I’m Farmer Chris and I approve this message.
This week’s newsletter (I should stop saying “this week’s” since now that the harvesting season is over I no longer have a weekly newsletter. More of a “weakly” newsletter) is just an excuse to let people know they should be signing up for 2025! But since I am writing one I might as well say a few things too. But first the announcements.
In case you haven’t heard, we are taking orders for 2025! For existing members you can just send in a deposit (or more if you prefer) of $100 to hold your spot. New customers should order through our online store. We’d love to have everyone back! We take Zelle, PayPal, checks and cash. Use my email address for Zelle or PayPal.
We have a new drop site in Shoreview not far from the old drop site. If you are a Shoreview member and were hesitant to sign up due to the uncertainty of a Shoreview drop-site your fears have been allayed so feel free to order your share for 2025. The drop-site map has been updated if you are really curious about the new location.
Speaking of drop sites, if anyone lives somewhere that could use a CSA drop site and you want to be the host and you pick-up at the farm, let me know. Many of our drop sites are at member’s homes where the member picks up their produce here at the farm along with a bunch of totes filled with veggies and delivers them to their homes for friends and neighbors to pick up. There isn’t a lot of work or requirements and we credit your account $25 for each person who picks up at your house. Get 100 people to pick-up at your place and get a credit of $2,500! Ok, that’s not realistic, plus that would be a lot of work, but a couple of people is enough to make it worthwhile (even one is worthwhile since it really isn’t much different than picking up your own produce every week). Let me know if you are interested.
Farm News
There isn’t a lot of farm news other than I left some of our kale plants in the field so that we could enjoy kale until the really cold weather finally hits. Kale is probably the most frost/cold tolerant plant we grow. So why not leave some out to enjoy in November and possible even into December? Well, I guess I wasn’t the only one looking forward to the kale. I walked around the farm the other day and noticed that the deer have been feasting upon the kale to the point that there isn’t much left. Who knew deer liked kale? Well actually I did. But they typically would take a bite and move on to something else they found tastier. But I guess I didn’t foresee that there wouldn’t be a lot of “something else” left so they just kept on eating until most of the kale was gone. Makes me realize even more that a fence is necessary. But then again, anything that isn’t fenced in will be eaten — even if it wasn’t ever eaten before. I wish our neighbors would plant more gardens.
What else, well, I guess I should mention that during the week we were cleaning up the place and removing the drip tape one of the tractor’s hydraulic lines popped a leak. Well that completes my farm problem bingo card for 2024. I think this season was a “coverall” game. Anyway, in the process of fixing it I decided to replace that line and a couple others that were starting to look frayed. Just another thing that went wrong in 2024. I’m hoping 2025 has far fewer issues.
Other than that, not much happening on the farm. We moved the over-wintering plants into the basement (see top picture) to keep them alive through the winter. These are the lemongrass, rosemary and some of the hottest pepper plants. We use the rosemary and lemongrass to start plants for planting in the field. Neither plant grows true from seed so having mother plants to propagate them vegetatively is the only way to grow them each year (or I suppose buying plants someone else started from a mother plant). We overwinter the hottest hot pepper plants just ’cause it is fun and we get earlier hot peppers. This will be their second year for these particular plants so they may not make it. In any case, they don’t grow much over the winter but once we put them into the greenhouse in March they typically take off and give us a great start to growing them in the new season.
That’s it for now. Remember to vote early and vote often! And cast your ballot for a 2025 VeggieShare!
Joke of the Week
Why are farmers such great politicians?
They work at the grassroots level.