This week's
harvest
Updated 5/11/2012
Available this week:
Arugula
Broccoli
Cabbage
Green Leaf Kale
Green Leaf Lettuce
Lacinato Kale
Onions
Purple Wave Mustard
Red Russian Kale
Snow Peas
Strawberries
Sugar Snap Peas
Tatsoi
Turnip Greens
Turnips
Find Hilltop Farms produce at these fine stores and restaurants:
 ECO, Eastern Carolina Organics
Serving Wholefoods, Earthfare, & local restaurants
Pittsboro, NC
Harmony Farms
5653 Creedmore Rd. & Milbrook
Raleigh, NC
Terrafin Station
25 Old Drug Store Road
Garner, NC
Vinnie's Steak House and Tavern
7440 Six Forks Road
Raleigh, NC
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News from the Farm :
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Strawberry Fields Forever!
Posted 5/11/2012 |
Please come pick strawberries! We are over-runned with strawberries right now, and the picking is plentiful. It's the best season ever here at Hilltop Farms! Everyone is welcome to come pick anyday (except Sundays) whether you are a CSA member or not. We are still open at the farmstand on just Wednesdays from 4 to 7 PM and Saturdays from 10:00 AM to noon for general public sales of produce, but you can come pick fresh, ripe, certified organic strawberries anytime! Just call my cell to find me if the stand is not open and I will come runnin' and take you to the strawberry field. My cell number is 919 618-5601.
Thanks and come see us!
Fred
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Pic-Yer-Own Strawberries!
Posted 4/15/2012 |
We will be open to the public for pic-yer-own strawberries on Saturdays from 10 AM to 5 PM and Wednesday afternoons from 4 to 7 PM. We will have pre-picked quarts and baskets available, as well as fresh organic produce for sale during those times.
Our CSA members are invited out to pick any day of the week except Sundays. Call or email to let us know you're coming or call my cell when you get here.
Prices for Wake County's only Certified Organic Strawberries are $4/lb pic-yer-own and $5/lb we-pick. That includes a take-home basket to pick in.
Please bring the kids and come see us while they last!!!
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Hilltop Farms' 2012 CSA
Posted 4/2/2012 |
We are still accepting new members for this year's Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. There' more info below, but briefly....
Subscription cost is $500 for 25 weeks, starting April 14th through Nov. 1st, 2012
Designated Dropsites:
North Raleigh -Mondays: 4:30 to 6:00 PM - Beth Meyer Synagogue 504 Newton Rd
Raleigh Wine Shop -Mondays: 4:00 Box drop-off - 126 S. Glenwood Avenue
Raleigh -Tuesday: 4:30 to 6:00 PM - Unitarian Church at 3313 Wade Ave
Cary -Thursdays: 4:30 to 6:00 PM - St. Cyril Church 2510 Piney Plains Rd.
The Farm -Saturdays: 10:00 AM to noon and Wednesdays: 4:00 to 6:30 PM -6612 Kennebec Rd, Willow Springs
Please contact us, not the dropsites, for sign-up information. Send us an email to info@hilltopfarms.org and request the 2012 membership form and harvest schedule!
Read more below!
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Good Article on CSA's
Posted 4/2/2012 |
The following is from Local Harvest's newsletter and I thought it hit the nail on the head as far as CSA happiness goes and comparing a true CSA to a buying club. Please read!
Spring is CSA sign-up season, and all across the country people are looking for the right farm for them. Many months hence, most will look back and have been satisfied with their choice, but a few will have had a less than fulfilling experience. This month, we are devoting this space to increasing the odds that our readers find themselves happily part of the first group come fall.
The single most important element of a satisfactory CSA experience hinges on realistic expectations. Though right expectation is essential in all parts of the CSA contract, the area where we hear most complaints is in overall quantity of produce. If you, the CSA member, sign up anticipating that 100% of your family's vegetable and fruit needs will be met by the CSA, you are likely going to be disappointed. Few CSAs produce as much fruit as most families are used to eating, and few of us eat entirely seasonally. Expect to supplement your CSA box with a few things from the grocery store. Also, make sure you understand the vacation and early drop-out policies before you sign up. The best time to ask questions is before you join! (Local Harvest.org has a good article to help you determine if you are a good candidate for a CSA or not and they also have a list of questions to ask before signing up for a CSA).
The second most important thing is trust. You need to trust that the farmer is doing his or her level best. Obviously farmers need to honor that trust and try hard to grow a series of high quality crops, with not too much of anything, and, barring storms or pestilence, not too little of anything either.
Trust applied more broadly includes transparency around where the food comes from. Many CSA farms make arrangements with other local farms to produce a portion of the food for them because, for example, a neighbor's soil may be more suitable for root crops than theirs. All of that is well and good, but we believe that CSA members have the right to assume that everything in their box was produced at their CSA farm unless they are told otherwise. Transparency isn't optional, because it too quickly becomes a slippery slope. Most of us wouldn't mind if someone else grew the potatoes, but if in fact most of the food is being trucked in from sources unknown it isn't a CSA anymore. This is rare, but it happens. And if members aren't told about the food's origins, conditions are ripe for a breakdown in trust, which hurts CSA's good name.
What defines a CSA is open to discussion: it's an evolving model and people are creative. We say CSAs have one or a small group of farmers at the center. There are plenty of other models for distribution of local and/or organic food. We call the ones that are run by non-farmers "third party CSAs" or "aggregators." They sometimes call themselves subscription services, or home-delivery services, or "farm boxes" or something else, but occasionally they call themselves CSAs. Again, there is nothing wrong with this kind of model - some farmers prefer to outsources the distribution end of things! It's the transparency that is important so that everyone has the same expectations, and trust can be preserved.The end.
Btw, here at Hilltop Farms we grow 100% of the produce we sell and the honey we sell is from hives on our farm that a really good beekeeper, Barton Creek Farm, owns and takes care of. We partner with Wilkerson Farms and Triple T Ranch to provide you with beef and chicken, respectively. Any wheat or straw we grow here as well.
And We've been doing it for 14years now!
Please send us an email to request our 2102 CSA membership form and harvest schedule that have all of the details mentioned in this article!
Thanks and Eat Healthy!
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2012 CSA
Posted 11/14/2011 |
Hilltop Farms is Wake County's first and only USDA Certified Organic produce farm, and we are now accepting new members for our 2012 CSA season. If you are interested in becoming members of the farm through our Community Supported Agriculture program and receive 25 weeks of fresh, certified organic produce throughout the spring, summer and fall of next year, please let us know.
Go the "contact us" page and shoot us an email from the link there. I will send you the 2012 membership form to you. Do not use the 2006 form on the home page. Our website will be updated soon to have it removed as it is outdated.
The cost of the CSA subscription for 2012 is $500 for a 25 week season. You will receive an average of $20 of veggies per week from mid-April through the end of October. There is a harvest schedule on the "about the farm" page that shows you what we try to grow each year. The volume you get each week is based on market prices for the seasonal items available. So, you would get an average of what $20 would buy for organic veggies at a farmers market or grocery store.
A CSA is not about getting the produce cheaper by cutting out the grocery store or middle man. Its more about getting it fresher, within hours of being picked and about supporting a local farm/business in your community. Not one 1500 miles away or even a 100 miles away!
We service the Raleigh, Cary and Fuquay areas with four dropsites to choose from, including a Saturday morning pick-up at our farm in Willow Springs. Members who choose a Raleigh or Cary dropsite are welcome to pick-up at the farm on occassion where they can see the fields, farmstand, greenhouses and barns and visit with our chickens, goats and horses. In the spring we even have pic-yer-own strawberries, where members get first dibbs!
So if eating healthy and supporting local, organic agriculture is right for you, send us that email before we fill up!
Thanks!
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Recent Article
Posted 4/6/2011 |
I am happy to post a recent article written about the farm by my alma mater, East Carolina University. Please check out the article by EC Alumni at http://www.piratealumni.com/s/722/rdsite/index.aspx?sid=722&gid=1&pgid=1225.
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Hilltop Farms Receives Award
Posted 3/14/2011 |
On December 9th, 2010 Fred & Virginia Miller, owners of Hilltop Farm of Willow Springs, were given the inaugural Pioneer Award from the Wake County Soil and Water Conservation District. The award, given by the Board of Supervisors, sited Hilltop Farms for "leadership and innovation in developing Wake County's first USDA Certified Organic Farm". Hilltop Farms was first certified in January of 2004, shortly after the new National Organic Program was finalized by the USDA in the fall of 2003 and has maintained continual certification ever since. Now in their tenth year of running a full-time sustainable farming operation, Hilltop continues to implement new conservation measures such as an installation and utilization of a solar powered well for irrigation and an approved USDA high-tunnel greenhouse for year-round vegetable production that uses no electricity or fossil fuels. Congratulations to Fred & Virginia of Hilltop Farms!
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Farm Tours
Posted 1/20/2009 |
Updated Post: 1/31/11
We are a working certified organic produce farm located in Willow Springs, NC in southern Wake County, 15 minutes from Raleigh.
We also operate a horse boarding business with a new 2,500 sq. ft. barn and now have chickens and goats. We love to host farm tours for any age on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and welcome homeschool, pre-school, church or civic groups, ag classes, garden clubs and more.
A tour of our 35 acre farm consists of a trip through the horse barn where participants get a up close, hands on education about equine care including feeding and grooming one or more of the nine resident horses, feeding the chickens and petting the goats.
Next, we load up for a hayride out to the fields where you get to see and taste organic vegetables in production and learn about how things grow and why organics is important. We'll pass the beehive and visit the greenhouse where participants can plant their own seed in a peat cup to take home and watch grow or even plant a seedling in our "Practice Field" where you get to be the farmer!
Our focus is on education and relaxation, but the fun comes naturally as there is something to be learned by everyone, regardless of age. The tours last about two hours and you are welcome to picnic on the grounds, under the shade of 100 year old pecan trees, before or after your visit!
The charge is only $8 per person, 3 yrs. and up, including all adults. During strawberry season, you can even stay and Pic-Yer-Own basket of organic strawberries! Strawberry season runs through the month of May.
If you'd like to spend a day in the peaceful setting of a working farm please email us at info@hilltopfarms.org or call Fred at 919 618-5601 to schedule your group's visit! (minimum 10 paid participants, maximum limit, 40).
See you Down On the Farm!
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Hilltop Farm Shirts!
Posted 7/14/2008 |
We have just gotten in a new batch of Hilltop Farm T-shirts that are made from 100% organic cotton. They come in Biodiesel (gold), Mutts Blue and White and feature the Hilltop Farms' logo as see at the top left corner of this home page. The print asks the message, "Do you know where food comes from?" on the front, and displays " Hilltop Farms, Cetrtified Organic Produce, Willow Springs, NC". on the back.
They look and and feel great! They come in Adults sizes small through XXL, ladies cap sleeve S, M and L, and even youth sizes S, M, and L (youth in white only). Adults and ladies shirts are $15.00 each and youth sizes are $12.00 each, and we can ship them to you!
If you are interested in one, please shoot us an email from the "contact us" page and I'll send you a picture and an order form.
Show your true colors by supporting a local farm and the organic industry and wear a great looking Farm Tee that will tell everyone that you know "Where Food Comes From"!
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Please Come Pick Strawberries!
Posted 5/11/2002 |
We are over-runned with strawberries right now, and the picking is plentiful. Everyone is welcome to come pick anyday (except Sundays) whether you are a CSA member or not! We are still at the farmstand on just Wednesdays from 4 to 7 PM and Saturdays from 10:00 AM to noon for general public sales of produce, but you can come pick fresh, ripe, certified organic strawberries anytime! Just call my cell to find me if the stand is not open and I will come runnin' and take you to the strawberry field. My cell number is 919 618-5601.
Thanks and come see us!
Fred
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Pics From The Farm
Posted 4/12/2002 |
This is what you missed last summer!
Hannah and her gourd | 
See what chemicals can do to kids! | | Click picture to enlarge |
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Spring Planting Day Social
Posted 2/14/2005 |
Boomer, the Big Head Dog
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Somebody, plant something!
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Oh, the end of the row?
It's 300 feet that way! |
So, now do we get to eat?
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| Click picture to enlarge |
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More News...
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Welcome to HilltopFarms.org!
We are a Certified Organic Membership Farm in southern Wake County, practicing sustainable
agricultural methods. We operate our version of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
You can find information here about how it works and how you can join. Thanks for visiting
our site!
Sincerely,
Fred & Virginia Miller, Owners/Growers
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Learn more about becoming a member
2006 Membership Form
(Microsoft Word©, 30 KB)
Click for directions to the Farm and the Cary & Raleigh drop sites:
The Farm
Corner of Hilltop Rd. & Kennebec Rd.
Willow Springs
Cary
St. Cyril Church
Piney Plains & Tryon
Raleigh
TBA (Inside the Beltline)
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