SWEETER SONG FARM

a Certified Organic CSA
4955 S. Schomberg Rd.
Cedar, Michigan 49621
231-228-7301

One premium share

18 weeks

$470 (additional 10% for Traverse City delivery)

We work with a Core Group of our shareholders to set our price each year.  They decided to set the 2012 price at $470 in an effort to stay affordable but keep up with rising costs.  Traverse City pick-up will be $517. 6 shares in exchange for work are also available. These would require 60 hours of work in exchange for the 18 weeks of pick-ups. We also sponsor four families a year with their fees waived.  If you know of anyone who might benefit from these opportunities, let us know.

Thank you for your interest in becoming a shareholder at Sweeter Song Farm. We are a CSA farm. That means that each spring our shareholders pay for their share up front for 18 weeks of produce during the growing season. At the height of the season, the share is intended to be enough to feed 2 to 3 vegetarians, or a family of four. There are no work requirements except for coming out each week during the season and packing your basket, or if you choose, picking up your produce at our Traverse City pickup locations. 

A share provides a wide variety of vegetables weekly for eighteen weeks.  Also included in the share is some fruit including strawberries, melons, grapes, and pears.  Our abundant herb gardens, with both annual and perennial herbs, are near the pickup area and we encourage you to snip what you can use each week as part of your share.  Finally, we have flower beds from which you may purchase a u-pick option or a pre-made bouquet.  (Please go to "What we grow and when" or "Typical week's produce basket" for detailed information.)

In addition to the food we grow, we are coordinating with other local farms to provide a variety of other products. The offerings are either directly grown in the area or are connected closely with a local food producer. Among the products we expect to have available this year are shiitake mushrooms, eggs, non-hormone chickens, free-range beef, maple syrup, organic apples, and organic fair-trade coffee. These items are ordered on a week-to-week basis and paid for on delivery on pick-up days.  This has become a rewarding and tasty way to build stronger networks between our shareholders and other local food producers.

We thought you might like some of the end of the year information we share with our members. This might help you in your decision as to whether our CSA is right for you. In the 2011 growing season, everyone received a total weight of approximately 199 pounds of food, with a total market value of $552.00.  Total harvest for the farm for the year was 39,000 pounds of food. We are working very hard to increase our production and still have a ways to go.  We are focusing much of our time and resources on soil building and weed management. Besides being a sandy loam, the soil on this old farm is very depleted but we are working hard to get it more into balance. Because we use organic methods, we focus on building the soil’s health, rather than dumping on fertilizer. Soil improvement takes more time, but is a sustainable practice, contributes to health of the environment, and, not incidentally, produces better tasting and more healthful vegetables and fruit.

Shareholders Bronwyn Jones and Joe VanderMeulen are continuing to develop and grow the Fresh Food Partnership to connect farmers and food pantries in the Grand Traverse region to provide food for the hungry. We sell and donate food to this program.  Please click on the name and check it out. Consider a donation. They will be glad to talk to you about this project when they see you here on the farm (or elsewhere). The seed for this wonderful effort germinated here on the farm several years ago as Bronwyn handled the CSA tasks of finding a family to give a share to and distributing extra produce to food pantries. We are excited to see how an organic farm can sow seeds both in the ground and in the community. A truly organic farm needs to be an integral part of the social and economic systems of the community, as well as work in harmony with the local bio-system, to be successful. We are excited that you are considering partnering with us at Sweeter Song Farm to help make these kinds of things happen.

If you would like to do a little farm work, we could always use a little help with some of the chores. Compensation for helping out includes some extra veggies, good company, ice tea, lunch, and wonderful sunshine. We plan on having workbees on occasional Saturdays. We are also looking for folks who would be willing to take on small jobs that they could attend to on a regular basis on their own schedule. If you have a morning or afternoon at any time, and you would like to come and help, let us know and we will schedule some important task for you. We can also use help in the greenhouse during potting-up, and in May for transplanting into the fields. These can be real work bottlenecks for us.

If you are considering a Sweeter Song Farm CSA membership for the 2012 season, either email us or call us and we will happily put your name on our waiting list and contact you in early February when openings are available.  If you have questions, ideas, comments, or other requests, please contact us by phone, or by e-mail at Sweeter Song Farm

Your farmer friends,


Judy Reinhardt and Jim Schwantes