Good thing February occasionally has 29 days. Otherwise this February newsletter would be late.
It has been a while since I last updated everyone on farm happenings. Sorry for the silence but it is due to a couple very important reasons. First, the only thing growing here are snowbanks and second, the only thing being plowed is snow. Otherwise all is quiet. We will be starting the greenhouse this coming week. Hopefully it will warm up soon.
We completed the seed order for 2014. We are adding a few new things including sweet potatoes, a hulless popcorn, various odd looking winter squash (just a few for the fun of it), a couple new hot peppers, broccoli/Chinese broccoli cross (the goal being a better early broccoli), red bunching onions, celeriac (a celery flavored root veggie), an Italian eggplant to complement the Japanese eggplant, an orange pepper, a few different heirloom tomatoes and a seedless watermelon. We are also bringing back the Daikon radishes. It will be interesting to see how well the sweet potatoes do. I’ve heard mixed results from other farmers in the upper Midwest. We tried growing them many years ago and only got thin sticks. We’ll give it another try this season – half of them in the hoop house and the rest out in the field – with two different varieties – Beauregard and Covington.
As I mentioned last season we are looking to create cages for our tomatoes. In the past we tried a number of ways to keep them off the ground with little success. Either the approach was too time consuming, it prevented us from cultivating or it just plain didn’t work. This season we are creating cages out of concrete reinforcement mesh. I priced out the cost at the local big box store and we can get the mesh for approximately $0.70 per foot. Doesn’t sound too bad until you figure it takes six feet per cage or $4.00 per cage. Even that doesn’t sound too bad until you realize in the past we grew 700+ tomato plants (for those who are mathematically challenged the total cost for 700 cages is a lot of money, or more precisely $2,800!) So we of course will not be creating 700 cages but will create a couple hundred at least. Therefore, we are looking for a source of concrete reinforcement mesh that is cheaper than $0.70 per foot. If anyone knows of one please let me know ASAP.
Speaking of costs, in the news lately there is a lot of talk about raising the minimum wage to $10/hour. This got me thinking about the wages we pay our employees. Suffice it to say we don’t pay our employees nearly enough. The work they do far exceeds the amount of compensation they receive. Unfortunately raising their wages raises our costs and raises the price you pay for your produce. As a quick calculation, I thought it would be interesting to determine how much it would increase the price. If we were to raise the wages of our employees to $10/hour, the cost of a FamilyShare would increase about $45. A CoupleShare would increase by about $30. I would be interested to hear from you, our members, if you would be willing to pay the extra amount to raise the wages of our employees. We won’t do it this season but may consider it next year if the market will bear it. With this increase I question whether we could compete as effectively to attract new members but I think it is worth exploring. Farming in Washington County isn’t cheap but I feel if we want truly local food we have to grow food near our customers.
Speaking of customers, we are ahead of last year’s recruiting, which is great! I suggest if you plan to rejoin and haven’t that you get moving soon. Also if you know anyone else who is looking for a CSA farm to join please send them our way. We offer a $25 referral credit as our thanks!
It’s not really a newsletter without mentioning all the other items besides veggies you can purchase from us. Here is a quick rundown with links. Payment are available so don’t let that be a reason not to enjoy all these wonderful, delicious, nutritious, environmentally sound items. Seafood, Salmon, Fruit, Cheese, Meat, Eggs, Coffee, Flowers, Winter and Education (Budding Farmers)!
That is all for now. Feel free to send in questions, comments, jokes, ideas, etc.