Winter boxes

Don’t fancy going to the supermarket for most of your vegetables this winter? Well, you don’t have to! Following a successful trial of offering winter boxes last winter, you will be able to enjoy fresh, organic seasonal veggies again this winter. Straight from a farmer.

With our winter box, we offer vegetables every two weeks from December to April. During this period, the vegetables aren’t grown by us, but by two farms in the Flevopolder. There are 40 winter boxes available this year, so be sure to get yours in time ︎!

Why this year-round offer?
1. We want to further develop community-supported agriculture: local, sustainable and connected.
2. More choice for you, and a way for us to earn some extra income.
3. The winter offer is part of a project in which we’re collaborating with other CSA farms and farmers Sanne and Annemiek from the farms Zonnegoed and Boerderij aan de Dijk to build a stronger food community.

How does it work?

• Every two weeks, the two farms deliver a batch of vegetables to us. So you can collect a bag full of delicious winter vegetables once every two weeks.
• We will have everything ready for you in the eco-house. Please bring your own bag or bags.
  
• Pick-up days are Fridays from 13:00 to 18:00, Saturdays from 9:00 to 17:00 and Sundays from 13:00 to 17:00.
• In total, there will be 10 parcels between early December and mid-April. The pick-up days fall in weeks 49, 51, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15.
• We will send out a newsletter before each pick-up to let you know which vegetables will be in the box that time.

What’s in a box?

• Organic vegetables, fresh from the field or from storage from the two farms.
  
• In any case, there will be potatoes and onions, and you can also expect a varied selection, such as various types of cabbage, carrots, parsnips, pumpkin, beetroot, leeks, quinoa and/or sweet potatoes.
• The boxes contain 8 different types of vegetables. The last three boxes may occasionally contain slightly fewer veggies. At that time of year, fewer crops are available directly from the field and more come from storage. Sometimes not all vegetables can be stored in good condition until the very end, so for those final boxes, the farmers will only be able to say with certainty what and how many types of vegetables are available when the time comes. This, too, is part of eating locally and seasonally ︎.
• One box is enough to prepare around 8 meals and, in our opinion, is sufficient for 1 or 2 people.
  

Example box

• 1 kg firm potatoes
• 1 kg red onion
• 1 kg carrots
• 600 g coloured beetroot
• 1 red cabbage
• 3 leeks
• 500 g Brussels sprouts
• 500 g cavolo nero

How much does it cost?
We want to offer the winter boxes, just like our harvest shares, based on a solidarity-based pricing system.

The standard, recommended cost for a box is €30 every two weeks (which works out at around €15 worth of organic vegetables per week), delivered 10 times. That makes a total of 10 × 30 = €300.

If you’re able to afford a little more, you can choose to pay a bit extra, with an additional amount of your choice.

If your income doesn’t allow you to pay the standard price, you can choose to pay a little less, with a minimum total of €250.

If you’re unable to pay the full amount in one go in advance, it’s possible to pay in instalments. Please send us an email if you’d like to do this.

Would you like to join, but would you prefer to share a winter box with another household?
You may find that the amount of food in a winter box is too much for your household, or that you are unable to pick up the vegetables every two weeks. Then you can opt for a 'shared winter box'. We ask you to find another household to share the winter box with. One of you fills out the application form below and pays the entire amount for both households. You arrange the financing amongst each other and decide together who will pick up the box when (most do it every other two weeks). If you are unable to find someone to share the winter package with, please send us an email. If we know of anyone else who is looking for a sharing partner, we can connect you.

Fancy a sneak preview?
In this video, Sanne and Annemiek introduce themselves and their businesses!




This sounds like something I would love to try! How do I sign up for a winter package? 

• Click here to fill in the registration form 

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
If you have any questions, please feel free to speak to us in the field or email us at plukboterbloem@cityplot.org. Below, we have tried to answer a few common questions:

• Why is it not possible to exclusively harvest vegetables from Pluk Boterbloem in winter and spring?
  In the off-season, it is colder and there is less light, so vegetables grow more slowly or not at all. Some crops can be left in the ground for longer (such as kale) or stored (such as carrots and onions), but these crops are currently intended for the current season (May–November). To ensure we can offer you good produce from December to April as well, we work in partnership with other farmers.
  
  
• Does this still comply with the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model?
  We consider this a very important question. We believe it does. As a harvester, it is less easy for you to get to know the farmers Sanne & Annemiek, who grow the winter vegetables. Nevertheless, our aim is to build a long-term relationship with them and to teach you about their farms. That is why we have chosen to work with just two farms and have spent a long time searching for the most suitable partners. On the other hand, together we are giving more farmers the opportunity to connect directly with a community, for a better price, with greater autonomy. And that is exactly what CSA is all about.
  
  
• Why don’t you work with farmers more nearby? And why do you specifically choose these farmers?

     There is little farming in the area and virtually none that is certified organic. Flevoland, with its
      productive clay soil, is therefore the logical nearest location. Furthermore, we have a good rapport            and a shared vision with Zonnegoed and Boerderij aan de Dijk. They have the ambition to become            the first CSA arable farmers in the Netherlands, because they want to build a relationship with the            people who eat their produce. That’s quite difficult when you produce so much and are situated in            the empty polder. So, as a CSA, we can really help them!

• Storage, how does it work? Is this actually fresh? 

Storing vegetables such as pumpkin, potatoes, cabbage and carrots is perfectly possible, provided you have the right knowledge and resources. It is all about managing ventilation, light and              temperature as effectively as possible. The farmers and their businesses are experts in this! This means we can continue to enjoy a fairly varied diet even in winter and spring, without much loss of nutritional value in the vegetables.