Photo by Scott David Gordon

From all of the staff here at JBG, I want to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season! Today, the staff is taking a day off to rest and celebrate with their families. We're down to the last week of 2015 and I just want to say: thank you for letting me be your farmer this year. I'm coming out of my 11th year of farming and I couldn't be prouder of Johnson's Backyard Garden and the food we produce.

As we look ahead at 2016, we're asking our community what it means to be a shareholder at JBG, and if 2016 might be the time to make a big investment in your health, and our farm, by joining as a long-term CSA member. If you love our vegetables and intend to eat them year-round, please consider signing up for a 6 or 12 month CSA subscription. If you make the change now, we will send a special citrus gift your way! The benefits don't end there...

• 10% discount for 52-week subscriptions
• 7.5% discount for 26-week subscriptions
• A one-share CSA Gift Subscription to gift to a friend or family member, plus a free bag of organic citrus with an upcoming CSA delivery!*
• More than 250 varieties of seasonal, organic vegetables delivered right to your home or neighborhood, year round
• Flexible online management of your CSA schedule - postpone for travel!
• Customizable CSA boxes to ensure you get the veggies you want
• Add-ons to fill your kitchen with good food like local, free-range eggs and local, small batch roasted coffees

*Strike the iron while it's hot! Additional gifts are only available through 1/31/2016.

It's never been easier to make fresh, healthy produce a part of your New Year Resolutions, all the while making your contribution to sustaining local and organic agriculture. Call the farm at 512-386-5273 or e-mail Daniel or Ada to become a long-term CSA member. 

I often reflect on what it means to be a Community Supported Agriculture farm, and how amazing it is that our community has joined us on such a big journey to localize our food system and grow clean, organic vegetables in Texas. Our CSA shareholders are more than just customers - you are financial partners in our farm, putting faith in us by investing upfront, in return for a share of the farm's bounty in your weekly or bi-weekly CSA share. It's a share in the risks and rewards of farming - though we hope that we've been able to minimize the risks for you. Even this year, with two major flood events, our CSA boxes have never been fuller. You got muddy potatoes when the rains were insufferable, and beautiful sunflowers when our fields were bountiful.



Most CSA programs require that shareholders commit to a whole season - in Texas, these seasons are typically 15-25 weeks. As we've grown as a farm, it was important to ensure that the CSA remained affordable and approachable - especially for those interested in just giving the program a try. So we've lowered the commitment to join the CSA to just 4 weeks at a time. Many of our community members pay on a month-by-month basis and we hope this has been a valuable tool and an approachable way to give CSA try. Your commitment to our CSA allows us to cover our monthly costs and keep JBG's farm running strong.



But, it's our long term shareholders who allow us to make big investments in our farm to allow for longer-term growth so that we can continue to improve both in the fields and in the community. If you are a current member who loves the thrill of getting their weekly box, and have the financial capabilities, please consider joining our long-term subscribers. Signing up for a year's worth of organic vegetables is a powerful affirmation to your health and to the way you want to eat and feed your family in 2016.

Your commitment provides so much for the farm - upfront costs for seeds, fuel, and labor to grow the best organic vegetables around, improvements to our CSA offerings like customization and flex scheduling, and wiggle room to invest in larger improvements like the 1 acre of grapes and 1000 fig and pomegranate trees we planted last year. We are hopeful that in a few years, you might also be getting JBG fruit in your CSA share! There are so many more projects we'd love to take on to continue improving, but we can't do it without more long-term CSA members.

Photo by Scott David Gordon

To everyone who has played a role in the farm this year - CSA members, friendly market-goers, volunteers, staff, and friends, thank you for supporting your local community farm. I wish you a very happy holiday and am looking forward to what 2016 will bring!

Your farmer,

Brenton Johnson