Green Gate Farms

I visited the farm today with my 2 babies! It is so awesome to be able to be a part of a CSA that is right in town so we can visit, volunteer, and my family can be a part of the community! Plus my 1 year old LOVES the pet goat! :)

This is wonderful local organic farm with great produce and meat. Our family’s only issue is with what seems to be an unorganized office and generally unfriendly owner. We recently signed up for the Fall 2015 Meat and Vegetable CSA. We were informed of the first meat pickup date, went to pickup on that day, but were told that it would not be ready until a later date. We should have been informed via email but that somehow didn’t happen. When I informed the staff of the lack of email they did offer me a smaller package of leftover meat to purchase, but did almost nothing to guarantee that we would get future email notifications. That seemed to be our problem to deal with. When I asked co-​owner Erin if we could get the smaller pack of meat at a slight discount to make-​up for the mistake on their part, I was basically told that such an idea would be ridiculous as «they make barely any money from their meat CSA». As a paying customer, I only expect a business owner to address problems with kindness and understanding. Erin showed neither with her response. I would have been fine with her answer of no, if she had simply apologized and explained why they could not offer such a discount. She also went on to talk negatively about another farm that I mentioned we used to get a CSA from. Why she would bad mouth another local farm doing similarly great work, I don’t know. It certainly didn’t increase my desire to remain her customer.
I also have noticed over the years that we have been getting veggies from Green Gate that Erin has never gone out of her way to be friendly or welcoming to farm visitors. It was only now that I experienced her unfriendliness face to face. I very well understand how difficult it must be to run a small organic farm business, but that is no reason to take that out on paying customers who support what they do.

The quality of the vegetables from the farm is exceptional and I will likely continue to buy from them at markets, but the execution of the CSA is sub-​par.
We signed up for the Spring and Summer season and and were immediately met with communication issues. This Spring’s challenging weather lead to some completely understandable delays in production, but a lack of communication regarding these delays lead to us showing up at our pickup location to find that no vegetables had been delivered twice before an update was made. Information about the contents of the weekly shares was not sent out for several of our pickups, and those emails only came the day before when they did come, and only to one of the two email addresses on our account. This made it very difficult to plan meals.
The member list for our pickup location (Lenoir on S. 1^st) was sometimes not provided, resulting in one occasion in which there were no shares remaining when we arrived to pick up, leading to a drive out to the farm the next day to get our share.
After not renewing for the Fall season, we were still auto-​drafted an additional $ 50. Upon asking for a refund for this $ 50 we were offered credit with the farm rather than simply refunding our credit card. This issue is still pending and may need to be resolved with a chargeback.
Overall we just didn’t feel like we got value from our membership at all commensurate with our support of the farm. Again, wonderful vegetables that I’ll continue to buy from them at farmers markets, but I cannot recommend the CSA.

Toured this past week by invitation of one of the kids that took their one week summer camp. The enthusiasm of the children was infectious. They did not have enough shares for extra folks to buy but the concept and ability to join a CSA was way cool. We did cook some of the veggies the same day as picked. Having children interested in veggies in a new light, fantastic.
Pricey for these campers, but the lessons learned are life long. Incredibly fun to see children understand food does not come from Traders Joe’s, but from a farm. Not sure these children understood the process of roaming pigs resulting in bacon. The owners market the farm extensively. A future generation is educated on sustainability. Outstanding!

I attended their monthly Adult Farm Camp and LOVED it! It’s four hours of full-​on local farm goodness, complete with crop tours, baby piglet cuddles, and detailed information on urban farming in Texas. If you have the chance to attend, you should go!

these guys are awesome, and their farm fresh food is as good as it gets. buy local!

The other reviews have the great quality of the produce down, but haven’t mentioned the farm camps! This is one of the few working farms that actually let kids participate in the operations, and be a part of how their food is produced. As for the adult farm camps, I don’t know of a better way to kickstart your own backyard efforts, or just have some outdoor fun. If you haven’t had a good dig in the dirt lately, this is the place to do it!

Green Gate Farm is a real gem of Austin. I love to go out on Saturday monrnings to the farm stand and wander the premesis. We are really lucky here in Austin to have the ability to see where our food literally comes from! The grounds are beautiful, and there are chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, a horse, two friendly lumbering dogs, and a great host of farmers and volunteers to help you around the lovely fields and stand.
I reccomend a trip out there or their CSA. It’s a great value and you’re truly helping be a part of genuine farm work.

I volunteered here one day and was rewarded with a bunch of veggies from the «seconds” – veggies not quite pretty enough for the members, but still perfectly good and healthy. Volunteering was awesome enough: smelling the dark earth, playing with a baby goat, preparing large garlics to dry in the barn attic, and seeing how happy hogs are to get the remnants of already-​harvested garden plants. But as for the veggies I got to take home, they were fun stuff I hadn’t tried – broccoli greens, garlic scapes, etc. Green gate grows lots of heirloom and exotic variaties.
I just joined the CSA (community sustained agriculture), which means I get to pick up a share of the crops every other week (I didn’t think I could eat enough for every week), and I can’t wait for my first batch next week! It comes out to $ 10/​per person a week. Will update soon!

A friend and I decided to join a CSA last Spring, and spent some time researching the different farms in the Austin area. We selected Green Gate because of the location (its one of the few farms actually IN Austin city limits), the variety of produce they offered, and the overall value. Every Saturday morning, we would take the short drive to the farm to get our fresh veggies. Some other CSA’s have your veggies all bagged up for you ready to go. Green Gate does it a little differently, and we like their way much better. For CSA members, there is a chalkboard listing what is in the weekly share (i.e. 2 heads of broccoli, a bag of green beans, 1 head of each variety of lettuce, etc…) and then like at the farmer’s market, you get to select your own.
They also have a farm stand for non-​CSA members or in case you need an extra squash (but trust me, you will never need an extra squash!), some eggs, fresh meat, flowers, or a tomato plant, you can pick that up there and skip the grocery store altogether. We really enjoyed our bounty and discovered some new veggies (hooray for kohlrabi!). We are eagerly awaiting the first Fall harvest.
But be forewarned-​you get a LOT of veggies and things could get ugly. Between my friend and me, we were feeding 2 two-​member households. The veggies had no shame, and why should they? They were fresh, young, delectable. They took over my refrigerator and ganged up to intimidate my other food. Tortillas were hiding in the back, trying to go unnoticed. Yogurt was cowering behind Salsa, while Salsa was just trying to blend in. I found non organic store-​bought Carrots withered and dead in the deli drawer. It appears to have been a suicide, but that was the last straw for the older inhabitants of my fridge. I could tell they were planning something big. After the Carrots incident I had to start giving away my excess veggies before there was a Mutiny on the Bounty.

There is just something about buying local farm food that makes me all a tingle. This weekened my favorite 6 year old son and I went for a romp down the 130 corridor to visit Green Gate. They were hosting a farm and art class for kids and I signed him up.
He was there for two hours and had a great time learning about what they grew and the animals and creating art and exploring the farm land. Lotta fun for a boy from Brooklyn.
Owners were extremely friendly and helpful. Their selection was not huge, but it was pretty unique (I think). Picked up some radiiccio (sp?) and sorrel. They had some aramanth growing (which was beautiful) so I will be back.

Last night I attended a slow food potluck dinner hosted by the Green Gate owners Skip and Erin. It’s a beautiful place that has you surprised you are in the Austin City Limits.
After dinner, we were given an hour long tour of the property. The farm house is from the Bergstrom Family homestead of the 1880’s. It was previously a hippie commune for many years and when it was purchased, the property had not been well taken care of.
Now it’s beautiful. There are many fields of crops including, various lettuces, squash, potatoes, fennel, watermelons, tomatoes, and peas all grown organically and without chemicals. They also have some livestock including chickens, pigs sheep and goats. The animals seem to have a happy life on the farm and are kept in larger areas on the farm and not small pens.
Go on by this weekend and see what they have to offer. I saw a large garlic pulled from the ground and ready to eat.
Farm stand hours are:
Tuesdays, 4 – 6; Fridays, 12 – 6; Saturdays, 10 – 2. Open rain or shine, March — December.

the husband and i had a wonderful weekend and it all started off with a trip to green gate farms to purchase local produce during their «farm store» hours.
i woke up saturday not feeling well and slowly got myself together with coffee and breakfast. by the time i was ready to hit the farmer’s market, it was 12:30 and everything i found online closed at 1, except for green gate! we were super psyched when we mapped it out and it was only 6 miles from our home.
we were welcomed with smiles and helpful information about some of the produce we bought that we had never seen before. we discovered a unique form of garlic that looked like leeks and green onions made a baby, but when we got it home and cooked it… really nice garlic flavor. also, have you ever seen blue/​purple potatoes? we hadn’t and when we cut them open, they were so beautiful, i almost didn’t want to cook them.
we also bought greens and a pepper plant for our garden.
when we sat down to eat and looked at the beautiful food we had picked out that morning, i was overwhelmed with a sense of something i can’t quite put my finger on. i know it had to do with the fact that i saw where these items came from, picked them out myself and the only transport they ever saw was a ride home in our car. everything tasted so wonderful and it felt good not to add miles to our carbon footprint.
i see this as a weekly stop for us. thanks green gate!

Great local farm to buy your veggies from… NOT organic but similar:
(Certified Naturally Grown — no pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers)
I’ve found that their prices are a LOT lower than some other farms closer to downtown (which makes sense, as their land is more expensive)…
Current (Fall ’08) Farm Store Hours:
Fridays: Noon-​2, 4 – 7
Saturdays: 10 – 2
They also offer CSA memberships.