26 Reasons to Join the CSA in 2016

This week we've got 26 reasons that 2016 should be the Year of the CSA for you and your family! Those new years resolutions to eat healthy? Easier than ever with JBG. Signing up for our CSA is quick and easy - join the farm today and start your vegetable deliveries next week!

1. FREE CITRUS!

   We're starting here because this offer is ending soon! New members to our CSA get a free bag of citrus just for joining the farm - use the code NWYR at checkout. Existing members - you can get free citrus too, by committing to a long-term share this year! Read more here and email the farm to start your commitment.

2. BUY LOCAL

   By joining a CSA, you are supporting a locally owned and operated business and keeping your dollars in the Texas economy. Unique local businesses are part of what makes Austin and Texas so special!

3. FOR YOUR HEALTH

   Plant-based and plant-rich diets are a great way to jump-start your road to health this year, and organically grown is as good as it gets. Joining our CSA is a commitment to home-cooked, health filled meals. Plus, sharing these eating habits with your kids will ensure they live long and healthy lives.

4. TRY NEW FOODS

   Kohlrabi and fennel? Komatsuna? Expand your culinary horizons each week when you open your box of goodies and dream up some awesome dishes. We also help you out by posting weekly seasonal recipes to our blog. (Psst.. decide you don’t like something? Customize your share and we won’t send it to you again!)

5. FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

   Supporting your local farm ensures sustainable land management, and organic certification ensures that we never spray harmful chemicals on the farm. East Austin housing developments? Never on this land!
   
   Photo by Scott David Gordon

6. MAYBE YOU DON'T HAVE A GREEN THUMB

   That's okay, we've got a few out here! Our team is dedicated to growing the best organic vegetables in town and we've got years of experience.

7. CUT DOWN YOUR FOOD MILES

   It's estimated that the average American meal travels over 1500 miles before making it to a dinner plate. With all of that fuel, even a plant-based meal might not be too eco-friendly. In contrast, our farm is located just 10 miles east of the Austin airport!

8. ONLY THE FRESHEST

   Less food miles also means that your produce is much fresher when it gets to you. Most of your CSA produce was harvested no more than a day or two before it makes it to your doorstep, which means its has peak nutrition and flavor.

9. DISCOVER THE SEASONS

   Eating locally connects you to the seasons, to the land, and to your own health and wellness. Cucumbers will cool you down in the summer, while braised collards will warm you up when the temperatures start to drop. Enjoy the best pico de gallo of your life during the short window when cilantro, onions, peppers, and tomatoes all overlap and we promise you'll never go back to the store-bought stuff again.

10. IF IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR PAUL...

    And yes, we mean Qui. Great chefs all over Austin use JBG's produce because it's the best around! Why shouldn't your family too?

11. SHAKEY GRAVES KEEPS GIVING OUR HATS AWAY AND WE CANT AFFORD TO SEND HIM MORE WITHOUT YOUR HELP

    These hats, while awesome, are not edible. If you rep JBG on your head but not on your plate, maybe 2016 is the year to make the shift?

12. KNOW YOUR FARMERS

    Brenton manages the fields, Krishna crunches the numbers, Matt and crew pack and inspect all of your CSAs each week (while blaring old-time country tunes), and Ada manages outreach, events, and makes sure we're all having fun. Come out to an event or volunteer at the farm and get to know us! We're regular old Austinites just like you.

13. KNOW YOUR FOOD

    With all of the recalls, health scares, scary articles and stories around the food industry these days, getting a CSA share with JBG ensures you know exactly where your food is coming from and how it's grown. GMO? Heck no! Come out for a volunteer day and see your crops in the field and ask your farmers about it!

14. AWESOME DELIVERY DRIVERS

    The modern-day milkmen.

15. IT'S LIKE CHRISTMAS EVERY WEEK

    Our delivery drivers are a group of jolly men (like Santa!) who deliver boxes of surprises to your doorstep each week. Like this summer, when they left sunflowers on porches all over Austin along with the usual CSA deliveries - what more could you ask for?

16. DIVE INTO OUR FARM COMMUNITY

    The "C" in CSA is important to us all at JBG. That's why we host twice-annual Potlucks, fun runs on the farm, cooking classes, pop-ups, plant sales, and more to encourage members to get out and meet their farmers and their neighbors. Your community pick-up location is a great place to trade recipes, ideas and more!

17. SAVE VALUABLE TIME EACH WEEK

    We bring the farm to you - either to a community site or right to your doorstep! We know you're busy, so save those hours spent at the grocery store by getting your veggies delivered in a CSA box each week. Give yourself permission to be a little lazy!

18. LEARN HOW TO PICKLE AND PRESERVE

    We aim to provide a big bounty of food for your family each week. We hope that we give you enough of your favorite veggies so that you can put up pickles, kraut, and kimchi for the off-season. We post recipes and host classes on preservation too!

19. EVEN OUR CARROTS LOVE OUR CARROTS

    Not only are they delicious, but when was the last time you saw something this cool in the supermarket?

20. NO MIDDLEMEN

    When you buy direct from our farm, more money goes direct to your farmers, which means that we can pay higher wages to our employees, and dedicate more efforts towards sustainability on the farm. When you buy from a supermarket, your farmers don't receive that same margin.

21. HELP FEED THOSE IN NEED

    Thanks to the support of our CSA members, JBG is able to donate thousands of pounds of produce every year to large operations like the Capital Area Food Bank, as well as grassroots efforts like Nubian Queen Lola who are both helping to ensure that the hungry in Austin are fed.

22. FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING

    We understand that you like to take vacations. And that some weeks you just don't have the time to cook. Maybe your garden is just having a bumper crop this week. That's why we make it easy to postpone your CSA deliveries any week of the year either online or by calling the farm.

23. FARM FRESH WATERMELON WHEN IT'S 110 DEGREES OUTSIDE

24. FOR THE LOVE OF ART

    C'mon, what would you do without Lucas and his farm-toons, or Amy and her amazing veggie art? Buying a CSA share supports our employees and all the wonderful things they do for the farm.

25. OPTIONS OPTIONS OPTIONS

    We've got 4 sizes to suit your needs - individuals to large families can all choose the size to suit them. JBG offers add-ons of local eggs from pasture-raised hens, and small batch locally roasted coffee as well. Finally, you can CUSTOMIZE your share each week, ensuring that you get the veggies to suit your household best!

26. HOT PINK CHARD AND ROMANESCO CAULIFLOWER AND PURPLE PEPPERS EXIST, AND WE THINK YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THEM (AND EAT THEM TOO!)

      

    Join the CSA at Johnson's Backyard Garden today - it's never been easier, and it's a great way to start the New Year off right. Sign-up here - don't forget to claim your citrus as a treat from us when joining!

This holiday season, we challenged our CSA community to help us meet our goal of 150 CSA shares donated to The Settlement Home through our Sponsored Share Program. We are thrilled to announce that we nearly DOUBLED this donation with 290 shares!! Your outpouring of support will feed hundreds of meals to community members who have suffered abuse, neglect and trauma through the work of the Settlement Home. Thank you!

Our Sponsored Share Program runs year round, so if you missed your chance to donate for the holidays, fear not! You can visit the Sponsored Share page to learn more and join.

Montana harvests a big golden beet. Photo by Scott David Gordon

It sure was muddy when Scott came out to the farm this week! We've got lots of delicious winter root vegetables coming out of the ground, along with greens and herbs to round out the market tables. This week we started seeding in our greenhouse for the annual JBG Transplant Sale, which will start on March 5th and run for 2 weekends and a special third pop-up market - get your gardens ready and stay tuned!

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Chioggia beets have the best stems. Photo by Scott David Gordon

A foggy morning harvesting parsley. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Parsley. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Those carrots are sure loving this weather. Photo by Scott David Gordon

A purple cauliflower peeks out from its inner leaves. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Romanesco. Photo by Scott David Gordon

A carrot harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Lots of mud on the farm this week. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Purple cabbage in the fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Vibrant rainbow chard. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Our newly planted onions are definitely getting watered. Photo by Scott David Gordon

by Megan Winfrey

Simple and sophisticated describe this week's recipe to a T. Instead of making the same, albeit delicious salad you've been making with all of that gorgeous romaine, try this recipe and I guarantee you'll feel like you're at a nice restaurant. The flavors are complex yet bright, and it's so easy to make that I did it in about 5 minutes with a 9 month old on my hip. It doesn't get much better that that, now does it? Enjoy!

Charred Romaine with Crispy Onions

• 1 head of romaine lettuce, outer leaves trimmed
• 1/4 cup sliced onion
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 4 tbs. olive oil
• half a lemon
• salt and pepper
• parmesan cheese

Add a generous amount of salt and pepper to the flour. Dredge the onion slices in the flour to coat. Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium high heat. When the oil begins to smoke, add the onion slices. Cook, flipping once, until golden brown then set them aside on a paper towel to drain.

Using your gas burner or grill, spray a bit of cooking oil onto the grate and start a low flame. Place the bunch of romaine right over the flame and cook until char marks form, about 3 minutes on each side.

Immediately plate the romaine and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Pile the crispy onions on top and finish with a generous sprinkle of lemon juice.

CSA Box Contents Week of Jan 4th

Happy 2016 from the farm family to yours! This week we celebrate 2015 in photographs, and get ready to start the cycle all over again in the New Year (after a much needed day off!). A huge thank-you to the farm photographer, Scott David Gordon. Scott is a real asset to our farm - he's out in the fields every week, rain or shine, to take all of these photos so that we can share this experience with you, our farm's community. Thank you, Scott!

January:

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Artichokes enjoying the cooler weather. Photo by Scott David Gordon

In January we built a "fence" of sorts, out of nothing other than sugar cane! Photo by Scott David Gordon

February:

Tomatoes fill our greenhouse in February, to plant in March and sell at our annual Transplant Sale. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Red cabbage newly transplanted. Photo by Scott David Gordon

The first spring artichokes. Photo by Scott David Gordon

March:

Kate Payne came for a great pickling class in March - the cold weather moved it into our greenhouses. Photo by Scott David Gordon

A field full of flowering collard greens. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Our first Spring strawberries! Photo by Scott David Gordon

April:

The Spring Hoedown was a great way to kick off April. Photo by Scott David Gordon

We hosted our first ever 5k on the farm this spring! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Overwintered carrots are the sweetest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

We had lots of flowering crops, like these onions, this Spring, which attracted loads of pollinators! Photo by Scott David Gordon

May:

Montana pushes tomato stakes into the ground. Photo by Scott David Gordon

With a seriously rainy May, we had to dig all of your potatoes by hand this year! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Temo puts a grape tranplant in the ground - we put in an acre of table grapes at JBG this year! Photo by Scott David Gordon

June:

June means melons in Texas! Photo by Scott David Gordon

Transplanting hot-weather greens. Photo by Scott David Gordon

June also means...tomatoes! Photo by Scott David Gordon

July:

Harvesting zucchini. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Purple basil growing in the field. Photo by Scott David Gordon

August:

We grew a LOT of sunflowers this summer. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Early morning okra harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Andrew washes beets at our packing shed. Photo by Scott David Gordon

September:

Brenton and Vicente bringing in a big flower harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Our greenhouses are bursting at the seams with fall and winter transplants. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Late summer fields. Photo by Scott David Gordon

October:

A misty morning in our cabbage patch. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Harvesting the first fall Collards. Photo by Scott David Gordon

October brought new crops, but also the worst flood we've ever experienced at JBG. Photo by Scott David Gordon

November:

Runners in the fields during our second 5k, the Harvest Hustle, at the JBG Fall Picnic. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Cauliflower ready to harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

December:

Young lettuce mix. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Cultivating on a foggy morning. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Washing those famous JBG Homegrown Carrots at our packing shed. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Happy New Year from the farm! Don't forget - we've got some great extras for you when you commit to your health in 2016 by purchasing a CSA share tis January! From now until January 31st, we'd like to thank you for joining our CSA with some yummy organic citrus...

New Members:

Never joined our CSA program? There's never been a better time! Join now and receive a free bag of organic oranges or organic grapefruit with your first delivery. Enter NWYR at checkout.

Learn more about our CSA program and join today -- sign-up is an easy online process!

Existing Members:

We are asking existing CSA members if 2016 might be the year you commit to your health, and our farm, by joining as a long-term member. If you love our vegetables and intend to eat them year-round, please consider signing up for a 6 or 12 month subscription. These long-term subscriptions help the farm immensely to pay staff when harvests are slow, and to buy seed at the beginning of each season (just to name a few).

If you make this change now, we will send some tokens of our appreciation your way!

• 10% discount for 52-week subscriptions
• 7.5% discount for 26-week subscriptions
• A one-share CSA Gift Subscription to give to a friend, plus a free bag of organic citrus with an upcoming CSA delivery!*
• More than 250 varieties of seasonal, organic vegetables delivered right to your home or neighborhood, year round
• Flexible online management of your CSA schedule - postpone for travel!
• Customizable CSA boxes to ensure you get the veggies you want
• Add-ons to fill your kitchen with good food like local, free-range eggs and local, small batch roasted coffees

Email the farm and Ada or Daniel would love to set up your long-term subscription. *Offer ends January 31st, so strike while the iron is hot!

Happy New Year from all of the folks here at JBG!