#community supported agriculture

Help us bring in Spring by attending one of our April Events!

Community Forklift Garden Party and Sale April 2nd

Good Sense Farm will be offering grow your own mushroom kits, mushroom jerky, fresh mushrooms and raw honey at this day-long celebration of Spring! Join us! More information can be found here.

Farmer’s Markets Beginning April 16th

Good Sense Farm will be vending at several farmer’s market locations throughout DC. Every Saturday, beginning April 16th, we will be tabling at Community Foodworks’ Columbia Heights and Historic Brookland markets. Both run from 9AM-1PM.  

We will also be tabling at Eastern Market every Sunday, beginning April 17th, from 9AM-5PM.

Come by and check out our delicious mushrooms, microgreens and honey! Ongoing information about farmer’s markets can be found here.

Wild Food CSA Pickup April 21st

Don’t miss out on this year’s Wild Food CSA. Sign up to receive a curated assortment of locally grown and foraged food. If you didn’t get to enjoy our March box, now is the perfect opportunity to get in on the action!  Learn more here. 

Stay tuned for updates!

We’ll be at more events throughout Spring and Summer. Hope to see you soon!

Mushroom March! Here comes the fungi!

Happy Spring-to-be, here’s what we’re up to in March.

Wild Food CSA Pickup March 17th

There’s still time to join the Wild Food CSA and to receive a box of carefully curated seasonal delights. Below, you will see how delicious our February box was. Thanks to beloved friend of the farm, Lauren Nixon, you’ll also get to know tons of ways to prepare your wild harvest. Sign up for the March Wild Food Box here.

Fungal Fortune Workshop March 26th-27th

Join us for a two-part workshop on mushroom foraging and cultivation. Day one will be a walk in the woods where participants will learn how to identify wild mushrooms. Day two will be a day-long workshop where participants will learn specific mushroom growing techniques for gardeners and hobbyist. Sign up for the last few workshop slots here. 

Here’s a glimpse of all the fun we’ll be having.

Community Forklift Garden Party and Sale April 2nd

Good Sense Farm will be offering grow your own mushroom kits, mushroom jerky, fresh mushrooms and raw honey at this day-long celebration of Spring! Join us! More information can be found here. 

Hope to see you in March!

February 26th is CSA Signup Day!

What is CSA Signup Day, you ask? It’s our favorite thing, a made up holiday which celebrates farms and they way local food producers enliven the local foodscape and the economy. It seem that around the end of February is the time that most people are signing up for CSAs so why not throw a party?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture which means community members invest directly in their local food producer up front before a seed is in the ground. The customer gets a steady supply of seasonal local veggies at a great price. The reason that this is so important is because farmers invest a lot into producing a highly perishable product and, without buyers up front, can face major challenges at harvest time. They buy seeds, mushroom spawn, baby chicks; they get the truck tires changed; they fix the greenhouse all before you ever set foot out the door to the farmer’s market. CSAs help spread the risks and benefits of agriculture out over the entire community keeping farmers afloat and bellies full.

What better time than now to mention the connection between CSAs and Black History?

That’s right, like so many things, CSAs have a black person to thank for existing. Booker T. Whatley, the American farm genius and professor, created and perfected the model that changed the game for small farmers. In his book “How to Make $100,000 Farming 25 Acres” Whatley presented a blueprint to help the average farmer overcome the common obstacles of a notoriously harsh industry.

“…The clientele membership club is the lifeblood of the [farm]. It enables the farmer to plan production, anticipate demand, and, of course, have a guaranteed market. The farmer has to seek out people—city folks, mostly—to be members of the club. The annual membership fee, $25 per household, gives each of those families the privilege of coming to the farm and harvesting produce at approximately 60 percent of the supermarket price…one of these 25-acre farms should be able to support 1,000 member families, or around 5,000 people…[The farm] should be located within 40 miles of some metropolitan center; that’s pretty much a prerequisite for setting up one of these farms…” Booker T. Whatley

Those are the written words of an Alabama farmer published several decades before the European and Japanese farmers who are often given credit for making CSAs popular in the US…weeeeeeird. No, it’s not weird. It’s systemic but you can change all that!

Here are ways you can celebrate CSA Day’s Black History

1)Join a CSA Operated by a Black Farmer

The Legacy of Booker T. Whatley lives on at these DC area farms and you can join them today:

Good Sense Farm’s Wild Food CSA - Whether you are a CSA verteran or a newbee we highly recommend joining our CSA. The shares are made up of delicious veggies from local farms, cultivated mushrooms and foraged edibles. In yoru box, you get the makings of a delicious journey to the edge of the wilderness and back. Pictured above was the haul from our first month’s share with wintercress, baby greens, several types of mushrooms, heirloom fish peppers and turnips. Recipes included. Join here.

Rainbow Hill Farm CSAFarmer Gale’s CSA is wonderful and we love her strategy. Here’s what makes it unique:

Instead of bogging you down with more of the same old produce, we grow the stuff you won’t find anywhere else (think Asian greens like mizuna and tat soi, turmeric, ginger, and over two dozen varieties of heirloom tomatoes) and our deliveries are always a manageable size. No more waste, no more monotony. And we promise we’ll never leave you hanging with a basket of mystery produce. Each week we’ll share recipes, tips, and tricks to help you make the most out of your bounty.  

Community Farming Alliance Never fear, I have word that the farmers of CFA will announce their CSA plans soon! in the meantime, Three Part Harmony Farm is selling Veggie Shares! Get yours today.

5 a Day CSA - Farmer Vicki makes sure to put the most accessible healthy options in the weekly wellness box she puts together.

*If you are not in the DC area, this list might not be the most helpful but there are some resources out there for how to find farms in your area like Local Harvest. 

2)Read about it!

Natasha Bowens, author of The Color of Food wrote this great article in Mother Earth News about Whatley and they also published his small farm plan here too. Also, if you want to get me his book as a gift, it’s right here on my wishlist.

3)Tell the story to everyone you know!

How you do it is up to you but we all have a duty to set the record straight!

Happy CSA Day!

We’re so excited to be launching a Wild Food CSA this year! We want to introduce more people to wild, foraged mushrooms, herbs and local fruit! We want more people to get fancy in the kitchen at home. This is an opportunity for you to try new things, learn what wild foods really taste like and impress your palate.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture which means community members invest directly in their local food producer. Our Wild Food CSA which combines the superfoods from the farms in our network and gifts from the wild! Wild greens, foraged mushrooms, feral fruit and more.

More info on our website.

We’re keeping the recipes flowing all month. This one comes from Wellness Educator and longtime farm supporter, Lauren Nixon. She took some of our pioppinos, a cornucopia of vegetables from our farm friend Gail at Three Part Harmony and perched them atop a stew with some local grass-fed meatballs. Scrumptious! 

This recipe reminds me of all the things I love about fall. The nip in the air gives us a reason to bundle up, hunker down and cherish the warmth within. I’m doing all three and I think this recipe will help me keep the chill at bay.  

Check out Lauren’s Website here. 

Stay warm.