Fall keeps us busy here on the farm, with bulk harvests of carrots, beets, and rutabaga, pegging away at planting garlic, and securing everything from waterlines, to greenhouses, to storage crops and firewood for the long short days ahead. This past week was a stern reminder of how predictably unpredictable the weather can be. The past few falls have been very kind to us allowing the window to offer fall shares. While we planted and harvested many times over the storage crops we normally do in preparation for for our fall shares and winter markets, there are plenty of greens to be harvested weekly that can take the cold, and shed a light snow. Brussel Sprouts, swiss chard, kales, endive, lettuce, cabbage, arugula, leeks etc all will keep growing (albeit much slower in the short day lengths) to provide you with fresh greens. Another pro to growing and harvesting this time of year, greens when harvested cold tend to hold and have a longer shelf life than summer harvests in the heat.
We apologize to our Summer CSA members that we were unable to keep up diligently on our weekly newsletters through Sep and Oct. Again, we become short handed this time of year, and it is mostly Travis and I doing all of the work, harvesting, washing, packing and delivering for 130 shares, which is truly A LOT of work for 2 people. Add to that school stuff with the kids, we sometimes have a hard time remembering to breath! There may have been some odd ball veggies in your shares, such as kohlrabi, arugula, rutabaga, that hopefully everyone was able to figure out what they were and how to prepare without our newsletter.
Being shorthanded this time of year is nothing new to us, and we actually had more outside labor this season than we had the previous two years. One of our farm hands this season, Rich, as I think we've said before is a small permaculture farmer from Florida. His help and experience (especially with the massive drop irrigation system that saved many crops this season) was invaluable and a lifelong friendship was made.
His farm, Earth Perks Farm, just South of Daytona, was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Matthew. Luckily all structures and the majority of fruit trees were unscathed, but all his plantings, started as soon as he got home in August, were destroyed. As he said, fortunately the growing season is long enough to start again, if something like that happened here, we'd have to forgo many crops in our short season. We are planning a family trip down there this winter to help him out on his farm and enjoy getting out of NY for a bit this winter. I'm excited to see the citrus and other more tropical foods being grown, as well as his permaculture techniques producing much food from little land.
Folks often ask us if we plan to expand, grow on more land, and usually our answer is no. We have land here we haven't even used, and have utilized different methods to get multiple crops from the same spot to maximize our yields per sq ft. To expand, we don't necessarily need more land, but to maximize what the land can sustain. And we certainly don't need more work!
Our Fall shares start next week, members signed up should have received an email regarding their delivery schedule this morning.
Here at the end of our Summer share season, we want to thank all our members who supported our farm this season. It was the hottest and driest season in recent history for this area. After the 6 inches of rain we got over the weekend last week, our wells are fully refilled from the dry summer, and our fields are mucky messes, Pulaski even had to shut down the Salmon River during peak salmon season due to the dangerously high water levels! If there's anything certain, it's that nothing is certain, and we have had to flow with the extreme weather along with all our other fellow farmers this season. And aside from the ecological climate uncertainties, the political uncertainties and trade deals shipping in cheap food from poor countries, lowering the market value of our locally grown food, there is one certainty; everyone needs to eat. If we continue to delegate en masse the responsibility of our food supply to foreign countries, or large corporations, the ability to eat clean food becomes more uncertain. Your support of local farms, ensures our continuation and ability to serve our communities. Whatever else pans out in the world stage, you always have the immense power to vote with your wallet, which in the end is really the only vote that counts, however small or large, you empower and strengthen your local economy and communities with every local purchase you make. Your commitment to our farm does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.
As thanks to our members we have added a couple bonuses for continuing membership. Everyone should have received an email regarding the automatic rollover. As explained, every 2016 member was automatically enrolled in our 2017 season for the same shares they had this season. We know sometimes people get caught up and forget, or wait for taxes to come back to sign up. We hope that in doing this it simplifies the sign up process for next year. If you wish to NOT be enrolled for 2017, please log into your account to make these changes, or email us. The program we use for organizing our CSA and harvests charges per member, so if you definitely know you will not be joining us again next year, or are unsure, we need to know.
We have also extended discounts for returning members for 2017. Returning members receive 10% off their summer shares if paid in full by May 31st, (while new members have until Jan 22) or 5% off if making payments.
-If you are a new member interested in next season's shares, please visit our Community Supported Agriculture section of our website.
-We will be moving inside to shed F ate the regional market for the months of November and December.
Thank you all for a great season, which is far from over!
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