Welcome to the Great River CSA!

2012 is our 4th year!! We've learned a lot and want to thank our members for joining us in building this community relationship and to welcome new members on this journey.

We are getting ready for the 2012 summer season and have started to offer Veggie, Chicken and Egg Shares. We will offer Thanksgiving Turkeys shares at a later date. So, keep your eyes and ears open! Please contact me at: kate@greatrivercsa.org and let me know that you want to be on our mailing list.


What is Great River CSA?

Great River CSA is made up of three family farms: Terripin Farm, Feiner Gardens, and Grassy Hill Farm.

Terripin Farms is a family farm operated by Jessica and Brad Whiston. Jess and Brad started farming in 2006 with a push tiller. They currently grow on twelve acres, three of which are in cover crops. They provide the vegetables and some fruit. This year they moved to the farm!!

Feiner Gardens is operated by Kate and Jim Daniels. They cultivate a variety of naturally grown herbs and garlic. They purchased a green house which fell due to snow weight in the January 2011 snow storm. They got a new one and it is finally got it up. Jim planted some grapes and bought 5 alpacas and a llama. As the gardens develop, they hope to provide a wide variety of variety of heirloom herbs, vegetables, fruit, flowers, and specialty crops such as hops.

Grassy Hill Farm is operated by the Hochstetlers: Miriam, Jacob and their children. They are offering chickens, eggs, and turkeys for our Great River CSA. They completed the switch to 100% organic and non-GMO feed which they grow themselves on the farm.


How does the CSA work?

Members purchase a share in advance and then receive a basket of fresh, local, and in season produce, meat or eggs throughout the season. Our summer season usually runs from June through September. We also offer Thanksgiving Turkey Shares (common and Heritage) the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and Winter Shares of chickens and eggs from December to May. Our current members will have 1st choice on the share options.


Summer shares (June 6th through October 3rd)

What can I expect in my basket?

For the summer chicken share, every other week we offer approximately 3.5 pound chickens, plucked, quickly frozen, and packaged in a plastic bag with the giblets, heart, and liver inside the chicken. You may order as many as you like on the offered dates.

For the summer egg share, every other week we offered 2 dozen fresh brown eggs of various sizes.

For the vegetable share, each week you can expect a wide variety of in-season, delicious, fresh vegetables and herbs. One full share will contain enough to feed a family of 4 each week. The half share will contain enought to feed 2 people.

Where will I pick up my basket?

We have two pick-up locations for summer shares:

On-site pick-up - Wednesday evenings between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. at Feiner Gardens (6426 Church Hills Road, Quincy, IL – call or email us for directions). While there, you are invited to walk around the gardens and the pond and pick up “extras” when they are available.

In-town delivery - Wednesday afternoons between 4:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the side entrance of the Unitarian Universalist Church (1479 Hampshire Street).

You are always welcome to come to the farm on Wednesdays between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to pick up extras or feed the alpacas and llama.


How much does it cost?

Summer Egg Share: $54.00 for 18 dozen eggs ($3 per dozen); 2 dozen eggs delivered every 2 weeks. (The delivery dates are: June 1st, 15th and 29th, July 13th, and 27th, August 10th and 24th, September 7th and 21st.)

Summer Chicken Share: $8.75 per chicken available every 2 weeks. Delivery dates are the same as the egg shares.

Vegetable shares: A full share is $450. This provides enough produce for a family of 4 or two hungry vegetarian over the 18 week season. A 1/2 share option costs $340.

2011 Winter Egg Share: $36.00 for 12 dozen eggs ($3 per dozen); 2 dozen eggs once a month. (The delivery dates are: December 14, 2011, January 11, 2012, February 8, March 7, April 4, and May 2.)

2011 Winter Chicken Share: $99.00 for 12 chickens ($8.25 per chicken); 2 chickens once a month. Delivery dates are the same as the egg shares.


How many shares are available?

Membership enrollment is accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.


When does the summer season start and end in 2012?

The summer share pick-up day is every Wednesday, from June 6th through October 3rd, 2011. The 4th of July falls on a Wednesday, so we will have the pick-up on Tuesday, July 3rd.

Pick-up for the egg shares are every other week, starting June 6th, 2012. The dates are as follows:

June 6th
June 20th
July 3rd
July 18th
August 1st
August 15th
August 29th
September 12th
September 26th.

Thanksgiving Turkey Shares

For the Thanksgiving turkey share, one fresh turkey ready for pick-up just in time for thanksgiving. Available at: 6426 Church Hills Road on Tuesday, November 2oth from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. We will send out an email regarding cost. We are looking at a per pound share with small, medium and large options.

We aren't sure we'll offer the heritage breed.
Heritage birds are also natural birds, not hybrid. They can naturally reproduce and don't have to be artificially inseminated. The common white broad breasted turkey was bred for its quick feed to meat conversion. From what I've been told, for this reason they often are very top heavy and become lame more easily and cannot reproduce. These birds are getting more rare and raising them helps to increase genetic diversity.

They do cost more. The poults (baby turkeys) cost about 4 times as much. They also have a lower survival rate, so not as many make it to full maturity. It takes more feed to convert to pounds on the bird and it takes about 2 months longer to raise them to maturity.


Winter Shares (December through May)

For the Winter Egg Share, once per month we offer 2 dozen farm fresh eggs. The Hochstetlers don't use any antibiotics and they grow their own feed from non-GMO corn and beans with no chemical pesticides, herbicides, nor fertilizers.

For the Winter Chicken Share, once a month we offer
two approximately 3.5 pound chickens, plucked, quickly frozen, and packaged in a plastic bag with the giblets, heart, and liver inside the chicken.
The Hochstetlers don't use any antibiotics and they grow their own feed from non-GMO corn and beans with no chemical pesticides, herbicides, nor fertilizers.

Winter Shares are available at: 6426 Church Hills Road, Quincy, IL 62305. Pick-up dates are:

February 8, 2012
March 7, 2012
April 4, 2012
May 2, 2012

How do I become a member?

For more information, contact Kate Daniels at (217)440-7608 or kate@greatrivercsa.org. Or check out the Membership Information and Membership Agreement.

It is customary for members of a CSA to pay for their shares in advance. This enables the growers to buy seed and equipment before the season begins, thus reducing the burden of up-front costs for the grower. In order to guarantee your participation in our 2011 season, the signed membership agreement and your payment must be returned to us as soon as you are ready to commit.

March 19, 2009

Starting Up the Tiller; Asparagus Beds

From Feiner Gardens:

What a beautiful day it is today!  I started the day walking my daughter to the end of our driveway to catch the bus at 7:30 a.m. this morning.  We both paused to feel the gentle northern breeze; the bus came too quickly.  She is gone and now to start the day.

Today, I will attempt to put together our new tiller.  It is a Troy-bilt Pony ES.  Don't ask me anything more, I'm really not a machine person.  Jim bought it for me for Valentine's Day.  In my best Mae West voice, I like to tell people: "It's a cherry red, 22-inch, electric start, Troy-bilt tiller."

So, the plan is to put the tiller together and try it out on the asparagus bed.  We will be planting all male plants as they are more productive.  We received some from our friends at the Barefoot Gardens CSA in Macomb, IL.  Their gardens are all naturally-grown products.  We will also plant new crowns from an organically certified seed company.

Although we will have asparagus in the baskets this year, our asparagus will not be ready.  We hope next year, or the year after, we will have our own naturally-grown asparagus.  We had the soil tested and it is a bit acidic for asparagus, so we will add some ash to bring down the acidity.  As for fertilizer, we have 3 horses that pretty much are just big dogs.  Time to put them to use...we will use their composted manure.

That's probably as much as I can accomplish today.  Talk to you later...Farmer Kate.

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