FAQ's....
Q: What kind of person participates in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program?
A: Usually the type of person that participates in a CSA program is one who is adventurous and willing to try different foods, eats freshly & seasonally, enjoys cooking meals from scratch as opposed to prepared meals, and wants to purchase their foodstuffs locally from a farm that uses sustainable farming methods. As the produce contained within the baskets is freshly picked from the fields using no or low spraying methods, it is crucial that upon receipt of your basket you set aside time to wash, and properly store the produce to prevent spoiling. We do provide tips and tricks for storage, as well as a ton of great recipes to explore and try our great produce, right on this website!
Q: How much will I receive in a share? Am I better suited for a single or double share?
A: Our shares come in either single or double sizes. A single share (1/2 bushel or 18L) is geared toward families with young children or two adults. A double share (1 bushel or 36L) is geared toward families with growing children, or two vegetarians.
Q: How many weeks is the Summer CSA Share program?
A: 20 weeks.
Q: What are your hours of operation?
A: Wednesday - Saturday 10am to 7pm // Sundays 10am to 5pm **Farm closes on October 28th, 2012 for it's regular on-farm fun and the corn maze. We will be open on designated Saturdays over the winter for share members to pick up their shares, and the farm store will be open those days. (check web site for exact dates)
Q: What will be in my share boxes?
A: Generally speaking there are 5-7 items per week contained within the boxes. As we progress through the 23 weeks this can change - there are more items when growing season is in full swing with produce such as lettuce, green onions, asparagus and spinach, and moving toward root/storage vegetables as the growing season tapers off.
Please refer to our growing chart to see what produce is available when!
Q: Can I change my basket items if I am on delivery?
A: No. We apologize, but changing items contained in the basket may only be done at the Farm Store located on the farm (266 Ashworth Road, Zephyr, ON)
Q: Is there tax on top of the price of my share?
A: No. There is no tax on fresh food products and the prices listed are the price for the full season. There is HST on delivery charges.
Q: Is Cooper's CSA Farm & Maze an organic farm?
A: We are now transitioning Certified Organic. In order to minimize the need for spraying, we employ an IPM System for all our crops. (Integrated Pest Management is where plants are sown next to each other because they naturally repel each other's predators). We have a field scout who checks our crops twice weekly throughout the season to alert us to any problems or issues that we need to attend to. The only time we would put any chemicals on our crops is if they were at risk of loss or serious damage.
We use a lot of manual tillage (hoes and rakes), and Steve is very current with all types of 'organically registered' fertilizers and sprays. He is also versed on the ones that are certified organic in the UK. (as we all know they are so far ahead of us in this area)
We call many of our products 'chemical free', as they never receive any extra products on them; just the seed, soil, sun, air, and water. We have a 16 & 17 year old, who are often in the fields picking and eating as things grow. Naturally we are concerned for their health and safety, and would not want anything on the crops that could hurt them. As well, since Steve is primarily out in the fields, he doesn't want to be using anything on a regular basis that could cause long-term health problems for himself either. So while we are minding the health and well being of our family, we're also minding the health and well being of yours too! We grow ethically, sustainably, and smart! Please click on this link to learn more about our farming methods.
Q: I have a few questions about your CSA. Regarding the poultry and beef/pork – do you use any antibiotics or hormones in the feed or given directly to the animals? Do you put antibiotics in the manure for fertilizing? Your website states that you use minimal or no pesticides and some produce has none, which would those be, the majority or a minority?
A: No hormones or antibiotics in feed or given directly. If an animal gets sick..it does happen once and a while we treat the individual, separate it from the group and then once healthy sell it at the local auction. Our customers never get treated animals. As well, nothing is added to our manure.
Pesticide use. We use an Integrated Pest Management system or IPM. What that means is we routinely check (twice weekly) for pest and diseases, chart and monitor levels of such things and then make control decisions if thresholds are met. We use an outside company to scout crops so we have a different set eyes monitoring and giving us our reports twice weekly. By controlling pests based on how many are actually there, and knowing what stage they are in for precise timing, we have reduced pesticide use by 85% on our farm. Conventional farms will spray most crops 6 -12 times. We rarely go more than twice. It's still not zero pesticide use; there are too many thing we can't control. Many diseases and pests come in on the wind or the jet stream. Some years we get them, some years we don't. That's why we monitor to know what's there and when to control it if needed. We are not willing to lose an entire crop that we have invested so much in to. Although we are Transitioning Certified Organic, it is important to note that organic does not mean pesticide free, there are many organic pesticides available to farmers and they are still very toxic poisons. We use much less than many organic farms because of the time and effort we put into our IPM.
In terms of spraying, it varies according to the specific crops and the pests that attack them - every year is different. Generally all the greens, beets, carrots, herbs, chard, parsnip and carrots come through with out anything. This year the cucurbit family crops are staying clean (that's a first!). Potatoes and tomatoes are hit-and-miss depending on the year and the subsequent climactic and pests that year brings
Q: What grade is Cooper's beef?
A: Because our Angus- grade meat is done at a local abattoir, and not a huge packing plant. It is actually not graded (AAA or AA), however it is inspected by a Provincial Inspector.
Grading is the amount of marbling (fat) the meat has and size of the rib eye, in other words, how much protein (Wgrain) the animal has eaten to fatten them. We have our animals pasture and in the winter free-choice high quality hay. We feed a little grain, 10% of total ration for the last 2 months they are with us on the farm. "Grass Fed - Fed 100% grass except for grains at the end of the animal life"
Okay the devil is in the details with this one. The question to ask is how much grain is being fed at the end of the animals life? Most cattle throughout Canada spend the first 2/3 – ¾ of their life on pasture or with access to pasture. The last part or the finishing stage as its called in the industry is where most farms (feedlots) up the amount of grain in the diet to be 90-95% of the total ration. The animal grows very quickly, puts on lots of fat (aiming for that AAA grade) but this much grain actually makes the animal sick as cattle (bovines) stomachs are designed to digest mostly roughage (grass and hay). To get cattle to not be sick with a 90% grain diet, antibiotics and hormones are added to the feed. Cattle are meant to have 90% roughage and no more than 10% grain. 5% grain is better.
"Grass Finished - 100% grass fed for life".
Okay so with this label the animal only gets pasture and likely hay all of its life. There will be some hay fed because here in Ontario we go a good 6 months with no pasture growth (winter) so some stored (hay) will be fed. The animals are quite healthy and the end product (the beef) should have full nutritional value and be quite healthy. The downside, for farmers is that the animal grows a lot slower, it take a lot longer to get the animal to market or processing weight so there is a cost associated with that. For the consumer the beef is not like beef people are used to. It has a different flavour, very little fat (good for ground beef, not so good for grilling steaks) and is quite hard to find. We’ve messed with this way of raising beef, it’s a very acquired taste. The meat has a very strong gamey like taste, and is considerably tougher. The toughness can be lessened by hanging the carcass longer (30 days or more) but there are disadvantages to that too.
The meat you would get in the grocery store that comes from a large feeding operation would have their animals on a 90% grain ration for most of their lives. This is actually not very good for them, by feeding cattle that much grain you make the animals basically sick, this is also why these large operation put antibiotics and hormones in their feed to compensate (we know this as we used to feed cattle commercially), the animals however, gain weight incredibly fast and put on a high level of fat and marbling to meet the higher end of the grading standards. This is your supermarket or commodity beef. Cattle are ruminants, they are designed to eat grass and hay with a little bit of grain so that's how we feed them.
So after all this, if we were to guess the grade (and our butcher has told us on occasion), our beef is fairly lean with just the right amount of fat for flavour - it is a single A. To us this is very tasty meat, easy to cook, and keeps our animals healthy and treats them with respect.
My family has a long history feeding beef cattle. As a kid growing up our farm was a finishing lot, feeding 100’s even 1000’s of cattle on grain rations as I descried above. What I remember the most though is the 2 or 3 head that dad took aside, put on a small pasture behind the house, gave them a little bit of grain, not a lot and high quality grains too. When they needed hay they got the best hay we had. These were the animals we put in our freezer to feed the family. Dad would point at the 100’s in the lot and say those are for making money and then point to the pasture animals (we called them his pets..he named them all…and then reminded us while having dinner that we were eating Harry, Jethro, Todd…) and say these are the animals for the family.
So raising the animals with mostly pasture and high quality hay with a little bit of high quality grains (less than 5% of the ration) was instilled in me at a young age. We are confident that it is the best flavoured beef, the small amount of grain improves the flavour and gives just enough fat for awesome steaks. When beef is fed properly it should be healthy for you..we think we accomplish that. We say all the time that as a society we need to eat less meat…. and eat a higher quality meat. We have higher quality beef.
So there you go. Beef that is fed at least 95% grass and hay with no more than 5% grains is the ideal. 100% grass fed is a little different and more of an acquired taste. Stay away from standard fed feedlot beef if you can…its very hard to do.
Q: What cuts of beef can we expect in our share?
A: The cuts of meat you would receive, are a share of the animal, so you would receive every type of cut over the winter months. The cuts could include a good assortment of steaks, such as sirloin, rib-eye, tenderloin, blade, top sirloin, strip loin, T-bone, flat iron, minute,and prime rib.
There is also ground and stew beef. The roasts include; rump, cross rib, short rib, eye of the round, and sirloin tip, & clod. Lastly you can expect short and beef ribs.
Q: What is your refund policy, should extenuating circumstances require me to withdraw from the program?
A: We grow our crop knowing there are a certain number of customers for our products. When you sign up, you are guaranteeing to take a share of the harvest, so there would need to be extenuating circumstances to allow someone to leave. If this were to happen the refund policy is to deduct the cost of any weeks of product already received, minus a 20% administrative fee.
