About Cool Beans CSA – 2012

Cool Beans is a partnership between two farmers, one on each side of the Susquehanna River.  Judi Radel’s farm is in Duncannon, and Katie College farms in Dauphin.  Our goal is to feed others as we feed ourselves – fresh, homegrown produce, grown naturally, and picked for you at the peak of ripeness.  Your membership entitles you to a weekly delivery during the growing season plus discounts at our market in Carlisle.  More details are in the following paragraphs, and you can follow the progress of the Cool Beans CSA by reading the blog posts.

2012 Cool Beans Information

At its most basic, a CSA (community supported agriculture) is an agreement between a farmer and an ‘eater’ in which the customer pays ahead of time for a weekly share of seasonal produce from the farm, sharing in both the risks and the windfalls of the farm’s year.

Members pick up weekly shares at a pre-determined location (we offer several options).  If you can’t pick up your share because of another commitment, you can have someone else pick it up instead or let us know to simply cancel it for that week.  It’s important that your schedule allow you to pick up your share during the time indicated, so look over the options before making a decision.

There are numerous CSA programs in the southcentral PA area, and we think highly of all of them.  We are occasionally asked why the Cool Beans CSA would be the best choice for someone considering a CSA, and the simple answer is that it might not be the right one for you. Each CSA has a slightly different twist – different pickup options, different share sizes, etc. – and we encourage everyone to look into all of the local options before choosing a CSA.

The Cool Beans farmers are committed to providing members with the same fresh, healthy, safely grown food that we feed our own families.  The things we don’t grow ourselves are purchased or bartered for from farmer friends we trust, so that our members have a wide range of items each week.  Our bags will include vegetables, fruit, and occasionally value-added items, such a freshly ground wheat flour, baked goods, or cheese.  Our goal is to introduce our members to the wide range of locally available options for awesome food.

Two sizes of shares are available this year.  A full share is designed for a family or for two people who love vegetables.  A small share is designed for singles or for someone who might have large backyard garden.  We strongly recommend full shares as your best value and suggest that you consider splitting a full share with a friend or neighbor, and either sharing each week’s basket, or alternating weeks. A full share is $500, and a small share is $275; this is for 24 weeks beginning on Tuesday, May 15, and running until Tuesday, October 30, with one as-yet-undetermined week’s break in late summer.

An egg option is available as an add-on.  For $75, you’ll receive a dozen farm-fresh eggs each week; for $45, your share will include six eggs.

Some additional items may be available occasionally a la carte as the season progresses, and we’ll make that information available to members as the opportunities arise.

Membership includes the option of participating in on-farm activities occasionally.  We didn’t do too well with this part of things in 2011 because it seemed that one or both farms was flooded most of the summer!  We’re hoping to do better this year.

The Radels also offer a meat CSA, with monthly deliveries of hormone free, naturally raised beef, pork, chicken, and more.  If you’re interested in learning more about this option, contact Katie at katie@komta.com  and we’ll send you the brochure.

There is no typical weekly basket, since it all depends on seasonal availability, but you’ll receive a variety every week, and the overall amount you receive will have a monetary value greater than the cost of your share.

We have several pickup options this year, all on Tuesdays:

At Judi’s (Yeehaw Farm, 51 Rohrer Dr. Duncannon) after 3:30 pm  (Judi’s newly opened farm store will be open on Tuesday evenings, offering additional items)

At Katie’s (Stoney Creek Valley Farm, 1170 Stoney Creek Rd, Dauphin) after 4 pm

Camp Hill (19th St, near the library) after 4 pm

81 and Progress (on Corporate Circle) from 4:30 to 5:30 pm

New Cumberland (2^nd St) after 7 pm, or at the NCTB rehearsal Tuesday nights

Seventy five shares will be available in 2012, and based on feedback from 2011 members and the waiting list, we expect to sell out, so we recommend that you reserve a spot early.  A fifty dollar check, made payable to Cool Beans CSA and mailed to Katie College, 1170 Stoney Creek Road, Dauphin PA 17018, will hold your spot.  You’d be welcome to pay in full up front, or you can space two or three payments out equally over the winter.  Our ‘payment plan’ is a bit informal – we would like you to make the arrangement that works best for you, but which also acknowledges that we can’t purchase spring supplies and pay our helpers if you wait until the last minute.  Just let us know what your plan is, so we know what to expect.

It’s impossible to include everything here that you might want to know – so please don’t hesitate to email with any questions you might have.  You may also wish to read through some of the blog entries, which range from informative essays on our philosophy about food safety to hastily dashed-off last minute messages to members on delivery days.

The 2012 season will be third for Cool Beans, although both Judi and Katie have been raising food for a long time.  We can safely sum up our CSA by telling you that we love what we do, we work our butts off, we mess up sometimes but always do our best to fix problems, and we truly love our members.