SP24 (W13): What a Spring it’s Been

May 27

Dear Farm Community -

Wow! We’ve made it to the end of our Spring CSA!!!!!! Y’all have truly exceeded our expectations, and we hope we’ve done the same for you. There will be no break between spring and summer CSA (ain’t no rest for the wicked am I right!), so those of you who are on our weekly-pay option and who purchased the entire 3-season kit and caboodle at the beginning of the year are all set to continue pickup next week - no action necessary! To our Spring full-season members, y’all have until Sunday evening to sign up for our Full Summer Share, or sign up anytime for the weekly-pay option. And a reminder to everybody that if you want to get excited about what’s to come, we have all of our newsletters archived on our blog - take a look through last summer’s posts, get excited, and maybe find a few recipes you’d like to try!

The big news today is…… EGGS !!!!!!!!!!! In honor of our egg subscription going live TODAY, I’d like to share a little bit about Smyly Farms and why we’re so excited to be partnering with them. Michael Gault started Smyly Farms in 2018 as a first-generation farmer seeking to raise poultry with a holistic and organic approach. Smyly Farms was borne from a backyard garden, started while Gault was pursuing his undergraduate degree at UGA in horticulture with an emphasis on sustainable food production. Now operating out of Fulton county, the farm has grown to meet the needs of the local and greater-Atlanta communities, but their commitment to raising poultry in a regenerative, ethical, and personal way remains the same.

Why does Pasture-Raised Matter?
Pasture-raised and local is the key here, as often times the language surrounding egg production is a little obscure. Cage-free, free-range, pasture-raised…. what’s the difference? The difference is pretty big actually! “Cage-free” designates only that the chickens are not confined in battery cages but still means they are often cramped for space and do not see the outdoors in their lifetime. “Free-range” means that hens have some kind of egress to the outdoors, however it doesn’t mean that egress is open, or that the hens use it if it is, and only 2sqft is required per hen. “Pasture-raised” on the other hand, means that each hen is given a minimum of 108 sqft of outdoor space as well as shelter. Smyly farms goes beyond this, providing beautiful pastures, certified organic feed, ample clean water, doggy bodyguards (see photo below), and the bucolic setting that we would all want if we were laying hens. In short, they get to be chickens! The results of these efforts are in the quality of eggs, too. One study out of Penn State University found that pasture-raised eggs contain double the omega-3’s, triple the vitamin D, 4x more vitamin E and 7x more beta-carotene than their conventionally produced counterparts. The difference in production and product is stark, and the value of knowing and seeing where your eggs come from is an invaluable way to connect to your food system.

How the Egg Subscription Works
Our weekly-pay egg subscription must be signed up for separate from your weekly-pay CSA subscription. It can also serve as a stand-alone subscription if you’d prefer not to have amazing veggies weekly. For those of you who do have a veggie or flower CSA already, simply subscribe and select the same pickup as your regular CSA. For those of you who have home delivery set up, select “I am a home delivery CSA member” and we will deliver them along with your share! If you want weekly eggs only, select the pickup option that works best for you! They are:

Tuesday at Athens Montessori 4-6pm
Wednesday at Creature Comforts Brewing Co 5-8pm
Thursday at Athentic Brewing Company 4-6pm
Saturday at Athens Farmers Market 8am-12pm

let’s get eggy with it (sign up here)

And what was up on the Diamond Hill front this past week? We planted EVEN MORE dahlias, harvested a boatload of veggies for our Athens & Atlanta restaurant partners, and seeded more sunflowers that will become your beautiful fall blooms. We also did lots of weeding to get the place pristine for our CSA tour! Thanks to everybody who came out yesterday, we had such a blast showing you around and sharing what we do. We hope that seeing where your food comes from filled you with the same pride that we feel growing it for you. It’s really an honor to be able to do this work. Even if you missed the tour, we so greatly appreciate your support and hope you can make it out to the next one.

In your shares this week we have some beautiful heads of cabbage. Cabbage is an unbelievably versatile vegetable and can be eaten raw, cooked, or fermented in seemingly endless ways. One of the best dishes I have ever eaten was a buttered cabbage dish (made with our very own Diamond Hill cabbage!) at Athen’s own 5 & 10. While 5 & 10’s offerings rotate seasonally and you may not catch it on their menu, you can try your hand at this delicious dish with this recipe for buttered cabbage from Epicurious. And with summery weather very much visiting us already, how about some cole slaw or a summery cabbage and cucumber salad that makes use of your cucumbers too? Use the berries in your share for this strawberry vodka lemonade to complete your garden-party-esque menu :)

Enjoy this incredible time of the year when seasons collide!

Happy Eating,
Diamond Hill Farmers <3

we can explore the wonders of veggies: