What a delight! Two Newsletters in one week. Must be a bit slow on the farm eh Chris? Au contraire mon frere. In reality there is a lot going on, that’s why we need two newsletters. That and the fact we forgot to put some stuff in the last newsletter. Oh, and there’s an update to the news in the last newsletter. So without further ado, here are the important things you need to know:
Garlic Planting Saturday October 2nd.
For those new to farming and for those with serious memory issues that allow every day to be a new day, we like to inform you that garlic is planted in the fall. Fall is fast approaching. So it must be time to plant garlic. Much like the over-the-top fun we had planting potatoes in the spring, garlic planting in the Fall provides an equal opportunity for merriment and excitement. This kind of excitement should be shared and you are just the people to share it with. Come join us on Saturday October 2nd from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm or so. Learn the important life-skill of planting garlic. We will provide lunch so we’d like you to RSVP. Rain day will be Sunday October 3rd. If the rain prevents us from working both days we will move the party to the following weekend. Come out and enjoy the fresh air, get a little dirty and have a lot of fun!
Recruiting for 2011
We will start recruiting for the 2011 season very shortly (as soon as we get the order form together). As we’ve done in most years we allow people to join for next year at this year’s price – as long as you get us your order by the end of October. We don’t need full payment at this time, just a deposit of $100 to show us you are serious. We can not honor this year’s prices for resale items (e.g. fruit, meat, cheese, etc.), only CSA shares. We will send out another message as soon as we are ready to take orders.
One big change for 2011 is that we will no longer have single person shares (though we will grandfather in anyone who currently has a single person share as long as we receive the order by the end of October). Instead we will have two share sizes: Couples Share – good for two people, and a Family Share – good for 3-4 people. We are still determining if we will deliver the Couples Share.
Year-around FruitShare
Since the fruit has been a big hit, and Everett at FruitShare has decided to implement a new plan, but mostly because the fruit has been a big hit, we are adding a year round option for FruitShare. Currently we have two options – Summer /Fall and End of the Year. The Summer /Fall option corresponds to our vegetable season and ends in October. The End of the Year option goes for another two months; it ends in December.
The new option will extend the fruit into the new year. It will be an every-other-week pick-up of certified organic fruit from January through May. For January through March the boxes could include Satsumas, clemantines, tangerines, navels, cara cara, blood oranges, minneolas, kiwi, mango, avocadoes, apples and grapefruits. For April though May you could expect avocadoes, grapefruit, blood oranges, navels, minneolas, strawberries, mangos, Valencia oranges, lemons, kiwi, tangerines, apriums and apricots. Boxes will range in weight from 10 pound to 16 pounds depending on the type of fruit it contains (citrus tends to be heavier than other fruit).
The fruit can be picked up here at the farm or in St. Paul near 94 and Dale St at Rebecca’s house. This is also true for the fruit delivered after the end of our CSA season.
There will be ten weeks of fruit spread over the five months. Total price is $360. Let me know if you are interested. We should have an order form out in the next week or so.
Edamame/Salad Mix/Bok Choi
Just a quick note to let you know we are delaying the harvest of the edamame until next week; it didn’t seem quite ready yet, and with the recent rains it should get better. Also, in case our Wednesday drop-site members were wondering, we included salad mix in Wednesday’s delivery boxes. And finally, we are trying something new with the bok choi. We are harvesting it at a very small size. You should be able to cook it whole – no chopping required. Give it a try and let us know what you think!