Featured Farm

Cotton Plains Farm, Inc. is located in the city of Suffolk in Southeast Virginia.  The farm is managed by Joseph H. Barlow, Jr. and Shelley Butler Barlow.  While the operation's primary focus is about 800 acres of row crops, including cotton, soybeans, wheat and corn, it also includes a 12-week Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription garden.

Cotton Plains Farm CSA will have its eighth season in 2012.  Shelley started the CSA in 2005, the year after the farm stopped raising peanuts.  The main ideas behind the CSA were to keep the crop enterprises diversified, to enhance the character of the farming operation in an increasingly urban/suburban setting, to educate the community about local agriculture, and to take advantage of the growing interest in local produce.

The CSA has had as few as 20 and as many as 50 subscribers over the years.  Currently, they offer 30 shares, which fits their management and labor situation the best. Shelley offers two size shares and two pick-up days over a 12-week season, starting in early June and going through late August.   All customers select their share size, pick-up day and location, and pay for the season by mid-May. Baskets are delivered to two drops points, or customers can opt to pick up at the farm.

Weekly baskets contain a mixture of whatever crops are being harvested that week, so the mix varies throughout the season.  Currently, about 40 different crops are grown, including some herbs and many specialty crops.  Shelley's favorite crop is tomatoes with 15-20 varieties, including many heirlooms, in all colors and sizes.  We also have offered lettuces, Asian greens, pak choi, mustard greens, turnips, radishes, onions, potatoes, beets, kohlrabi, rutabagas, peppers, eggplant, watermelon, cantaloupe, specialty melons, sweet corn, snap beans, butterbeans, edamame, crowder peas, okra, squash & cucumbers.   The CSA policy is to share the farm's success and/or failure with its customers, which means a bounty of some crops and maybe none of others, depending on the growing season.  Shelley tries to provide ideas for preparing vegetables, especially crops that are new to her customers, such as edamame.

The farm depends heavily on volunteer labor from friends and last year, a local high school student, mostly for harvesting, but also for garden work and assembling the weekly baskets.  Thankfully, the volunteers are happy to be paid in whatever produce they want at the end of the day.  They do not offer a "formal" work share, but loosely use this arrangement with current helpers.

The CSA has become a small, but significant part of the farming business.  While not as economically important to the operation as cotton or soybeans, its most essential benefit has been providing many opportunities to interact and educate people in the community about local agriculture.

You can find the farm on Facebook as Cotton Plains Farm, as well as the Virginia Grown and Save Our Food Websites. E-mail Shelley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it