This is the last week of the season. Please plan accordingly.
A few announcements to get things started.
We now have pricing for winter FruitShare. Winter FruitShare is like Summer FruitShare but in the winter and with different fruit. On a dreary winter day it is like having a taste of warm sunshine in every bite! We have pick-up here at the farm and at a drop site near 94 and Dale St. The first pick-up will be on Wednesday November 20th. I need orders sooner than that of course. This year we will have fourteen boxes of fruit from mid-November until the end of May. The price is $644. Payment plans are available.
We can also do other shares like meat, cheese, eggs, etc. if given enough interest. Let me know if you would like any of these as well and I will look into it.
The salmon for SalmonShare arrived on Monday evening. We got the last two months delivered this month so we will parcel it out accordingly. Small shares will get four pounds. Large shares will get 10 pounds. Please remember to pick up your salmon at your usual place and time.
We also have the last portion of the winter shares. This week we will have potatoes. Plan to pick these up at your usual pick-up location. As a suggestion for the squash: use the pumpkins first. Then the spaghetti, carnival and delicate squash. Then the acorns. Then the butternut and red kuri. Keep them in a cool dry spot where you can check on them weekly. If you notice any soft spots use them that day; you can always cook them and freeze them for later use. The potatoes are all pretty good keepers but the red ones might have a bit shorter shelf life. The yellow onions are the longest keepers of the onions, though the red cipolinis store really well too. Shallots are usually the longest keepers of the onion-like items.
Last chance for organic HoneyCrisp apples. We have a few bags left. Let me know if you would like some.
We have had a tremendous response to our Early Bird sign-up for next season. If you plan to rejoin please send in $100 down payment to reserve your spot. No need to fill out an order form if all your contact information is the same. Also don’t forget to tell your friends and neighbors about the farm. If they sign-up we will credit your account $25.
We have bags of onions for sale. 10 pounds for $15. These onions should last into next year. Let me know if you’d like a bag or two.
What is on the menu for this week? A whole bunch of stuff. We’ll have parsnips, Brussels sprouts, rutabagas, peppers (yes more peppers!), potatoes, onions, carrots, shallots, some leeks, garlic, some beets, some cabbage, kohlrabi, a few winter squash and a few other odds and ends.
Sometime in the next month or so we will send out for our annual member survey. If you have any questions I should ask please let me know!
Farm Update: We had our first killing frost this past weekend and our first deep freeze last night. It was 21 degrees here this morning. I haven’t yet surveyed what has survived. Sometimes you won’t know until a day or two later. I know the peppers are dead. So are the beans. I’ll take a look in the hoop house later today to see if the tomatoes survived – I’m thinking not. 21 degrees is pretty cold for tomatoes even inside a structure. The Brussels sprouts looked happy as did the kale. The underground crops (carrots, potatoes, rutabagas and parsnips) should be fine and in fact should be tastier with the cold.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention and thank the two workers who survived this year’s season. Both have been with us for several years. Rebecca, who many of you have met, has been working here since I don’t know when – probably the third year of the farm. She is an invaluable asset and makes the farm far more efficient than it would be otherwise. She not only spends a lot of time doing the actual farming but is also a great resource to bounce ideas off of. Her critical thinking skills have helped “save the day” a few times.
This is Simon’s third season working on the farm. He has really blossomed this year and taken on more responsibility with far less supervision. His work ethic and sense of humor have gotten us through the hottest and coldest days of the season. We couldn’t have succeeded this year without the dedication, determination and hard work of these two. If you see them by the pick-up tent do not hesitate to thank them.
I should also mention another couple people who stepped up when we needed help. First Aleta spent one day per month – starting in March – helping us do everything we do here, from planting in the greenhouse to harvesting potatoes in the fall. Having her here just a day per month resulted in a far more successful year than we would otherwise have had. She worked on one of the hottest days and one of the coldest (up to that point). She always left here with a big smile and a vow to return again next month – no matter which dirty, horrible, grungy job we gave her.
Aaron, another volunteer member of the farm, stepped up when we needed him most – at the end of the season when we lost one of our crew. Aaron spent a couple days a week here for three or four weeks helping harvest, wash and pack all the produce we provided to our members. Aaron liked working here so much that he convinced his wife Sonya to spend a vacation day helping out. Fortunately for Aaron, and unfortunately for us, he found an Aerospace Engineering job that curtailed his future in farming. We thank him greatly and wish him well and look forward to next season when he will finally have his own vacation days available to spend on the farm.
I noticed the frost has finally melted so I best get out and start digging up something. As always, let me know if you have any questions, comments, jokes, etc.