Welcome to the end of the 2015 season!
I am asked quite often this time of year if I’m glad to have the season over. For me it is bittersweet. On the one hand it is nice not having the pressure to grow food for 150 families week after week. It is nice not having the constant worry about what will be available next week. It is nice not having to put in 12+ hour days of heavy lifting, stooping, crawling, bending and getting dirty week after week. It is nice not having to plan and plan and plan again. On the other hand I will miss the 150+ people who I interact with each week, some of whom I’ve know for over ten years now and others who I only met four months ago. I will miss seeing all the little kids causing their parents grief as they come by to pick-up their veggies (though it is always fun in the spring to see how much they’ve grown over the winter). I will miss the people who worked here this summer (except for my son who I can’t seem to get rid of). And with the farming season over the warm season is also over. But mostly it is missing the people, the members of the farm who supported us this past year.
I tried to describe what the end of the season is like to a customer in the pick-up tent yesterday. I said it is like retiring but without the gold watch. That isn’t really quite right since I have to (get to?) do it all again next year. Some may equate it to teaching where you have your students all year then suddenly they are gone. Yet this isn’t quite right either since many of my members will be back 30 or so weeks from now. Try as I might, I can’t come up with a business model that equates to what running a CSA farm with mostly on-farm pick-up resembles. So maybe this is a unique job with no equal.
So thank you members for making this season so memorable and the transition to civilian life more difficult. I hope you enjoyed the season as much as I have.
Though the season has ended it doesn’t mean the communication has as well. The newsletter will be more infrequent and may discuss topics related to farming and maybe not so much about our specific farm. It may include goofiness and silliness since I’ll have more time to be goofy and silly. So if there is a topic or question you would like discussed, please ask. (I’ve already been asked to talk about how to respond to someone who thinks organic produce is a waste of money, which is something I’ll give my $0.02 to in a future newsletter).
So stay warm this winter. Keep in touch. And if you are in the neighborhood feel free to stop by. Since there is less work to do during the winter there is less chance we will ask you to help out!
Speaking of helping out, don’t forget about our Gleaning for the Food Shelf event. I’ve had quite a few people tell me they are planning to come out. For those of you who haven’t been following the newsletter, each year at the end of the season we invite members out to the farm to harvest the remaining items for donation to a local food shelf. In past years we’ve donated over a ton (literally more than 2000 lbs) of food. This season it will mostly be potatoes. We have four rows of potatoes left in the ground and each row has been yielding between 300 and 500 lbs of potatoes. So we could have close to a ton of potatoes to dig up and wash! The more people we have the faster it will get done and the sooner we can get to the bonfire, eating and smores!
Here are the specifics:
Saturday, November 7 from 1:00 until 4:00 (weather permitting) with bonfire and potluck to follow.
Please let me know if you can make it. And if you are planning to come please bring a rain suit and mud boots if you have them. Washing potatoes can get sloppy!
We are taking orders for the 2016 season! There are two ways to join for 2016. Option one is to send in a check for $100 as a deposit to hold your spot for next year. If you need to make changes (increase share size, change pick-up time/location, etc.) include a note with your payment. Option two is to use our fancy, e-farmstand. Either way works for me! If you know you will not be rejoining please let me know that as well (and if possible a brief explanation why so we can make improvements as necessary). That way I will take you off the reminder email list.
Year-end Survey. At some point in the next week or so I will send out a link to an electronic survey for the 2015 season. This survey is important in that not only can we learn from this season but also plan for next. For example, one year someone mentioned s/he wanted kale (we had been promoting our farm as the CSA that doesn’t grow kale — a vegetable we heard gave nightmares for many members of other CSA farms). So the following year we grew kale.
So be on the lookout for it and please take some time to fill it out. Written comments are especially helpful and informative.
What will be in this week’s shares? Um, didn’t you read that the season is over?