A quick announcement then on to farm news.
This year’s Garlic Planting Party is on Saturday October 8th from 2:00 to 5:00 with bonfire and potluck to follow. If Saturday’s weather is not conducive to planting garlic we will switch to Sunday. This is a great opportunity to embrace the community part of Community Supported Agriculture plus get some fresh air, sunshine and great conversation. There are roles for both young and old. Last year we had members in their seventies and others closer to one. There are activities that involve crawling on the ground (great for kids) and others requiring you to stand or sit comfortably. Come out and enjoy the farm. Please let me know if you will be attending.
Farm News
Every year I dedicate one of the newsletter to the people who help out here at the farm. Though I could take credit for all the hard work that happens here there are usually a couple other people who do most of the work while I ride around on the tractor. But this year it is different. We’ve had a difficult time finding and retaining employees this season. I don’t think it is our personalities. I don’t think we smell any worse than usual. It’s the economy stupid. Too many higher paying jobs available. Not that we have low pay (at least for farm work) but there are other jobs paying more, with benefits we can’t afford, that are less physical and far less fun, but people don’t know how to factor in the fun when evaluating a job.
So this year I’ve had to hop off the tractor (which unfortunately results in that work not getting done — a good topic for a future newsletter) and lend a hand with the harvesting, washing, packing, etc. part of farming. It felt like the olden days when the farm was just getting started, except I’m 14 years older, there are far more members and far more work to do. However this year it wasn’t just me doing all this work. There were many others — more than in typical years in fact. This year I’ve had to cobble together a crew with whomever was available whenever they were available — not the easiest way to run a business.
This year there is the usual suspect Rebecca doing her usual suspect job. Wait, that didn’t come out right. Let’s try again. As usual we have Rebecca back for another season. She’s been an integral part of the farm since 2005 or so — almost as long as I have been. Without Rebecca, farming would be far harder. She’s a great resource for our business.
Other than Rebecca we’ve had a cadre of people. In no particular order:
Linnea helped out for a few weeks this summer as she was between jobs and hiking the Pacific Trail. She was with us briefly a few years ago and enjoyed it so much she had to come back for more. Unfortunately for us she had other commitments that took her away.
Emily worked for us briefly during the early part of the season. Though she was quite helpful she couldn’t afford to continue to work here and took a job killing trees in a wealthy suburb of Minneapolis.
My wife Susan stepped up when she wasn’t helping people lose weight, stop smoking or deal with life stresses. She was in charge of packing delivery boxes on most days. Her assistance was invaluable at a time when there was too much to do with the time and resources we had.
Alex, our 13 year old, was on Susan’s team of box packers. Unfortunately his other job — going to school — took him away from his box packing job last month.
Yi Fong is a volunteer who helps us out on Mondays starting a few weeks ago. She is a quick learner and will use the knowledge she gained here with her own farm business. She also dragged her daughter along for part of one day, which was quite helpful.
Steph was a volunteer who helped out a couple days during the summer. Her first day was a 90+ degree day with the dew point in the 70s. I was surprised she came back for more! We appreciate the little time we had with her.
Hunter is our 11 year old neighbor who needed to make some cash this summer. He helped a couple days harvesting eggplants, harvesting peppers and working on the box packing team. May be a future farmer among us!
Sally has volunteered off and on for many years — probably for as long as Rebecca has worked here since Sally is Rebecca’s mom. She is one of the best potato diggers we have!
We’ve also had a few people lend a hand for a few hours here and there and we appreciate every one of those hours! This season from a labor standpoint has been a struggle; hopefully none of you noticed.
What will we have this week? Potatoes, carrots, peppers, hot peppers, beans, onions, garlic, and an odd assortment of other items like broccoli, tomatillos, cherry tomatoes, eggplants, okra, cucumbers, chard, napa cabbage, watermelon and beets. The odd assortment items are things we don’t have in sufficient quantity for everyone to get them. The first items on the above list everyone will get. The tomato plants are mostly done. We might get a few more off the plants but not many. The cucumbers are close to done. Same with the watermelons.
What else is coming this week?
FruitShare, EggShare, CheeseShare, IceCreamShare, CoffeeShare, BreadShare, and FlowerShare (though as mentioned before the flowers — except for the zinnias — are waning). I think that is it.
How many monarchs can you find in this picture of our zinnias? (Click on the picture to embiggen it). Thank you all FlowerShare customers for your small contribution to the monarch butterfly’s survival.