Just a bunch of stuff to tied us over until the 40 days and 40 nights are done.
This is the first week of the season! It is interesting how the various first weeks have gone over the last 12 years. Some seasons the first week is great. Everything timed out perfectly. The weather cooperated. The veggies were abundant. Life was good. 2012 was such a year. And then there are years like this year, and last year. In these two years the season got off to a rough start. Spring was late. We could hardly get started in April. Even after it was warm enough to plant we had trouble finding dry weather to actually do the planting. The result? Our early brassicas (broccoli, kohlrabi and kale) are delayed. Our onions are small, as is our lettuce. The garlic hasn’t even started putting out scapes. The snap peas are just now forming. The Swiss chard could use more time to grow. And the beets are nothing more than roots. As you can see in the neighboring picture this is not always the case (click on it to see a larger view).
But we work with what Mother Nature gives us. So this season will most likely start slow but build big. Some of the items we usually give out the first few weeks will be delayed until a bit later. Other things that typically come later will arrive around the usual time. The result will be approximately the same amount of produce over the whole season but with smaller amounts in the first few weeks and larger amounts in later weeks. So don’t be shocked about the slim pickings in this first week. It will get better — promise.
What will we have? Well, we can harvest bok choi, scallions, green garlic, Swiss chard, and lettuce. The questions will be how much of each and how big will they be? The answer will be in your share. Here are a few announcements: The only other share this week is CoffeeShare. Plan to pick up your coffee at the usual place and time.
July 4th is no different than any other Friday in July as far as the veggies are concerned. We will be providing produce as usual so plan to pick-up as usual. If Friday is your usual pick-up day and you can’t make it and would like to switch to a different day please contact me so we can accommodate your request. Our calendar has the pick-up times. If you pick up at one of our Friday drop sites and want to switch to a different pick-up day here at the farm also please let me know. We aren’t that far from the city so it should be worth the trip.
Pinterest: We have a Pinterest page. Feel free to check it out. It is primarily recipes. If you would like to contribute to the page please follow our page, then let me know your interest in contributing; I will add you to the group. Of course you can just follow the page without contributing if that is your preference.
Problems: If you have any problems with any of the items we sell, whether it is something we grow or something we resell, please contact me as soon as possible with as much information as possible and I will do my best to resolve the problem. Though we are completely transparent with who we use as our suppliers it is best to go through us to resolve any issues with our resale items. Contacting the supplier directly only creates more confusion. In many cases we can solve the issue without getting the other company involved. Finally if one person has a problem there may be others with the same problem so keeping track of these situations is important. Having said all this it is also important to remember that the items we sell are perishable. Storing them appropriately and using them in a timely manner are important to your enjoyment of our products. And as we all know, perishable items are like children; you can treat them perfectly and they can still misbehave — but hopefully that is a rare occurrence.
For those who need to switch email addresses: There are two email lists for information we send out. One list is for our newsletter. The newsletter is available to anyone worldwide who wants to receive it. It is sent via email by a Google service called Feedburner. You can sign-up to receive it by selecting the “By email” link on our home page. It will request your email address then send you a confirmation email where you have to click to confirm you do indeed want to receive future emails from us. If you no longer want to receive newsletter emails to this address there is an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of every newsletter email sent via Feedburner. Click on the link then click on “Yes” to complete the unsubscribing. We leave the subscribing and unsubscribing to this list up to your discretion. Some people like receiving newsletters via email. Others prefer Twitter. Still others use Facebook (though that is unreliable). And finally still others use RSS. You choose how you want to read the newsletter. We ask only that you spend a few minutes each week skimming it.
The other email list we maintain is for current members. We send information to this email list occasionally when the information is urgent, specific or not for public consumption. I maintain this list so if you need to change your address you can send me an email. This does not update your newsletter email address. As mentioned above, it is up to you to maintain your approach to reading it. So if you change your email address you need to let me know and, if you choose to receive the newsletter via email, subscribe to the newsletter with your new email address. It would be good to unsubscribe the old email address as well I suppose. If this isn’t clear please let me know and I will try again to explain it.
We still have shares available so spread the word. I’m not sure why recruiting new members slowed so dramatically the last couple of months… We can still take orders for Fruit, Cheese, Eggs (1 or 2 still available), Flowers, Winter, Coffee (prorated) and Meat (prorated). Let me know if you’d like to order any of these items. Plus Budding Farmers is still taking orders for their educational program. Check them out if you want your kids to be smarter.
Finally, I had to talk to the people in charge to get some better weather. Hopefully Dave Dahl will follow through on our requests.