Online Ordering Update 2020-05-02
Our shopping platform is up on the website! order.oldathensfarm.com
Our preferred method of payment is your purchase of a gift card, with a check or cash, since it avoids any fees. You can buy one for as little as $100. You can also pay cash on delivery each time you pick up. Please remember that you are responsible for picking up what you order. Bringing exact change, or a check will make all the transactions run smoothly. If you choose to buy a gift card, please bring your check the first time you pick up. It will help to make sure they get entered in a timely fashion. Alternatively, before next Wednesday, you could mail your payment to us at : 463 Daigel Rd Putney, VT 05346
We will have our first pick up here at the farm on Wednesday, May 6. When you pick up please pull into the driveway and stay in your car. We will serve you. For all our friends, whom we would love to hang out with, this will not be a social time. Please get here on time, so we can finish up our day.
There is not a lot on offer for Wed., but more will be coming soon. This Wed. is as much about testing our systems as getting you some vegetables. Please give us feedback on the shopping platform. We may, or may not, be able to improve it.
Saturday the 9th we will be at the first Farmers Market in Brattleboro. The market is still working on how their curbside pick-up will work, so I will send out more information on that next week.
On Wed., May 13 we will begin our pick-ups in Brattleboro. I will fill you in on those specifics late next week.
These emails will be archived on the website and there is current information on the homepage concerning ordering and pick-ups.
Thank you from all of us at the Old Athens Farm.
Online Ordering Update 2020-04-29
Greeting from the Old Athens Farm! We are extremely grateful for your support. From our greenhouses we are already harvesting cukes, zucchini and chard with fresh greens and lettuces to follow soon from our unheated tunnel. We are close to starting up our new ordering and delivery service. In order to test our technology and to see the obstacles we may face, we are going to ease into things, with our first actual vegetable pick up next Wednesday, May 6, here at the farm in Westminster. Saturday, May 9, will be the first farmers market in Brattleboro. The following Wednesday, May 13th, we will add Wednesday Brattleboro and Putney pick-ups. The week after, provided we have enough customers, we will add Londonderry.
Our online-ordering platform can now be accessed at order.oldathensfarm.com
Our goal is to get as much of our produce to the people in our community in the safest way possible, knowing that our former Farmers Market model is not possible at this time. Our new model is not a traditional CSA (getting a box of vegetables that the farmer chooses), but a tailored online ordering experience. You will choose what you want, in the quantities you want. Our new sales platform will be added to our website in a few days, thanks to our son Eben.
Before we get our new service up and running we need to have an idea of where and when people are planning to pick up their vegetable order. The options will be: Wednesdays from 5 to 6 PM in Brattleboro, Putney, Londonderry, or at the farm. Our farm is on Daigel Road in Westminster. Putney pickup will be at the Putney Center School on Westminster West Road. Brattleboro pickup will most likely be at, or near the Rt 9 market site. We will let you know soon. You do not have to make a commitment to one location. In fact, each time you order through the shopping platform you will be asked where you want to pick-up your order. We would like to have everyones physical address, and nearest landmark since it may make sense to cluster deliveries in your area.
We will also be at the Brattleboro Farmers Market every Saturday beginning May 9. Londonderry Market begins Memorial day weekend May, 25.
Brattleboro Area Farmers Market's is coming up with a plan for managing market using social distancing/pandemic guidelines from the State. A lot is still up for discussion but the idea is to put pre-paid orders from different vendors in a set location away from the vendor stands themselves in order to limit customer contact. The Market's plan is for pre-order/pre-paid curbside pick up to operate between 10am and 12pm, and for the in-person market to operate between 10am and 1pm. The first hour of the in-person market (10-11am) will be a designated shopping time for high-risk customers. This pick-up will be run by staff and volunteers, and must be prepaid.
When our sales platform goes live this week you may see some of our vegetables listed but the the only things offered for sale will be $250 and a $500 gift certificates. You can buy as many of those as you like. When prompted for the payment method you will choose cash. You will then send us a check, or bring a check, or cash to the first pick-up. Make checks payable to Mike Collins. You will receive a 5% discount for leaving your money on account. Any left over balance will be returned, or held over for next year. I am encouraging this form of payment to avoid giving our money to credit card companies. Every credit card or Pay-Pal purchase costs us 3%. We will begin taking orders for our first Wed. pick-up on Sunday May 3. The order deadline will be Tuesday May, 5 at 6pm.
On Saturday at the market in Brattleboro, pre-ordered vegetables must be pre-paid from your account, or with a credit card, since you will receive your bag from a from a market volunteer, rather than directly from us. Again, you will not be able to choose to pay cash for the Brattleboro Farmers Market pre-order pick-up. Cash, will be an option for payment throughout the year to avoid credit card fees, but I must stress that you will be responsible for paying for a bag that you do not pick-up.
Friends who are used to my other email, please send all your csa correspondence to this email, so it does not get lost in my main mailbox.More information will follow! The long awaited link to the shopping platform is below, if you can't wait to buy a gift card, which will give you your prepaid account.
Again, thank you all for your enthusiasm and support. Please continue to spread the word.