“I’d like to mention how good the CSA has been so far. We have really enjoyed the new treats and old ones. Several things we have never tried before and they are great. The rillettes are YUMMY. The salami is spiced just right. The cranberry sausage has been a treat. It is lots of fun to open our box each week to a new surprise.”

-Current CSA Member

Signup Here.

Hey, Friends! The Piggery is happy to be offering a 12 week winter 2010-2011 charcuterie CSA that will be distributed weekly from December 1st through February 24th. We will again be offering shares through the Full Plate Farm Collective for our Ithaca-area customers and at Jimmy’s No. 43 for our NYC customers.

Over the course of the twelve weeks you will receive what amounts to a quarter hog. In a nutshell this is how it works: you will pick up a box every week containing a variety of FRESH, never frozen items. Over the length of the share these items will equal a quarter hog. On a week to week basis, this ends up being a fresh cut or pound of sausage, half to three quarters of a pound of our sliced items (bacon and deli meats) and a variety of “treats” and “bonuses” such as pates, lard, cracklings, rillettes, confit, etc. Here is a typical share box:

This box has a pair of T-Bone chops totaling almost two pounds as it’s “main course” item (retail value $18.50), a half pound of bacon (retail value $6) as the “sliced” item, a 6-ounce slab of rustic pate (retail value $6) as the “treat” and a pound of cooking lard (retail value $4) as a “bonus”. This box would cost 34.50 at our market stand but only $25 through the CSA. Not every box has this much stuff, but many of them do and some have more - the retail value of a big Boston Butt or roasting ham can exceed $30 alone. Conversely, the guaranteed minimum value of a box is about twenty bucks (a pound of sausage plus a half pound of bacon plus a jar of mousse pate, for instance). We expect the average value will come to about $30/box if purchased at our market stand.

What we offer

The Piggery is different from other local meat producers in that we have a state licensed kitchen on the farm where we produce our own line of dry cured bacon, sausages, pates, deli sliced meats and more. Our product line is made fresh every week and delivered to you FRESH, not frozen. Our recipes feature local ingredients such as garlic from Red Tail Farm in Jacksonville, NY.

We raise American Mulefoot cross pigs on 30 acres of fenced pastures, woodlands and springs on a diet of whatever they forage plus locally grown small grains (barley, wheat, triticale, field peas), and whey from lively run goat dairy. We believe that our handcrafted products from happy, pastured, heirloom pigs offers the finest eatin’ you’ll find in pork in New York, or any other, state.

What Is a CSA?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The idea is that the CSA members support the farmer by buying a share of that years crop up front. This helps the farmer pay for the up front costs of the product and eliminates the uncertainty of up and down sales at farmer’s market stands. The farmer knows just how much he needs to produce each week. In return, the member gets a variety of fresh, local products throughout the season at a better price than they would get by buying those products individually at the farmer’s market stand.

Realize that the farmer and the members enter a contract to share the risks and rewards of farming together. For instance, 2009 was a terrible season for tomatoes because of the early onset of late blight. Many CSAs had to pull their plants, reducing the number of tomatoes distributed to members. The flip side of this is that in a great year for tomatoes the members would receive the full benefit of the bountiful crop with extra tomatoes in their box. Pork is a more reliable crop than tomatoes, but we could still lose product due to, for instance, a refrigerator failure. Furthermore, we try hard to keep our animal sizing consistent, but the reality is that throughout the season we harvest animals of differing sizes. This means that some weeks the chops and ribs that members receive will be bigger than others. The same is true for sausages, pate portions, etc. We are confident, however, that at the end of the season, you will receive as much or (more likely) more than estimated in the table below.

The Quarter Hog Share

A quarter hog share is guaranteed AT LEAST:

Payment Details

We will accept either personal checks or paypal payments. After you’ve signed up, there will be a link to click if you’d like to pay immediately through paypal. If you’d like to pay by check, please bring your check to booth 76 at the Saturday Ithaca Farmer’s Market or send your check (payable to The Piggery) to:

The Piggery
5948 Sycamore Creek Dr
Trumansburg, NY 14886

Monthly Payment Option

The purpose of a CSA is to help farmers pay our upfront production costs. We have 150 or so hogs that need to be fed and bedded until the CSA starts in December. Nonetheless, we understand that not everyone has the ability to pay up front for three months worth of food. Therefore we are allowing some members to pay for their share on a month to month basis. Just divide your total by three to figure your monthly payment amount. One month’s payment will be due upon signing up to secure your membership in the CSA.

How do I Get it?

Ithaca Customers:The winter CSA will be available for pickup or delivery through all of the options offered by the Full Plate Farm Collective for their winter CSA. All pickups will be on Thursday afternoons. The pickup locations are Stick and Stone farm on Rt 96 North of town, Mama Goose downtown, Ludgate Farms, Three Swallows farm in Danby and Rememberance Farm in Trumansburg. Home deliveries will be dropped off by Garden Gate delivery for a fee of three dollars per week on Thursday afternoons.

Manhattan Customers: Shares will be available at Jimmy’s No. 43 - 43 E 7th st near 2nd Ave. Shares are available Wednesdays from 4-7pm. There is a five dollar per week delivery fee for this location.

How do I sign up?

Fill in the form here.