The 2021 CSA season will be beginning for our members next week on Thursday June 3, 2021. On the farm, the 2021 season began in December of 2020 when we put in our seed orders and started the process of changing over to a new member management software. We appreciate your patience with the hiccups as we learn and put the new software into action! The tech side of CSA farming is a challenge for us. We are excited to be using CSAware, though. We like the online add-on store and the ability of our members to put holds on your CSA deliveries. If you are a member who is having any trouble with your account, setting hold dates, or anything else, let us know. It might take us a little while to figure out, but we will do our best to help!
Other than the office and electronic side of farming, our season began with our first calf being born on March 12. The theme this season for naming heifers is fast food menu items. So we have a calf named Butter Burger and one named Blizzard. We have 12 calves total this season, which means we are milking 12 cows. The pasture is lush and they are all doing well. Cheese making is going in full swing!
The other part of the beginning of the season besides starting seeds in the propagation house is welcoming the 2021 farming crew. We have a whole new crew this season. Magdalen, Isaac, Anabell, and Ann are all living and working on the farm. They started with a grand challenge of putting up a new high tunnel that used to belong to our friends at Steady Hand Farm. The crew was very much up to the challenge and did a really fabulous job! It looks great, as do all the plants growing inside. Everyone has also been planting seeds, transplanting, weeding, moving irrigation around, harvesting early greens, learning animal chores, and being wonderfully flexible as weather and circumstances throw all sorts of lessons in adaptability and perseverance our way.
It’s been such a cool spring! But things are looking beautiful in the hoop houses, so they will carry our first delivery. Hopefully we get some warmer weather soon so that everything planted outside will hurry up and grow! And we really are hopeful that the plants survive these suddenly very cold nights… Big big big hopes that we don’t have to re-plant all of the winter squash, corn, peppers, tomatoes, and other warm weather loving crops. Everything that we could cover is covered, but wow, this is so late to have temps in the low 30s…. So it’s a little touch and go for the first boxes with the wild temperatures we’ve had. Things in the field that we expected to be ready like radishes are on pause with the cool weather. But things in the greenhouse are ready to go! Here’s our projections for the first box:
herb pot
spinach
romaine lettuce
arugula
salad mix
bok choy
salad turnips?
rhubarb?
Cheese shares will have a square of camembert (First Snow)!
If you aren’t a fan of salads and greens, remember that you have 6 holds to schedule if you are a 16 week member and 2 holds to schedule if you are a 20 week member. You can log into your account to schedule a hold. Holds can be placed until Tuesday morning. Let us know if you need help!
I’ve also added coffee to the store! This item as well as mushrooms (when they are available) can be added on a week to week basis. Not as a subscription, but as needed. Let us know if you have any questions about that!
Thanks to the farm crew for all the photos. We are looking forward to the first delivery! Think warm thoughts and we will see you next week!
