With this being the first week of pick-up I want to get a newsletter out today but with it being the first week of pick-up I don’t have time to write a very extensive newsletter. This one will have to suffice. Here are a couple of announcements.
In case you were wondering and weren’t sure I thought I would mention that this is the first week of pick-up. Please plan accordingly.
You can still order add-on items like Fruit, Eggs (one left), Coffee, and ‘Shrooms. For those items that have already been delivered to the farm we will have two of the items for you at its next pick-up to make up for the one you miss.
What will we have this week?
In past years I put this near the bottom of the newsletter but I feel it is time to switch it up a bit. Plus everyone is busier than ever so they typically don’t get to the end of the newsletters (even though that is where I put the really funny jokes). So here it it. But first a quick explanation for the new members.
When I fill out this section it lists everything I can recall we harvested for this week. It doesn’t list what you will get this week. What is the difference you ask? Well, there may not be enough of some items for everyone to get them. What we do is put items into categories that we feel are of “equivalent value” so that each category has enough items so that every share gets an item from that category. Then we determine which of those items will go into our deliver shares and which will remain for on-farm pick-up. We keep track so that we distribute the items across both sets of members over the course of the season. In other words, everyone gets an equivalent amount of every item. So even though it lists an item in this section it doesn’t mean you will get it.
I also add keywords to indicate quantities of each item. If I say “lots” you will get it. If I say “some” there is a reasonable chance. If I say “few” it is probably the beginning or end of that crop’s season so there won’t be very many and its likely you won’t be the one to get it. If there isn’t a descriptive word on an item you will most likely get it.
So what will we have this week? We have lots of green onions, lots of bok choy, a good quantity (hey that wasn’t one of the descriptors!) of green garlic. Some broccoli, some lettuce, some chard, some kale, some snap peas, maybe basil (again “maybe”? what does this mean farmer Chris? [it means it was underwater yesterday so we have no idea whether we will be able to harvest any today]). A reasonable (ok, this is getting old) number of radishes, and a few spinach (we grew it as an experiment this season and it sort of worked). Oh, and also a few zucchinis. And of course, there is always those items I completely forgot, which seem to be more prevalent as I get older.
It is also a ‘Shroom and Coffee week. Eggs, fruit start next week. Flowers will start sometime in the future.
Farm News
It was a soggy start to the harvest season. Rain typically isn’t a big problem until it reaches the ground — then it combines with the soil to become mud — that’s just science (I think they call it a “phase transformation”). So Monday we harvested in the rain and the mud and neither was rejoiced. Other than boots becoming like lead weights the biggest issue was the produce coming in quite dirty and required more washing that typical. So we ran out of time and will be sending a bunch of mud your way. JK. We’ll hopefully get to the rest of it today (Tuesday) so that we keep as much of our mud with us for future farm needs.
Speaking of washing, I recall we still have a bunch of things to wash because of all the mud yesterday so with that I will end this newsletter and get cracking on the washing. In the mean time, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, brain teasers, jokes, etc. do not hesitate to send them my way. Once I get through with all this vegetable washing I’ll try to get around to reading your input.
Joke of the Week
What do you call Chinese cabbage that composes music?
Bach choy.