operation:

Sun: 12pm-4pm

Mon-Tues: 6:30am-10pm

Wed – Fri: 6:30am-Midnight

Sat: 6:30am-Midnight

Sun: 6:30am-10pm

 

NC Cotton

Did you know?  NC has a thriving (and growing!) cotton industry and TS Designs is a large part of the movement to bring back textiles to our state.  The NC Cotton Club invests in the Cotton of Carolinas Project designed to rebuild the necessary infrastructure that we lost along the way.  This effort is heavily supported by Slow Money NC.

Are you familiar with Slow Money NC’s impact?  They strive to finance North Carolina’s sustainable food and farming economy.

For those of you with one of our “I Eat Local” t-shirts, TS Designs is the company we use.

Workplace CSA

What do we mean by workplace CSA?  Our workplace CSA is a great option for business partners that want to give employees the option to get fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables delivered to their offices.  And the best part is that it is all local!  We can help employers increase the healthy options available to employees through our workplace CSA.  There is so much flexibility built into the Know Your Farms service. Employees in the workplace CSA can:

  •  customize the delivery schedule (skip a week or any number you need!)
  • change share sizes if the initial size does not suit you
  • switch pickup locations to any public site if needed
  • control their account details online
  • see what’s coming each week online in multiple places
  • receive and share recipes each week
  • meet wellness goals by getting healthier food options

The workplace CSA helps employees meet wellness goals and gives employers a way to offer a unique benefit.  Know Your Farms Workplace CSA is the most convenient way to get local foods from local farms to your office.  Call or email us if you want to learn more or invite us to your office to speak to employees about this program.

 

 

Partner Highlight – Pura Vida Worldly Art

Partner Highlight – Pura Vida Worldly Art

puravidalogoYour senses are in for a multicultural treat! Pura Vida Worldly Art is colorful, eclectic and fun. Come visit and you’ll find yourself spending hours exploring!

You’ll enjoy discovering a variety of treasures from all over the world. From Latin American folk art such as Day of the Dead art and Catholic saint carvings to Asian, Middle-Eastern, and African pottery, textiles and prayer items. As you browse through the Mexican wrestler masks, musical toys, and all the good luck amulets and spiritual items you’ll be glad you stopped by.

Pura Vida Worldly Art is located in NoDA and is a public Know Your Farms CSA drop site.

Location:

Pura Vida Worldly Art
3202a North Davidson St
Charlotte, NC 28205

Phone: 704-335-8587
Email: info@puravidaart.com

Hours of Operation:

Sun: 12pm-4pm

Mon-Thurs: 10am-2pm/4pm-6pm

Fri: 10am-2pm/4pm-8pm

Sat: 10am-8pm.

Partner Highlight – EcoLicious

Partner Highlight – Eco-Licious

ecolicious_logo1Marley and Fiona recognized the need for a vegan retail presence in the big little city of Charlotte after traveling and being inspired by the presence of such stores in larger cities. The abundance of vegan and eco-friendly options were almost overwhelming in these locations. Back home, we were tired of having to research and order products which we couldn’t touch, taste or smell before purchasing online. It was like playing the lottery, most of the time you lose.

Eco-licious was finally formed in January of 2011, filling that missing need for cruelty free and eco-friendly products.

Eco-licous is located in Plaza-midwood and is a public Know Your Farms CSA drop site.

Location:

Eco-licious
1916 Commonwealth Ave
Charlotte, NC 28205

Phone: 704-966-7030
Email: ecolicious.charlotte@gmail.com

Hours of Operation:

Monday Closed
Tuesday 10-8
Wednesday 10-8
Thursday 10-8
Friday 10-8
Saturday 10-8
Sunday 12-6

CHS Workplace CSA

We are really happy to announce the CHS workplace CSA is now available to Carolina’s Healthcare employees working at the airport center buildings.  Employees can get fresh, local produce, meats, eggs, and other foods delivered to the workplace in any of the following buildings:

  • Building L
  • Building P
  • Building O
  • Building J
  • Building G
  • Building E

CHS LiveWell and Know Your Farms CSA are working together to bring healthy food options to CHS employees.  You can sign up online at the CSA website by April 1 to get in before the first deliveries.  We will begin delivering local food from local farmers to CHS Employees in April.

For more information, please check out the following links:

CSA pricing and share sizes

Farmer profiles (where is the food coming from?)

Recipes

 

Partner Highlight: The Milky Way

Partner Highlight – The Milky Way

TheMilkyWayWe decided to start off our partner highlights with The Milky Way in Dilworth.  Adam and Wooten opened up their doors to the local food movement a few years ago and let us bring our CSA orders to the store.  The Milky Way can help you with all of your breastfeeding, fussy baby, baby carrier, cloth diapering, shower gift and infant apparel needs. They care about baby care! The Milky Way has been helping grow healthy and happy families since 2003.

The Milky Way is located in the Dilworth neighborhood in the Shops at Twin Oaks.

The Milky Way
1419 East Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28203

Phone: 704-374-9200
Email: info@amilkyway.com

Hours: Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-5 EST.