Potomac Vegetable Farms

Purcellville PVF is looking to hire 5 full time workers - not apprentices. You work and we pay you, and you learn along the way. Starting wage is $6.50 per hour, raises as appropriate after 5 weeks. If you can commute to the farm, then part time work is available. Most desirable candidate would work April/May through October (2–3 people) and otherwise at least May through August. Simple rustic housing is available, plus lots of delicious veggies to eat. Experience can be helpful, but not necessary. Good attitude, people skills and commitment to doing good work a must. This is hard, sweaty, and sometimes uncomfortable work–so it is only fun if we maintain a positive attitude and enjoy our beautiful surroundings. We work as a team – you must play nice with others!

Email ellen -at- potomacvegetablefarms.com for more information and an application.

PVF West registration is now closed!

Wow, shares went quickly this year! Please let us know if you have any feedback on the registration process this year.

The National Wildlife Federation pick-up location for PVF West is full. All other PVF West locations still have open spots.

The shares from PVF-East are sold out! Thank you for your interest, and please come see us at the farmers markets from May through October.

PVF West is still open for registrations.

You can now register for PVF East - Vienna and PVF West - Purcellville! Please Contact us if you have any problems.

Note that this year, there is a two-step process for registering online. Be sure to read more about what we have to offer this year and about Community Supported Agriculture and ecoganic farming.

As a quick reminder, if you use a feed reader, you’ll want to subscribe to our feed. We plan on posting more to the news section of the site this year!

(Updated 2/8/08: PVF East is sold out!)

(Updated 2/26/08: PVF West is sold out!)

CSA veterans, please share some of your experiences so that others might be able to imagine what belonging to this CSA is like. Be specific! It’s okay to talk about the downsides too.

Please leave your comments here.

There was something odd going on with the recipe section where it wasn’t properly displaying recipes. Everything should be fixed now.

I did have to take away the comment/rating feature of the recipes, though, as it was getting overrun with spam. I’ll have to comb through, find the real comments, delete the rest, and then spam-proof the comment form before bringing it back.

Just a quick reminder to those of you that usually get your bags on Wednesday, this week bags are ready today because of the holiday.

The regular schedule will resume next week for Wednesday pick-ups.

Our registration forms are now available in PDF format for PVF East (all the pick up locations from Vienna east: Arlington, Falls Church, Alexandria, Fairfax, Bethesda) and PVF West (Herndon, Leesburg, Ashburn, Reston and Purcellville). For information on share sizes and prices, click here. For information on PVF West delivery sites, please contact ellen -at- potomacvegetablefarms.com.

We will open our 2007 registration on February 15. Forms and information will be on the PVF website, so remember to check back in late February. Summer shares start on June 5 and go for 16 weeks. Mini shares will be $250, regular shares $425, robust $600. We also have an eight week fall share that starts in late September and runs until mid November, with prices roughly half of the summer prices.

We will have an early bird discount in effect until March 1, and we think we could be sold out by early March. We will close the CSA when we sell 400 shares.

We will have pick-up locations at our farms in Vienna and Purcellville, and will also drop off in Herndon, Leesburg, Arlington, Falls Church, Alexandria, and Bethesda. Folks who don’t pick up at the farms will also pay $3/week for delivery (or $48 for the summer).

The new CSA season is upon us and with one week of vegetables behind us, the PVF site is kicking back into full gear. The first week’s newsletters are online and I upgraded Wordpress (the engine behind the site news… this only matters to the techies in the audience).

I’ll be doing some tweaking of the recipes section over the next week or two and just generally cleaning things up around here. Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions.

CSA shares for 2006 are all sold out! Registration for 2007 starts in mid-February. You can get our vegetables this season at the farmers markets and the roadside stands.

For those of you that got registered in time, those veggies are coming next week!

Thank you for your interest in the CSA this year. We have now sold all of our shares from the Vienna farm. However, the Clifford Ave location in Alexandria is still open. We have many spaces left from the Purcellville farm. Shares for 2007 will be available in mid-February, 2007 from this website.

The wait is over! The 2006 CSA registration is now available for the Vienna farm. The Loudoun brochure will be available in a day or two. You can also download the 2006 CSA Brochure.

Get your forms back soon to make sure you qualify for the early bird discount and reserve your spot! Interest is growing, so spots are limited!

The autumn shares have begun! Hopefully everyone enjoyed all the great veggies from the summer share and are ready to start making soups, stews, and baked butternut squash recipes. Mmmm…

For me, it’s all about the kale. Bring it on.

I’ve gotten a bit more caught up on the newsletter archives and recipes. Also, if you were able to attend the Purcellville potluck and have pictures, could you please get in touch? I’m getting together pictures for the various open houses and potlucks the farm has held this year.

Eat well!

Some good hints on cooking vegetables appear in last week’s “In the Bag”:

Blanche: To briefly immerse in boiling water, then plunge into cold water to stop the cooking. Greens will retain their bright color.

Braise: To brown meats and vegetables in a small amount of fat, then cook, tightly covered, in a small amount of flavored liquid for a long time over low heat.

Sauté: To cook quickly, in fat, over high heat.

Steam: To steam, in a steam basket over simmering water in a wide, tightly covered saucepan.

Stir-fry: To cook small pieces of food quickly in a large pan in a small amount of very hot fat over high heat. Stir constantly.

Wilt: To wilt, first rinse the leaves, then place the wet leaves in a pot or skillet over low heat and cover tightly. Greens become limp and pliable.

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed your first three weeks of veggies. Lots of greens, but there are lots of great ways to prepare them, too.

The newsletter archive is up-to-date, though I have a bit of catching up to do on the recipe database. With time. Note that since there are several similar versions of “In the Bag” that go out depending on your location and share, I’m using Hana’s “Robust share” edition since it’s likely to have what you have in your bag (and possibly, some things you don’t).

E-mail me if you have any comments or suggestions for the site. Some people have mentioned that the font is really, really tiny. If you could tell me what browser and operating system you’re using, that would be very helpful.

Please note that the Vienna farm sign-ups have closed, unless you’ll be picking up at the Doveville Lane loation in Fairfax. The Purcellville farm sign-up is still open. The response this year has been excellent!

If you want, you can write to us to be put on the mailing list for next year.

The egg shares for the Vienna farm are gone, so the new registration form shows that. Also, a separate registration form for the Purcellville farm is online as well.

2005 registration is now open!