News
Greetings CSAers!
In case you were not aware, in a mere 3 weeks, our CSA harvest begins. The garden and orchard are looking in great shape to start the year. With our vegetables, plenty is growing right now, including: kale, broccoli, swiss chard, beets, cauliflower, and more. And after surviving wacky March and April weather, our fruit trees our set to have a really nice year. You can likely expect a bit of early fruit in your first share.
Just to make sure we have it right: your scheduled pickup location with us is %%pickup-title%% and your chosen share options are %%member-types-text%%. Let us know if this is incorrect.
So let’s recap how this is all going to work. We offer 4 pickups this year, all on Tuesday:
- Farm Pickup: Your share will be available beginning at 9am on Tuesdays. We will store your goods in a marked crate inside our walk in cooler. We encourage you to help yourself to your share, please making sure to close and cooler doors. You can find directions to the farm on the website. You are welcome to come by the farm anytime throughout the day or evening (at a reasonable time) to get your share.
- Capitol Hill, DC: Join us for a time of merriment each Tuesday beginning June 12th at the house of Raleigh Clemens and her gang. We will be present most weeks to hand deliver your CSA and discuss farming, what’s in the box, and perhaps even offer some cooking demos. Pickup will be available from 4:30pm – 7pm. Because this is a private residence, please make sure to set aside time in your schedule to pick up on time. 600 11th St NE
- Silver Spring, MD: Pickup your share at the Mehring’s house on Forest Glen Rd in Silver Spring. Pickup will go from 2pm until 8pm. Share can be found nestled just inside the garage, labeled with your name.
- Bethesda, MD – Long& Foster Office: This pickup is for Long&Foster employees ONLY. Pickup will be available beginning at 10:30am just outside of Regina’s office. Any share not picked up by the end of the office day will be put in the storage room.
Each share will include a letter including what’s going on at the farm, a list of what’s in the box, and a recipe. We will also email this letter to you (and may switch to only emails after the first few weeks). Please keep in mind that you can find additional farm recipes on our website.
The produce will arrive in an insulated grocery tote bag, lining a small wooden crate. We recommend you take both the bag and the crate with you for protection of your food. Please return these items the following week so that we can reuse them (they are expensive). We did not collect a deposit on any of this stuff because frankly dealing with deposits is annoying. Also, if you have yet to pay for your share, please do that ASAP. Your current balance is %%member-balance%%.
My personal contact info for all of this is:
Shawn Eubank
757 642 2877
Don’t hesitate to call/email me if you have any questions. Thank you for all your support and we are looking forward to a great year!
See you all on June 12th!
Shawn, McCleaf’s Orchard
We're all very excited here to be a part of a new market this year at the University of Maryland, College Park. The market will take place on Wednesday beginning May 2nd from Noon - 4pm at Cole Field House.
We love interacting with students and are confident this will be a wonderful time each and every week. If you're in the area, please come out and see us!
Additional information for the market can be found here.
Shawn
We are excited publish our line of processed goods online today! Don't be scared off by that word "processed." We use our own fruits (or honey) at the peak of season when they are bursting with flavor, and preserve them into different products like apple sauce, fuji juice, and more. We also offer canned peaches and our wildflower honey. This allows you (and us!) to enjoy our products year-round or add to your shopping experiece by picking up one of these goodies along with your fruits and vegetables. Thanks for the support!
Shawn
This year, McCleaf's Orchard is elated to annouce its innaugural CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. Over the past ten years, we have slowly made a shift from an all processing grower (meaning our fruit goes into apple sauce, apple juice, etc.) to a primarily "direct-to-consumer" and fresh fruit vendor (meaning we market our own products, get to meet with our fantastic customers, and put a huge emphasis on quality). Up until this point, 
we have accomplished this mainly through farmer's markets in the DC and Baltimore area. They have served us very well and we continue to expand and grow on this front.
But, this year, we are taking our desire to share with our consumers one step further by initiating our CSA program. For the first time, we are offering a subscription to our delicious fruits and vegetables. This is the best opportunity to know your farmer and take advantage of fresh produce and a very reasonable cost. By signing up to participate, you provide us with funds when we are incurring our most expenses and better help us project what to expect for the coming year. In turn, you will be rewarded with a lovely share of our farm's fruits and vegetables each week during the summer for a total of 15 weeks. We offer a pickup option at the farm here in Biglerville or delivery to several locations in the DC area.
We are committed through our CSA to close the gap between farmer and consumer. And particulary for our CSA customers, we encourage you to visit the farm so we can proudly show you where your food is coming from. Please consider joining us as we embark on an exciting year! All details for our CSA can be found here.
Eat well this season!
Shawn Eubank, Manager
McCleaf's Orchard
Dear friends,
Another year is just beginning and we are in antipication for what's ahead. This off season, Shawn Eubank, formerly of Rocklands Farm, joined our team to manage our vegetable operations and boost the marketing side of the farm. You'll be sure to see Shawn around at markets...please give him a thumbs up. Welcome aboard!
As you can see with this new website, we are continually looking for ways to improve the farm, all with the mission to serve our customers the highest quality produce straight from our land to your table.
More updates to come soon...so please keep up to date with all that is happening at McCleaf's Orchard!
