The farm continues to produce a lot of produce, which is making it hard to keep up! This will be a short newsletter so I can get out there and harvest more stuff.
The only share other than VeggieShares is FlowerShare – pumpkins this week!
We have certified organic apples from Elm Tree Farm of Afton. Hard to find certified organic apples grown in Minnesota much less just down the street so we consider ourselves fortunate to be able to offer them to our members. Right now we have Honeycrisps and some Sweet 16. Soon we will also have Haralsons. The price for the Honeycrisps are 3# for $10 or 5# for $15. Sweet 16 are 3# for $8 or 5# for $13. We can deliver them to drop sites as well!
We have eggs available from our chickens. These chickens are raised on pasture and bad tomatoes; any tomato we grow not consumed by our members goes to our chickens. This results in delicious eggs! Price is $5/dozen. We can deliver these as well.
This week looks similar to last week when it comes to veggies. No frost yet so the summer plants keep producing (for the most part). This week we will have carrots, potatoes (some of the russets and a larger potato called Kennebec), onions (I think we will be giving out the yellow cipollinis this week), garlic, watermelon, salad mix (lettuce mix and the spicy mix), chard, kale, broccoli, cauliflower (the last of the summer cauliflower), cabbage, the last of the edamame, green beans, beets, tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and eggplants. We have winter squash and pie pumpkins that can be harvested but with all this other stuff we feel we need to hold off on the squash until some of these wind down. Now you understand the first line in this newsletter.
Tomatoes. Over the winter, we are looking at creating a bunch of tomato cages out of concrete reinforcement mesh. The goal is to put more effort into fewer tomato plants next year resulting in a similar amount of tomatoes but of higher quality. We’ve tried many trellising systems over the years and they all had issues. We are hoping the tomato cages – though initially more expensive – will be easier to install and maintain and result in tomatoes that have fewer defects and diseases. So, if you have access to cheap rolls of concrete reinforcement mesh please contact me.
2014 Season. We are accepting orders for the 2014 season. You can lock in this year’s price for next season veggies by putting a down a payment of $100. If your contact information hasn’t changed you can just send in a check, otherwise fill out the order form. New members need to fill out the order form and send it in with payment. We’ve already received a half dozen or so renewals, Thank you!
Winter Storage Share. We still have a few Winter Storage Shares available. A full share is $95 and includes 5 lbs. of onions, 2 lbs. of garlic, 2 lbs. of shallots, 20 lbs. of potatoes and 20 lbs. of winter squash. Half shares are also available for $50. Let me know if you would like to order one.
Garlic Planting October 12th at 2:00. This is another great opportunity to see your farm and participate in the farming process. We will plant garlic from 2:00 until complete then fire up the bonfire for a potluck dinner. There is stand-up work. There is sit down work. And there is crawl on the ground work. Please RSVP ASAP so we know how many people will be here. And I promise it will not be 96 degrees.
I think this is all for now. Sorry the newsletters have been so boring. That’s what happens when there is too much to do.