Monday, April 1st, 2024
2024 STORE NAVIGATION
Please reference this graphic for our 2024 market layout! Customers will park in the main lot off of Allandale Road and follow the indicated path of travel for all of their shopping needs. Customers in need of accessible parking will drive into the market lot and park in the designated spots.
See you on the farm!
Saturday, March 23rd, 2024
Hello All!
With spring in the air we are excited to see you when we open for the 2024 season on Friday, April 5th. As usual, we have filled our greenhouses, are readying our fields for planting, and will have an excellent selection of early spring plants, supplies, and food for you when we open in two weeks. In addition, you will notice some big differences when you shop with us this year as we prepare for an exciting project: Our new store! Read on for more details.
For over ten years now we have been improving the infrastructure that supports our farming business and we have now arrived at the final goal: A new year round store that will sustainably provide food, plants and jobs into the future. The new store will be in the same spot as the current one. While we will have more functional space, thanks to full height walls and a thoughtful layout, the actual square footage will be very similar to our existing store and greenhouses. We will be greatly improving access in and around the store area, with special consideration for visitor safety and mobility. Other things to look forward to include: consistent access to high quality local food, plants and products throughout the year; better year round jobs for our team; and a comfortable, energy efficient, food safe environment (think: solar power; registers that don’t crash and; heat/air conditioning!) for our customers, team and products. Even our Highland steer, Curtis & Willard, and the chickens will be getting a new barn!
We have much work to do, in addition to the work of growing food and plants for your tables and gardens. You can stay up to date with news on the project by visiting our website. We will post updates, images and opportunities for community engagement there. We also look forward to chatting with you when you visit the farm this year to shop our market, pick-up your CSA share, or to attend one of our many events. We are thrilled to be planning for an Allandale Farm that can carry us through the next fifty-five years with the same heart and community focus that has carried us through the past fifty-five years. Thank you for all the kind words, support and thoughtful questions. And thank you for shopping, learning and celebrating with us over the years and into the future.
More questions? Please read on, come back to this page for updates, and reach out to us at allandale@allandalefarm.com.
See you on the farm!
Helen Glotzer
General Manager & CEO
And some more information…
Why now?
For the past ten years, we have been working to build a sustainable Allandale Farm that will carry us forward into the future while honoring our commitment to local agriculture and to the amazing community that values this farm so deeply. In 2015, we completed our beautiful glass production greenhouse, resulting in a great work environment for our team and a vastly improved growing environment for our plants. In 2019, we completed our wonderful Harvest Barn to provide a clean, efficient space for our team to manage post-harvest handling and crop storage downstairs with much needed offices and meeting space upstairs. The next step is addressing the store infrastructure and, while COVID set our timeline back a bit, we are now ready to move forward and complete these critical and exciting improvements. As of this writing in March 2024, we are underway with the new store design to create a better environment in so many ways for our team, our customers, and our products.
What about the union?
We are very pleased to announce that we have arrived at a contract with our Union! Our whole team has been aware of the store plan since Summer ‘22 and the new store was a key component of our contract negotiations. Allandale Farm and the Union are excitedly moving forward into a promising future with collaboration, respect and a shared vision for a sustainable Allandale Farm that will provide better working conditions for everyone.
What will this year look like?
We will be open for business as of April 5th with our greenhouses and outdoor market focused on our core offerings, like the plants and food we grow here on the farm and the garden and kitchen support products that you rely on. Compost, mulch, seeds and pottery? Yup, we’ll still have those in addition to our excellent plant selection. Eggs, honey, meat and pasta? Sure thing! You can still pick up your veggies and round out your shopping list. Just park in the front lot and walk around back towards the pond for our 2024 Market experience. And thank you for supporting us during this time of transition.