A few announcements then on to a few questions!
Potato planting is on for this Saturday, unless there is some unforeseen weather event. We’ll start at 1:00 and go until done. We could use all the help we can get. There is a lot of potato cutting (standing around BSing with fellow farm members while cutting potatoes into pieces) and potato planting (riding on the planter behind the tractor, WeeeEEeeee!) Let me know if you can make it!
Still taking orders for veggies and most of our add-on share. Order through our online store. Tell both of your friends and both of your neighbors. And if they are the same people tell them twice!
Still looking for a drop site in Eagan. There isn’t a lot of work involved — there are currently only three Eagan members. Just provide a place for people to pick-up their produce. Plus you get your share delivered directly to your door! Let me know if you can help out.
Farm News
One question I got this week is “When does this pick-up thing start? Like, for the veggies and the flowers and stuff?”
The answer is nobody really knows. Well, we have a pretty good idea but won’t know for sure until we see how the weather turns out this spring. But our best guess for start times is as follows:
Veggies: the week of June 22nd but it could be the 15th.
Flowers: two or three weeks later, so July 13th?
Herb/Plant six-packs: May 11th or 18th
Shrooms typically start the first week of the veggies then go every other week.
Fruit and Eggs start the second week of the season and go every other week.
WInterShare is sometime in late September/early October.
Coffee is monthly and comes to us the Monday after the second Friday of the month. The actual dates for delivery to you is left as an exercise for the reader.
Cheese is monthly and the dates are still TBD.
I think that covers everything. If i missed something let me know.
Another question I got is “Where the hell are the rutabagas? And what about the turnips?”
Good question, though a bit rude. First the rutabagas. We’ve tried growing rutabagas in the past. They are typically direct seeded since they are a root crop. They are also a fairly long term crop. Our problem is that we grow a lot of flea beetles — not intentionally. And with rutabagas being a Brassica the flea beetles like them a lot. So once the plants emerge from the ground the flea beetles eat the leaves and then with no ability to photosynthesize the plant dies. We tried a few times to start the plants in the greenhouse and transplant them into the field hoping the bigger leaves would allow the plant to survive a flea beetle attack. It sort of worked but not as well as we’d like given the amount of effort. Finally, before we got this rude question from one of our customers, we figured nobody quits a CSA due to the lack of rutabagas and more likely people quit because they get rutabagas. So instead of spending time and energy trying to out maneuver the flea beetles we decided to put that energy into tomatoes, or peas or cucumbers, or some other crops that more people prefer.
Now turnips are similar but different. The flea beetles like turnips as well but turnips are a faster growing crop. In the past we tried growing them in the spring but they met the same fate as the rutabagas. Then last season we tried planting turnips in August for harvest in October. Flea beetles mysteriously disappear sometime in August and nobody knows why. So planting them after the flea beetle apocalypse can be effective. The result was a mild success. However, the other challenge we have with turnips is our seeder seems to crush turnip seeds. The seeds are just the right size to get stuck between the seed plate and the hopper so they turn into turnip seed powder — mmmm, turnip seed powder (said in the voice of Homer Simpson). And planting turnip seed powder does not result in turnips. So we are still experimenting with how to get turnips to work. I don’t think we have lost any customers due to our lack of turnips but I could be wrong. So we’ll give it another go this season (if I remembered to buy turnip seeds).
Seems like a long enough newsletter for this week. As always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, share orders, etc.
Joke of the Week
One day two rutabagas, who were best friends, were walking together down the street. They stepped off the curb and a speeding car came around the corner and ran one of them over. The uninjured rutabaga called 911 and helped his injured friend as best he was able. The injured rutabaga was taken to emergency at the hospital and rushed into surgery. After a long and agonizing wait, the doctor finally appeared. He told the uninjured rutabaga, “I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is that your friend is going to pull through.” “The bad news is that he’s going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life”.