For the past few Saturday mornings, you may have noticed that Jason Kleinhans of Clean Genes Farm has been at the parking lot where the Kingston Springs Farmer’s and Artisans Market bustled all summer long. Did he miss the memo about the end of the season? Has he not wondered why there are no booths set up and he has the entire asphalt expanse all to himself? Not to worry. Jason is not confused; it’s just that the growing season at Clean Genes Farm never ends! As a result, Clean Genes Farm is able to take on-line orders and deliver fresh, healthy, organic produce to the residents of Kingston Springs and Pegram every week, all year long!
As the Clean Gene website reflects, Jason and his wife, Sara, cultivate on one acre of land. By utilizing grow-intensive techniques, they are able to generate an abundance of food in a very small space. The season-extensions allow them to grow microgreens and lettuces all year-round. Clean Genes as made it very easy for folks in the area to eat fresh lettuce and other greens not just during the traditional local growing season, but throughout the fall and winter as well. As Jason stated on the farm’s Facebook page, “Lettuce be your salad headquarters…….” For those market -goers who have met Jason this past summer, you will no doubt be smiling and rolling your eyes. In his defense though, he IS a dad of three and that definitely qualifies him to tell a corny dad-joke.
Log on to https://cleangenesfarm.com and you will find the tab for Jason and Sara’s “On-line Farmer’s market.” It’s easy to sign up and order online from a menu of fresh lettuces and salad mixes in various sizes and bundles, tatsoi (like spinach), mizuna (baby mild mustard greens), sunflower shoots, pea shoots, micro salad mix, radish shoots, broccoli/kale shoots, spinach, arugula, and a multitude of microgreens. The salad bundles include a lettuce mix, a specialty green, a microgreen and a salad dressing of the week. On a personal note, I had Sara’s Garlic-Oregano vinaigrette a few weeks ago and even used it to dip some warm pita bread in! The prices are quite phenomenal and the freshness are flavor are unrivaled by anything green found in the grocery stores which usually has traversed across the United States in the back of a semi-truck. One very large chain grocery store in Tennessee that advertises “local” produce defines local as being “within 400 miles of the area……..” Somehow, fresh produce traveling less than 40 miles down Highway 70 from an organic, pesticide and herbicide-free family farm and personally handed to you by the farmer himself seems like a much better way to go.
Online ordering is open each week beginning at 8 am on Wednesdays and closing at 8 am on Fridays. Clean Genes Farm customers who place an order will secure a Saturday pick up in Kingston Springs Farmers Market Parking lot, every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Welcome to on-line shopping meets healthy living meets fresh produce meets a farmer’s market that never closes!