Important Announcement for All Farmshare Customers

Great news for all our farmshare members!  Stone Soup Farm has joined forces with The Kitchen Garden in Sunderland, MA.  We are teaming up to provide a better product for our customers and increased stability for ourselves.   They had a very similar farm to Stone Soup, but with more of an emphasis on cooking really incredible meals.  Bring that to Stone Soup's emphasis on community and we think we have a winning combo.  

Click here for our 2012 Farmshare signup form

These are exciting times and we look forward to the new options that we each bring to the table.  From now on, we have registered as The Kitchen Garden, LLC, and will go by that name.  Why not keep the name Stone Soup?  The Kitchen Garden has invested more over time in their farmers markets and recognition there.  Stone Soup, being primarily CSA oriented, has a more direct line of communication with our customers (you), and we thought it would be much easier to explain this shift to you rather than a market customer.  Although it is sad to lose our previous name, one name had to change, we decided as a team we should become The Kitchen Garden.  Think of it like our farms are getting married, and one of us changed our last name.  Except we didn't get rings. (maybe we should? onion rings?)  

            

What does this mean for you?

• All our previous CSA members, sites, and shares will remain intact.  I, Jarrett, will continue on as production manager of the farm, so you should expect roughly the same share contents as previously.  We have a much bigger land base now, and hopefully we’ll be able to use that to produce even more reliable and better shares for our members.  In addition, The Kitchen Garden has brought us a couple new share options (see below)
• Your account and what you paid, as well as your subscription to our news feed, will be transferred, you don't need to do anything, but any remaining payments can be made out to "The Kitchen Garden", whenever you make them.
• All our previous contact information, like phone, email, etc, will be valid for the year. 
• Fruit Shares!  We will be offering a deluxe option of locally grown fruit with your shares. Expect strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, and more!  These will come alongside the veggie shares each week, much like the egg share option.  Anyone can sign up; they are $150 and run during the main summer season (June-Oct).  Email the farm to sign up for a fruit share if you've already filled out our signup form.
• Market Shares.  The Kitchen Garden has a bunch of farmers markets that we will be doing around western MA.   Members can choose to join at the Small Share or Full Share levels. $325 gets you an account for $350 worth of veggies from our farmers market stand. $550 gets you an account for $600. Market Share is the most user-friendly, flexible way to join a CSA in the Pioneer Valley. Come to any of our 4 weekly farmers’ market locations (Springfield Tuesday, Amherst Wednesday, or Northampton and Greenfield Saturday) and pick out whatever you want. If you miss a week or go away on vacation, you miss nothing. You can spend $5 one week and $40 the next if you like, it’s up to you.

We really believe this is for the best and that everyone will be better off for it, not just ourselves, but all our members too!  This is a really big shift for us, as we have really thrown in our chips together on this bigger farm.  Please bear with us as we make some adjustments.  We also REALLY welcome input and questions from you, as this can be a confusing process, and I hope to bring everyone through this transition smoothly. 

Best wishes and see you soon,

-Jarrett at The Kitchen Garden 

Click here for our 2012 Farmshare signup form