Provided enough interest by Co-op members and customers, the Co-op may soon become a pick-up location for a new local meat CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). For details read the email received from Anita Olinga, Sofia's Farm & Groovy Little Bonlee Store. If interested, please send an email to arolinga1@aol.com or call the farm at 919-837-0220.

Dear Co-op,

My partner Amy Archie used to work produce for the co-op before we moved to Chatham County and started farming a few years ago. We want to make available a meat CSA to the Co-op membership.

We will provide 10 lbs of meat, mostly pork products at this point with small doses of chicken thrown in from time to time. We have pork chops, boston butt roasts, bacon, tenderloin, ribs and sausage. Our sausage comes in 4 flavors right now, hot and sweet italian, chorizo and garlic bratwurst. We are adding a fennel wine flavor with wine from a Chatham County winery and a maple bratwurst. We also will have hams at Christmas and Easter and our CSA members will have first dibs on those. We have turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas and duck and goose for special order. We also have chicken available on a regular basis.

We raise our own pigs from birth to processing and they live a great piggie life. They root in the dirt, make wallows in the summer and wander in the woods most of the time. Our processor is USDA inspected and is in S. Carolina. They treat the animals incredibly well and have the most humane form of processing available anywhere. The sausage flavors they have are awesome and they do a really good job of packaging. Those are some of the reasons we drive 8 hours round trip every time we need pigs processed. Also, they are the closest processor that will cure hams. Our products have no nitrates or nitrites, the sausages are in natural casings. We strive to get the best, most natural product we can get.

The cost of the CSA is $50 per month for 10 lbs of meat. We will drop off at several places on a regular schedule and are accepting suggestions for locations, obviously it makes most sense right now to include the co-op as a drop off place. You can also pick up at our store in Bonlee, about 6 miles from Siler City. We are open 3 days from noon until 7 and open Saturday and Sunday. I can send you all the hours if you want as well as directions. Additional meat can be ordered and delivered with your CSA or bought at the store. You will get a total value of at least $50, probably a bit more, with each CSA share.

Example - Sausage is sold for $5 lb, bacon is $8, ribs are $4, chops are $6. We blend the package so you have some high end products as well as some more inexpensive cuts so you get a good variety. We can't promise you will get the same thing in every box, but you will have a diversity. We try to take into account your preferences, ie no hot sausage, more chicken, etc. We will include chicken on a small dose basis unless requested otherwise. We are also looking to add some chicken sausage as well.

We can start your share whenever you want. We ask that you commit for a 3 month period, but don't ask for advance payment like some CSAs. You pay us at pick up and if for any reason you are dissatisfied, we can cancel your future shares. We know that while the co-op doesn't currently sell meat that many members still do eat it and therefore are buying it elsewhere. Our meat is awesome! What is even better is that it is local, sustainably and humanely raised by us, humanely processed by a small family owned operation and reasonably priced for pasture raised meats. We also support our local food bank with donations of meat (and not cuts that nobody wants, but good stuff) and turkeys at Thanksgiving.

Please feel free to call us and get more info or email me at arolinga1@aol.com. We would be happy to give you references of folks who have had our products and love them or provide samples for tasting. Let us know if you want to make this available to the co-op membership and how you want to proceed.

Thanks,

Anita Olinga
Amy Archie
Sofia's Farm
Groovy Little Bonlee Store
28 Bonlee Bennett Road on the mall in Bonlee
919-837-0220