Red Barn Farms now taking applications for 2013 food club

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

For 2013, Red Barn Farms will again be conducting its food club in which participants can reserve full shares or half shares for the entire 12 months of the year or market shares that last for the length of the farmer's market season.

Red Barn Farms, which is run by the Holton family, had the goal of creating a food club from the beginning. Community members will again have the opportunity to choose a "club" of their choice and pre-pay for all of their food for a year.

"The CSA concept has been around for a long time," explained owner Tom Holton. "We knew from the beginning that we wanted to go this direction but needed to build our customer base and prove the quality of our products."

The CSA concept, also known as Community Supported Agriculture, has been around since the 1980s. It was the many benefits received from this concept, such as quality and price savings that drew the Holton family to make the decision.

The 2013 Food Club will have several options such as a chicken club, egg club, poultry club, meat lovers, vegetable club and several others.

Prices range from $150 for the Egg Club to $1,350 for the Family Club, which includes enough meat, eggs, a Thanksgiving turkey and vegetables for an entire year to feed a family.

Food Club members will sign up for the one club they would like to participate in, and depending on the club, they will receive products weekly or monthly.

The Food Club will also be offering a Turkey Club, which allows the community to prepay for their Thanksgiving turkey, which is $40.

"Our 2012 food clubs were a bigger success than we could have ever dreamed. Club members do get special perks like free farm visits, opportunities for bulk veggies for canning and there are certain meat products we only sell to club members," Holton said.

"There is one other thing that we have started doing this year-- we are really encouraging people to like us on our Facebook page. We use social media to announce special sales or events on the farm. Like last weekend we gave people $5 off gift certificates."

All produce is raised organically without the use of any chemicals. The Holton family will be putting in more than 60 raised beds this spring, which will include a wide selection of vegetables, fruits, herbs and cut flowers.

It is one of the goals of the Red Barn Farm to eventually only cater to food club members, to have a closed network of people supporting the farm, having one large community committed to each other.

Red Barn Farm will still be offering its products at the farm as well as the local farmers market for those not interested in signing up for the Food Club.

For more information or to sign up for the Food Club visit www.redbarnfamily.com. Applications are due by Jan. 10.

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