Smoke Ridge Organics

I’d like to give this zero stars, but then I can’t review this place. Where do you start when you are dealing with a fraud? First, I would like to back the word fraud up with the fact that a Better Business Bureau complaint (#9 666 358) was filed asking them to be the mediator and the business owner never even responded to them. My intention in joining a CSA was to try produce that I wouldn’t normally grow in my own garden. In February 2013, I wrote to this organic farm and she told me «We grow many heritage varieties, for instance one year we grew just about everything in the southern exposure and seed savers catalogs.» This has been the furthest from the truth. I have received nothing more than I grew in my own garden, and believe me, I didn’t grow much.
When I signed up, I asked to be a drop point manager. This included a reduction in my subscription cost. However, I would drive the 30+ minutes to the farm weekly to pick up the produce, open my home up for people to pick it up and maintain the produce, chicken, eggs and baked goods to keep from spoiling. As I am one of the furthest points from the farm, there weren’t any other subscriptions initially. This proved to be a good thing, because my trips out to the farm were a waste of gas. My own shares were not picked when I got there or they were inadequate in variety, quantity, or quality. I did this many weeks in a row. One week was literally a handful of herbs. By a handful, I mean they all fit in the palm of my hand. These were the most expensive herbs I’ve ever purchased. I could not make even one recipe with the amount of herbs I received.
Eventually, my share was sent to another pickup point closer to my house.
The farmer told us a story that her flock of 200 chickens were all killed by 1 fox in 1 night. I don’t know if you have ever had chickens, but I lived in Alaska for a while and had chickens. A brown bear couldn’t even get 200 chickens in 1 night. So, for all of us that were supposed to get eggs and a chicken a week… well, it’s almost October and we haven’t seen any yet.
Eggs… we were told the chickens were depressed. Quite frankly, I don’t blame the chickens. If I had to live there with that farmer, I would be too.
This farmer runs a horse rescue on the property. She says the farm is over an acre in size. I assure you, it isn’t. The farm is a very poorly kept garden. It looks like it has never been weeded. It is largely run by children, who «work to ride» the horses. Because they work to ride, they have no clue what they are doing, nor do they have any oversight. Any of the money from the CSA goes to the upkeep of the horse, not to the farm. I have the emails if you want them… I would be happy to share. One week I received carrots that were so small they could not even be eaten. Many people tried to transplant them, however, they had been out of the ground too long. It was truly sad. Why would you pick anything that is still growing???
CSA’s are wonderful… but this one is not the way to go. I need to make it clear, I did not pay full price for my CSA because I was supposed to be a drop point manager. However, for the produce I received, it has still not equalled out.
I am going to post pictures of my shares. I hope pictures speak louder than words.