Central michigan farm & garden craigslist by owner

The 2016 Central Michigan CSA Farm membership is now open and in full swing for the upcoming harvest season. Once again the CSA will be available in Midland MI, Mount Pleasant MI, Clare, Alma and Gladwin MI. You can find the details for the CSA program on the “2016 CSA Shares Sign Up Page” in the navigation bar or follow this link: Central Michigan CSA Farm

Table of Contents Show

CSA’s in Michigan are Growing
Midland MI CSA Pick Up
Mt. Pleasant MI CSA Pick Up
Gladwin MI CSA Pick Up
Clare MI CSA Pick Up
CSA Improvements and Changes from Last Year
CSA Changes for the 2015 CSA Season
Where is the best farm land in Michigan?
What is the most profitable crop to grow in Michigan?
What is Michigan's largest crop?
Does Michigan have good farm land?

We will also be offering limited Farm Fresh Egg shares to our members. There is a box for that in the membership form near the bottom of the page. We will also have some

eggs for sale as they come available. The dates, times and locations of the CSA shares can also be found on the “2016 CSA Shares Sign Up” page. If you should have any questions, just send a note via the contact form on the top right corner of this website.

The Central Michigan CSA

We expect to feed about 200 hundred families in the Mid Michigan area this year through the CSA program, which is our version of a Farm Co-Op. This will be our 7th year operating the CSA program. You can learn more about he farm, how we grow, and what the CSA is all about on the page listed above. We also have an open air farm market on Old 27 on the way to Jay’s Sporting goods with is just north of Clare. If you have any questions you’d like answered right away, feel free to call me directly: My phone number is 989-284-8251 ~ if I don’t answer I can usually call back within a few minutes so just leave a message.

Accepting New CSA Members

We estimate that we will be accepting around 30 new members this year and this will be first come first serve so get signed up and we will see you in the spring. We are hoping for a good spring and an early start date. The CSA last between 18-20 weeks. Last year we were able to start the second week of June and had a nice mix of produce for our first few shares. The program goes into and some years all the way thru October, depending on when we can get started.

We appreciate the opportunity to grow your families food.

Thank You,

J.Crawford

We’ve been busy getting our seed orders in and working on our plans for the upcoming CSA season. I’ve updated the CSA Membership form for the year and made a few

changes to the program based on the end of the year member survey our members filled out. The prices will be the same as last year and the share options will remain mostly the same with one exception being a 1/4 premium share. We are currently enrolling new members for each of our pick up locations which are Midland MI, Mt. Pleasant MI, Clare MI, Gladwin MI, and Alma MI. We are well ahead of last year in terms of new members who have signed up already which is good. I always try to have some shares available for those who end up wanting to join later, even after pick up’s start, but it looks like we may actually meet our membership goal for the year early. To sign up for the upcoming season and purchase a share in the Central Michigan CSA you can visit the CSA page now. Follow this link to the CSA page: Central Michigan CSA Farm, The membership form is near the bottom of the page, fill it out and hit submit. The payment information is listed on and near the form. We accept checks, PayPal, and credit cards over the phone.

CSA’s in Michigan are Growing

Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSA’s) are becoming more and more popular in the U.S. and I’ve noticed considerable new CSA Farm growth in Michigan

over the last few years. I’ve also noticed that we have more new members who have tried other CSA’s in the past. Several have been CSA members in other states or towns and are moving to the area, part of their re-locating is to find a CSA farmer. Others are looking for a CSA that might be a better fit for their family. I’ve also notice that many, if not most, of the new members are finding our CSA because a friend has told them about us. I really appreciate those of you who have referred us to a friend. This is by far the best way for us to acquire new members, they are some of our most satisfied CSA members as they have already gotten information from you about how our program operates. So, again, I appreciate you sharing your CSA experience with your friends and family!

This season we will be offering four pick up locations just like last year. Each location will be the same as it was last year and the pick up days will also remain the same. We are open to adding other locations and we keep that option open to accommodate new opportunities to get our home grown produce onto more dinner tables. We are currently planning on 200 members and are growing enough produce

for closer to 300. We hope to have more “extra” produce this year to offer for sale at local farmers markets where we meet our members. Last year wasn’t the best year in terms of weather conditions, while our crops did well, we had more demand than we had supply. You can find all the information for the Central Michigan CSA Farmon our CSA page. The membership form is near the bottom of the page and you can go ahead and call anytime if you have questions. Below are the pick up locations, days, and times where we meet members for share pick ups.

Midland MI CSA Pick Up

We meet our Midland CSA members to give them their shares at the Midland Farmers Market by the Tridge during the Wednesday farmers market. We arrive between 6:30 and 7:00 am and we stay until the market is over at 12:00. In addition to our members shares, we also bring a good mix and quantity of extra fruits and veggies for the members who have purchased a “Market Style Share”. I expect the Midland CSA drop off to start around the end of May along with each of the other CSA pick up locations.

Mt. Pleasant MI CSA Pick Up

Our Mt. Pleasant CSA members meet us on Thursdays at the Mt. Pleasant Farmers Market in Island Park to pick up there shares. We arrive at 7:00 am and we stay until 1:00 or so. In addition to your weekly shares we will also have a good selection of additional produce for the Market Share Members and others.

Gladwin MI CSA Pick Up

Our Gladwin CSA members on Saturday mornings in Gladwin at the Gladwin Farmers Market behind the historical village right in the town of Gladwin. We arrive at the Gladwin market around 7 am and stay until 1pm. The market actually opens at 9 am. We will also be bringing a good selection and quality of fresh produce for our market share members and our customers at the Saturday morning market.

Clare MI CSA Pick Up

Our Clare CSA members pick up their weekly CSA shares right at our farm stand which is just north of Clare on the way to Jays Sporting goods. Last year we meet the Clare members on Fridays, though later in the season members can pick up their shares most any day. We arrive at the Clare market around 10 am and we are there everyday of the week.

Over the years I have shared a lot of information about our homegrown produce, our farm and our CSA program. The CSA page is quite long, but I encourage you to read through it and learn as much as you can about CSA programs and how we run ours. You can spend some time here on this website and learn more about the food we grow, how we grow it and what we are up too. Thanks again for supporting the Central Michigan CSA!

I appreciate the opportunity to grow your families food!

J. Crawford

989-284-8251

Well it’s mid December and things are mostly tucked in and put away for the winter ahead. It seems like each year I spend a couple weeks in December going over the previous CSA season to get new ideas, make improvements, and establish priorities for the season to come. I’m a fan of efficiency and productive, so it’s great to see how insight and changes from last year impacted our members and improved the CSA this season. The “End of the Year Survey” has been a great tool for members to share there experience and suggest changes. A few members email me throughout the season or call. And then others mention ideas at the weekly drop offs. Member feedback, by far, provides the most ideas that we can actually implement and improve the program. I’ve recent updated the CSA page and membership form if you would like to renew your membership for the 2015 CSA the membership form is up.

CSA Improvements and Changes from Last Year

There were several good ideas we were able to implement this year that started as suggestions from our CSA members last year. The top complaint last year was lack of communication. This was because there were two drop offs we cancelled or rescheduled. This problem was solved by not rescheduling any of the drop offs due to weather. If bad weather was coming we picked the night before or just left and item out if it couldn’t be harvested in the rain. Last year I would send a reminder text to the members who where picking up their food that day, some people didn’t get the text, didn’t use texting, and others I didn’t have a number for. So this year we just didn’t do the reminder text, and it went great. Another suggestion we got was to set up in the same location each week so members could find us easier, we were able to work with the market masters and get a spot we could count on every week. This was an easy fix and our members, or someone they sent for pick up, were able to find us each week.

Another concern we received from a few members last year was that the size (and cost of shares) be more distinct. Sometimes the full share didn’t seem to be double that of the 1/2 share, so we made some changes how we packaged the weekly shares and that solved that problem. Many of the other suggestion we got from the CSA members survey were for specific kinds of produce and getting either more or less of some items. We tried to communicate to people this year that they could swap out stuff or decline items they really didn’t like or plan on eating.

CSA Changes for the 2015 CSA Season

The suggestions and feedback we received this year from the end of the season survey seemed to focus mainly on the actual produce. A couple people mentioned the felt

they got too much of certain items. Zucchini and yellow squash and kale seemed the top items that people felt could be dialed back some. I think the most productive way to deal with this is to enlarge the variety of the weekly share, I’m working on that currently. The early season drop offs are the most challenging as far as variety is concerned, but there is room for improvement. Several people mentioned they would like to see more greens, especially lettuce. We increased our lettuce planting a lot this year, but I don’t really feel it was enough. Lettuce is a good early season crop so I’ll focus on that more this coming year for sure. A couple people also asked about carrots, which I have a difficult time with. One idea I have for carrots is to grow them in a spot more suitable for root crops. They just don’t do well at all in our current fields.

Another common suggestion/complaint that came up this year was not being able to eat all of the items. Several people didn’t like composting veggies each week. I’ve tried to accommodate this issue by offering different share sizes, but apparently it still needs work. I’ll be giving this more thought over the next couple months and should be able to work it out. I always as members if they feel like they received a good value in terms of money spent, 95% of those who filled out the survey did. We had a couple crops that didn’t do well this year, basil was one of them. Herbs in general need more work and the plan is to focus on that early in March. There are several perennial herbs and I’ve found a source to get those in the ground early spring. We are planning on growing the annual herbs in containers this year along with companion planting them in with our heirloom tomatoes which provide a light shade and protection from the winds. This makes the herbs (and greens) much more tender and keeps them from growing to fast or “bolting”.

Where is the best farm land in Michigan?

The locations of the better agricultural communities are as follows: Luce County, around Newberry; Mackinac County, around Engadine; Schoolcraft County, around Cooks and in the Garden Peninsula; Marquette County, around Skandia and Champion; Dickinson County, around Iron Mountain; Iron County, the Iron River-Crystal ...

What is the most profitable crop to grow in Michigan?

Apples are one of the largest and most valuable fruit crops grown in Michigan. In 2018, 1.050 billion pounds of apples were harvested in Michigan, ranking third in the nation. About 50 percent of the harvest was used for processing.

What is Michigan's largest crop?

2021 STATE AGRICULTURE OVERVIEW.

Does Michigan have good farm land?

Michigan farming not only provides consumers with food and fiber on nearly 10 million acres of farmland, but it also lays the foundation for a dynamic food and agriculture industry, making it one of our state's critical economic drivers, substantially contributing to our state's economy each year.