With the weather this week looking great for planting I don’t have as much time for writing a newsletter so this will be short (hey, why all the cheering?) First a few announcements.
After a one year absence, returning this year is EggShare! (hey, more cheering!) For everyone who is complaining about all this social distancing, EggShare is one of the few bright spots. What does EggShare have to do with social distancing? Glad you asked! When I was over at Jordan Seeds getting some supplies, we farmers were not allowed in the usual space in front of the order counter. We had to stay outside and interact briefly with the staff to let them know why we were there and who we were. This slowed the process down a bit so like all good farmers we started chatting — first about trucks and then the weather. As we finished with the usual topics the process of getting our supplies was still ongoing. What was there left to talk about? So I happen to ask the other farmer if he knew where I could get organic eggs for my CSA. “As a matter of fact I do” was his response, or something like that. He is part of an Amish farm group that raises veggies and eggs. Long story shortish, they are now our (newish) egg supplier. Why newish and not new you ask? Because they had supplied us with eggs in the past through our relationship with Castle Rock Dairy. Now we are going direct to the source. If you want to add free-range, organic chicken eggs to your shares please order soon so we can get an idea of the demand.
Next, with this social distancing we are offering a new service to on-farm customers (drop site customers already get this service so no complaining). As many of you know, in the past we set up our pick-up tent like a farm stand where our customers would go through the tent and select the produce they take home with them. We will continue this approach with some modifications to reduce potential virus transmission (e.g. only two people in the tent at a time, must sanitize hands prior to selecting produce, kids must be leashed, stuff like that). But for those who want more social distancing — especially those at high risk or that contact high risk individuals — we are offering a prepacked share where you drive up, tell us your name and we load your share — including eggs, fruit, flowers, and coffee if you purchased them — into your vehicle; no need to get out of your car. There is no extra charge for this service though the trade-off is you don’t get to choose what what goes into your share. If you would like this service send me an email and we will indicate it on your account. If you decide later you’d like to go back to the old way just let me know and we can switch you back. We can also switch you from the old way to the prepacked way during the season if you decide you want to be more distant. If you haven’t ordered your share yet there is an option on the on-farm shares to select “Prepacked” if you prefer.
Speaking of not ordering yet, if you haven’t ordered yet, I would highly recommend you order your veggie share soon. We are close to sold out and I don’t want to turn anyone away.
You can still order fruit, eggs, flowers, coffee and winter storage share. All of these can be delivered to drop sites. Please order soon so we can get a good idea of the demand. Herbs/plants are sold out.
If you are not on a payment plan please pay for your shares as soon as possible.
Oh, and we added this share as well. It is in high demand. Hopefully it’s not sold out yet.
Farm News
Everything is going well. We started planting outside yesterday and will continue the rest of the week — weather permitting. Outside this week we plan to plant onions, potatoes, carrots, peas, shallots, green onions, leeks, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, indoor tomatoes, indoor lettuce (hey wait, how can you plant indoors outside? Inside the hoop house which is outdoors silly), kale, and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting. We are also planting more stuff in the greenhouse to transplant in the future. Things like okra, summer squash, zucchini, another round of broccoli. Suffice it to say there is a lot going on.
We are also getting the equipment ready to roll. Sometimes this is the most challenging part of farming.
Well time to get out there and plant something. As always, if you have questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, opinions, extra stimulus money, do not hesitate to send it our way.