While Willow Haven Farm and its farm store are located in New Tripoli, they have an ordering program that delivers in the Lehigh Valley, and also offer a farm share program, called a CSA, Community Supported Agriculture, which delivers to pick-up locations in Bethlehem and elsewhere.

Tessa DeMaster and her husband, Reuben, operate the farm along with their children.

A farm share is a seasonal offering of a box of vegetables. Willow Haven has two CSA seasons, spring to fall, and winter. They offer three sizes of boxes, and the cost is split into payments.

In addition to the vegetable share, they offer add on shares including fruit, flowers, cheese, eggs, and bread. They have seen an upward trend in the purchase of CSA shares this year, have sold out of the spring to fall shares.

However, online ordering for pickup or delivery from the farm store is still available. Sign up is available to receive surplus veggie boxes if more are produced than are needed to fulfill CSA orders. All information on ordering can be found on the farm’s website.

The farm share program grew substantially this year, in part by plan; in part by circumstances.

“Not knowing that this pandemic was around the corner, Willow Haven Farm had already planned to expand our capacity this year,” Tessa said. We found starting in March that there was a heightened interest in local food and buying directly from farms.

“Our farm was able to easily accommodate significant growth, and we sold out of memberships on May 1.”

In addition to a delivery program, Willow Haven has a farm store, and order pickup at the farm.

“Our farm store is run predominantly by our family but we have hired personnel to help us pack orders and make deliveries,” Tessa said.

Willow Haven did have some issues obtaining the products they stock from out-of-the-area farms.

“Yes, it is becoming more difficult,” Tessa said. “Small farms are able to produce more product but under normal circumstances they limit their production to what they can sell regularly.

“What our region is experiencing is a sudden increased demand which causes small farms to sell out of products that would normally take them months to sell. This is what has now made local farm food much more difficult to find.

“Another important thing to note is that March and April are the planting season in our growing zone, not a harvest season.

“Fresh vegetables are starting to appear from farms that have green houses but field vegetables won’t start being harvested until late May or early June.”

She also discussed the effects of the shutdown on the area’s food supply.

“Now is a great time to consider what kind of food system you want to support,” Tessa said. “If you really want to support local food and build the food security of our region, you should make a commitment to buy local food not just during a crisis, but for the long term.

“If local farms can count on your food purchases, year round, they will find ways to produce more food for you.”

More information about ordering from Willow Haven:

“Our online store is a buying club that is sourcing high quality, hard-to-find farm food from local farms in and around the Lehigh Valley,” Tessa explained.

“Our own organically grown vegetables, organic sourdough and gluten free breads, are being supplemented by pastured, organic eggs and raw grass fed milk and dairy products from other superb local farmers in the area.

To find out more about Willow Haven Farm, go to willowhavenfarmpa.com