News
- Heart Beet Gardening's Urban CSA!
- Our exciting new Urban CSA pilot project!
- In the News!
- The T-Shirts Are Here!
Heart Beet Gardening is putting together an urban, neighborhood based CSA in the Larchmont area of Los Angeles. Right now we have transformed a total of about 1000 square feet of front lawn into two mini-farms around the corner form each other. Subscribers to the CSA will receive a weekly basket of uber local, more than organic produce starting in mid-June in exchange for $100 a month and an afternoon of helping set-up one of the two farms.
We still have a few spots available for subscribers-so send us an email for more info! info@heartbeetgardening.com
This is our first season, and we have limited space, but hope to double the project in the fall-check back here for more information soon!
What is a "CSA"?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is essentially a subscription farm. Subscribers commit a certain amount of money at the beginning of the season to support the farmer and the farm, and in return get regular baskets of produce. Traditionally, CSA farms are located outside of cities-we have re-centralized ours into the middle of Los Angeles.
FAQ for Subscribers:
How do I pay? Please send an email to info@heartbeetgardening.com, to reserve your space and then send a deposit of $100 to Heart Beet Gardening. This deposit will cover your first month of veggies. After that each basket is $25, and you can pay for season monthly or weekly.
When will I get my first basket? We expect to be harvesting in mid-June. We'll give you a two week heads-up.
How do I get my basket? We haven't yet chosen a spot for pick-up, however it will be in the neighborhood-either at one of the farm sites, or the home of a subscriber (if you're interested in being that person, let us know!)
What will be in my basket? Each week you'll get a variety of seasonal veggies. In the summer you can expect a couple of tomatoes, lettuce (a head, or leaf) , bell peppers, basil, other herbs, a recipe and occasionally cut flowers.
As always you can call us at 310-460-9365, or email at info@heartbeetgardening.com
We have been planting and growing gardens for two years now and have decided to expand our operations beyond private gardens in the form of a CSA (or Community Supported Agriculture) program. A lot of the biggest supporters of local agriculture don’t have the yard space to have their own gardens, and a lot of people who do have the space don’t necessarily want to commit to putting in a landscaped kitchen garden. What we’re hoping to do is put these two groups together in an urban version of Community Supported Agriculture.
An urban CSA would make truly locally grown produce accessible to people without yards, and make having your own backyard vegetable garden even easier for those who do.
Our Heart Beet CSA idea is a grand experiment and we are hoping to get a trial program started in the spring. To do this we need two kinds of people: subscribers who want to sign up to get a basket of homegrown produce every week at a given price, and landowners who want to have their own vegetable gardens, but are willing to dedicate more space than they need to feed their own household.
Being a landowner participant in the CSA would be a great choice for households with lots of yard space and an interest in being able to pick fresh veggies from your yard, who are also willing to let us make decisions about what gets planted, and keep their gardens truly simple (no raised beds, formal pathways, etc.). There would be some kind of startup and weekly cost for landowners, but the nature of the program would make it much less than what it costs for us to design, build, and maintain a private garden. The benefits of participation would be bounteous homegrown produce at a low cost, and the knowledge that your garden is feeding not only you and your family, but other CSA subscribers who don't have yards of their own.
Subscribers would get all the benefits of a normal CSA, plus the knowledge that their produce baskets are truly local, the vegetables coming from a sampling of Los Angeles gardens.
If you think you might want to participate in our revolutionary trial CSA this spring, please let us know ASAP! We are looking for ten potential subscribers-this can be anyone, but our preference will be for apartment dwellers and others who really can’t grow their own produce. For landowners, we are looking for people who can dedicate a roughly 200 square feet (equivalent to a 14ft by 14ft square) section of their yard with accessible irrigation to the CSA garden. If you are interested please email info@heartbeetgardening.com, and we will let you know what we are thinking in terms of rates and what we would expect from you.
Check out the article about Heart Beet Gardening at www.ecostiletto.com.
Order your first edition Heart Beet Gardening t-shirt and proclaim to the world that
“I Love Gardening”. They’re comfy to garden in and stylish enough to wear out of
the garden too!
size xs-xl: $17 each - on organic cotton of course!
To Order: send a check payable to Heart Beet Gardening to:
Heart Beet Gardening
8438 Kirkwood Drive
Los Angeles CA 90046
**Also be sure to include the number of shirts, sizes and your return address**