Our farm community is small and a beautiful result is that when we write this note we see YOUR face! It brings us so much joy and wholeness to provision folks whose nourishment goals are known to us. Your stories help shape and reinforce our practices. Simultaneously we appreciate your solidarity with our farm and team. Reciprocal appreciation is itself a regenerative force and renewable energy!
As a response to Coronavirus we are pivoting to new ways of shopping and provisioning for this time. Green Mountain Girls Farm is not only acting in solidarity with global efforts to #flattenthecurve, we are limiting points of contact for our farm staff and food so we can provision on resiliently through the ongoing pandemic. And most immediately we hope we are creating as safe a way as possible for farm shoppers with extra vulnerabilities to continue to access farm food as part of their work towards vitality.
New Ordering & Shopping How-Tos
Farm share members and all who shop retail at our farm will now access our free choice, full diet, 7am-7pm 365 days/year farm fresh food by placing an order and we will pack your shopping list for you, instead of self-serving in our farmstand. Since we’ve already done this for past mud seasons we have a bit of a system established (see below). We welcome questions and suggestions as we all accommodate rapid change and uncertainty.
Long term we look forward to having folks back to gathering in our farmstand sharing stories, recipes and laughs while self-serve shopping at the farm!
We welcome you to order in any way that best suits you and your needs. (See Below for logistics)
Near neighbors with multiple stops per week are welcome to keep this cadence! Regular weekly folks are welcome to keep that same flow. And bulk stocking up is also fine and encouraged! Don’t be shy to stock up on storage vegetables (have a look at the vitamin C stats for cabbage!), frozen and canned goods. Most items are in good supply as we restocked from our freezer warehouse pallets yesterday. Some pork cuts will be replenished soon as we brought 8 pigs to Royal Butcher this week and had sent product to the Green Mountain Smokehouse earlier in the month.
Our Farm Practices/Protocols
Our farm team is always supported to stay home if sick and we have increased their paid sick time. As a team we have committed to communicate about our perceived exposure and we are assigning tasks in accordance. We are lucky to be able to support everyone with clear options to work from home (we are lucky to be amidst a project to document our farm practices). Our general food safety practices are robust AND we have increased sanitation protocols in the farmstand. We are grateful to UVM Extension Produce Safety Team, VT Agency of Agriculture’s Produce Program & NOFA VT for robust ongoing support to farms in this domain. And a shout out to Lisa Chase and UVM Extension’s Agritourism work which inspired our very professional hand washing station.
Logistics for Food pickups/deliveries
How to Place your order
We will update the check out sheet weekly on our website, in addition to the “What’s available” part of the website so you know what we have. Then you have a few options, you can:
- Type up your order & email it to us, feel free to use any descriptive terms for sizes, etc;
- Fill in a check out sheet and email it; OR
- If you have questions about the size, supply or details of any of our products, feel free to call and at that point you could dictate an order to us.
- Email orders to: orders@eatstayfarm.com and let us know your preferred pick-up location and time
How to Pay for your Farm Food
- Members: nothing changes, you are on account & we will send your monthly statement as usual
- Retail Shoppers: we can send you an invoice via Square to pay via credit card or send you the total so you can leave cash or a check when you pick-up your order
- For regular retail shoppers, we can also put you on an account and invoice you monthly when we do our member statements
- And if you want to become a farmshare member, details are on our website
Pick up options Off-farm (at least this week)
- End of Loop Road: Thursday 5-6 pm or by request earlier or later
Other days by request – easiest time M-F is either around 8 am or 4:30 pm (when staff are shuttling in/out) but other times are possible. - Downtown Northfield, at the Green: For this week, we will try these two times but are open to what works for folks.
- Sunday, 3/15, 3:00 pm
- Tuesday, 3/17, 5:00 pm
- Montpelier M-F Between 4 & 5 (or so)pm, drop location TBD if just a few can be dropped at home or work locations as we have staff who live in Montpelier.
- Existing Home Deliveries: Same as usual
- Home Deliveries in the nearish zone (Randolph-Montpelier) we are happy to arrange home deliveries for a small fee to cover time/travel and depending on what happens in coming weeks, we may expand those offers.
On-Farm Pick ups: For those with good road clearance
We will still pack your order, which we can do any day. Email us your order and your preferred pick-up time and we will confirm we can have your order ready at that point and we will have your order packed and in a box outside the farmstand door where you can pick it up.
We are grateful to be in community with you, learning and striving for wellness and well-being. Let us know how we can best serve you and learn together!
