I’ve said it many times before but it is always worth saying again. CSA farming is an exciting career. Ok, maybe I never said that before but it is. How many of you in non-CSA-farming occupations get a call in the morning from a reporter at a local TV station who wants to do a story about the effect of the rainy weather on your vegetable production? I see no hands raised. Just as I thought. Well this is exactly what happened to me this week.
Kate Renner, a reporter at KSTP-TV, gave me a call on Monday asking if I’d be willing to stand before millions of viewers and admit that the farm’s first week’s share was on the skimpy side. Somehow she knew I was a sucker for the limelight. Plus she didn’t really ask me in the way described above. So I fell for it. “Sure”, I said, “It will be great to admit how Mother Nature is defeating me this spring.” She said she’d be here around 11:00. “Oh, and can you find a customer who is equally naïve about my intentions?” she added.
Now if Kate is reading this she will be the first to admit my recollection is completely false and that her intention was to show how CSA members are welcoming the slow ramp up of veggies in their shares. She will state that from her investigation she has found that members prefer to not shock their systems with a sudden intake of delicious, fresh, locally-grown, healthful, organic produce — especially after a long, cold, snowy winter. Her investigation will also show that 4 out of 5 dentists recommend locally-grown leafy greens for their patients who chew leafy greens. Obviously she has ulterior motives.
The first thing I noticed when I saw the KSTP-TV van was that they were lost. For those unfamiliar with the farm, 65th Street passes to the north of our property and our farm can be easily seen from the road. Few people would approach the farm from 65th since there isn’t much at the other end of 65th except for a small neighborhood. And what tipped me off that they were lost is they turned right instead of left when they got to Oakgreen Ave. An unfortunately common occurrence since most people assume the numbers on our street are in numerical order. Why would anyone ever think that? I knew it was only a matter of time until they realize their mistake – a mistake I will use to my advantage.
Of course once they got here Kate used her charms and friendly demeanor to try to put me at ease. This made me uneasy. I’m not used to people treating me well. Why was she doing this. It is obvious she has a plan — and evil plan. That is when I started to get that sinking feeling. Looking down I noticed I was standing ankle deep in mud.
Climbing back onto dry land, we ambled down the drive to find a scenic location for our photo-shoot. Something that was not too beautiful to distract viewers from my humble appearance. I’m not sure photo-shoot is the right technical term, especially since it wasn’t photos they were shooting but I choose to use it since it makes me feel like a fashion model. She recommended I look at her and not the camera. Maybe recommended is a bit weak. She insisted I look at her and not the camera. “Why would she want this”, I wondered. Obviously she is trying to give me a “whammy”. I used the only defense I had at the time, my sunglasses. Hopefully they will prevent her from using her abilities as a reporter to hypnotize me into admitting how small the first week’s share was.
Her approach was professional – as in hitman professional. Obviously she sensed my skepticism, a skepticism that wasn’t waylaid during our initial interaction. So she lobbed me a softball question, hoping to put me off balance.
“Please state your name – first and last – and spell them for me.”
How diabolical. The pure evil in this woman was incomprehensible. This was a foe much more wily than the squash bugs I typically deal with. I will have to use my superior brain power to outwit my opponent.
“Chris James. C-H-R-I-S J-A-M-E-S”.
Ha, I didn’t use my full name and she didn’t catch it. Chris 1, Kate 0!
The rest of the interview was a blur but I knew I never admitted to having a slow start or that I feel like I need to apologize to my members for the lack of produce this first week. I had won! …and then the tape came out.
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3483529.shtml
Yikes! Did I really say that? Did I fully admit that Mother Nature is getting the better of me this season? That lettuce, green garlic, bok choi, and green onions weren’t worth $540? I don’t think so. If you look carefully at the film, you will notice that my lips do not match the words being spoken — at least that is how it appears to me. And as we all know my voice does not sound like that; mine is a more George Clooney like mellifluous bass. Obviously they overdubbed some other person’s voice and words on top of mine. Clever. Very Clever. You won this one Kate Renner, but I look forward to our next match in August when I invited her back to take a look at how the wet spring affected the rest of the season.
As she was leaving, she looked me in the eye and asked, “Do you mind if I take some of your produce? We’d like to use it for a display on the news.” My mind said, “No!” but my lips said, “Sure, what would you like? Take anything. Anything at all.” In hindsight I realized I was whammied. Incredibly my $19 polarized sunglasses were no match for her extraordinary professional reporter skills.
What will we have this week? Great question! Some more things are ramping up, Yay! We should have lettuce, bok choi, Swiss chard, garlic scapes, green garlic, snap peas, summer squash, small broccoli, maybe radishes, maybe kohlrabi and maybe kale. For those new to the farm, and those long term members with only short term memory, you will not get everything we mention in this list. These are all the things we can harvest. However since most veggie production follows a bell-shaped curve many of these items will be in short supply their first week in the shares. So we distribute them to either the delivery boxes or the pick-up shares — and then make a note of it so the next week if there is still a short supply we give the small quantity to members who haven’t received them yet. In other words we try to balance out all the produce so everyone has a equal chance of getting it. To find out what is actually in a delivery share go to “Weekly Produce” on our web site and see pictures of the actual produce delivered. The pictures are typically posted by 3:00 on Wednesday (though occasionally if it is too busy it may get bumped to later that evening).
Other shares this week:
FruitShare arrives this week. It will be a mixed box of grapes, blueberries, nectarines, something else and something else else. I think I am one of those long-term memory issue people.
CheeseShare also arrives this week.
EggShare as well!
And finally SalmonShare and SeafoodShare arrive Thursday morning. Any delivery members who want to pick-up their seafood at the farm please let me know ASAP so we can plan accordingly. For those members who purchased both Seafood and MeatShare and are delivery members I suggest you pick-up both on July 4th when the MeatShare is here; why make two trips?
Note on other shares: Other than MeatShare your other shares will be available at your usual pick-up place and time. If you are picking up seafood be sure to be prompt to your drop site (though some drop sites have volunteered their freezers for your convenience — see the pick-u[p instruction sent earlier this month). If you have any problems with any of these shares please contact me ASAP, even from the drop site if possible. I will try to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
IceCreamShare anyone? We are offering an IceCreamShare through Caste Rock Organic Farms, the suppliers of our cheese and eggs. Are you interested? It is a once/month pick-up (farm only, four months left this season) of delicious, certified organic ice cream from the milk of grass-fed cows. Quite tasty! We have three share sizes: pint, quart, and half-gallon. The half-gallon size has the fewest flavors and includes chocolate, vanilla, sweet cream and molasses chocolate chip. The pints and quarts include those four plus mint chip, strawberry, blueberry, peach and pistachio. The price is $50 for the half gallon size, $30 for quarts and $20 for pints. The target pick-up weeks are July 22nd, August 19th, September 16th and October 14th. To participate send me an email with the size and variety(ies) of ice cream you want each month. No reason to limit yourself to only one IceCreamShare.
That is all for now. And if Kate Renner is reading this newsletter, I apologize for any misrepresentation of the actual events.